The New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything: The Essential Companion for Everyday Life [Hardcover]

Amy D. Bernstein (Editor), Peter W. Bernstein (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 031235388X | ISBN-13: 978-0312353889 | Publication Date: October 17, 2006 | Edition: 1st

Bringing the curiosity and expertise of The New York Times to the art and science of everyday life

 
The wisdom of New York Times experts in every field is packed into one easy-to-use volume, making it an indispensable reference for every coffee table, kitchen, or bookshelf.
 
Would you like know how to choose the best insurance policy?  How to get a copy of your FBI file?  How to pick the best vegetables to grow in your garden?  How to cure a hangover?  The New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything answers all of these questions and much, much more.  From the office and the classroom to the kitchen and the garden, this book covers every setting of everyday life with insightful advice insider tips, which are accompanied by hundreds of helpful illustrations, diagrams, maps, and charts.

 

Expert Advice from New York Times writers, including:
- Eric Asimov on how to stock a wine cellar on a budget
- Mark Bittman on how to grill fish perfectly
- Marian Burros on choosing the best produce
- Michael Kimmelman on the best new modern art museums both in the U.S. and abroad
- Nicolai Ouroussoff on underappreciated architectural gems from around the world
- Michelle Slatalla on tips for shopping on the Internet
- Anthony Tommassini, Allan Kozinn, Jon Pareles, and Ben Ratliff on their album picks for a "desert island"

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When The New York Times says "practically everything," it really means everything. This extensive guide covers a wide range of topics-from "Getting and Staying Trim" to "The Braille System"-broken up into broad subject categories such as "Health," "Food & Drink," "Money," "Careers," "House & Garden," "Sports & Games," "Arts & Entertainment" and "Everyday Science." Each of these subjects is broken up into subcategories ("Food & Drink" breaks up into "Diet & Nutrition," "In the Kitchen," and "Wine, etc."), sub-subcategories ("Wines," "Beer," "Spirits," "Coffee & Tea"), and specific topics ("The Perfect Cup of Espresso," "Java Jolts to Start You Up," "A World Tour of Teas"), making the massive guide somewhat manageable. Every topic includes background information, followed by a set of guidelines; few entries cover more than a page, and most are buttressed by sidebars, charts and illustrations. "Insider Info" and "Timely Tips" supplement the sections, offering websites and phone numbers for further information; unfortunately, those helpful resources are scattered throughout the book, rather than being collected in an appendix or bibliography. The guide would also have benefited from an index. As it is, this is a browse-worthy collection of general knowledge that should come in handy next time you're traveling to the Galapagos, building an igloo, or in any of more than 800 other "everyday" situations.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"The most browser-friendly reference book imaginable…this book is destined to become your essential tool."

--O Magazine

 

"This handy guide is a wide ranging and lively GPS system for the many bewildering choices and questions we all have every day. Here you can get useful tips on how to grow an artichoke, prepare for a biological attack, find a job, select a furnace, and so much more."  

--TOM BROKAW, author of The Greatest Generation
 
"This book is absolutely addictive. It's got answers to most questions you've ever wanted to ask, and it grabs you with questions you probably never thought of. Benjamin Franklin would be proud."  

--WALTER ISAACSON, author of New York Times-bestselling Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
 
 "This book is better than Google and a whole lot easier to use.  You don't have to sort through 2 million hits to find the information you're looking for; just flip through this single volume to find practical wisdom on a slew of topics."   

--DR. MICHAEL ROIZEN, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, You: The Owner's Manual
 
"The New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything is that rare combination in a how-to book--very useful and a great read. The easy part is finding practical advice about something. The hard part is putting the book down."  

--EVAN THOMAS, Assistant Managing Editor at Newsweek and author of John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy
 
"A savvy, sure-footed guide through life's many minefields. Indispensable!"  

--BRIAN DUFFY, editor, U.S. News & World Report

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 848 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (October 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031235388X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312353889
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.9 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #646,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice resource but falls short, November 10, 2007

By 

Brian Kerecz (PA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything: The Essential Companion for Everyday Life (Hardcover)

The New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything bills itself as the guide for practically everything in everyday life. An essential one-stop resource. And indeed there are a lot of wonderful resources in it. It is nice to be able to pick up a book like this as a reference without always having to go to Google or the web.

But there are shortcomings, and it doesn't take long to see where this guide falls short. Imagine my surprise when I looked up what to do for common household mold and there were no listings for mold in the index! There are however, listings for things such as "Pets and celebrity photographers" (P. 480). If they are truly going to bill this as a "practical" guide for life, much more of the former and much less of the latter are necessary. I learned that a pet sitting can cost as much as $850. Will 99.9999% of the people reading this guide ever use that information? My guess is an unequivocal no.

Also, some of the information is simply not accurate. The book states that there are three types of bikes: road, mountain and hybrid. When in fact there are many more that could be listed, the most notable one being recumbent bikes.

A nice reference to have for the coffee table or bookshelf for a broad overview of information, but certainly not a necessary one to have on hand.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practicaly all I was searching for, January 26, 2008

By 

Tiffany Tallar "cajunbliss" (Pleasanton, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything: The Essential Companion for Everyday Life (Hardcover)

I checked this book out from the library and after only a few pages I knew I must have it! It has sections written by many experts in their field. For example Bob Vila wrote about home renovation, and how long you can expect certain things to last, like drywall, and roofs. There was a section on how to scale and filet a fish with pictures I know I will refer to in the future. Also loved the section on how to pick out a good sofa, I knew nothing about coil count or that % of goose feather in the padding will let you know how soft the sofa could be. And that padding on the arms of a new sofa was particularly important because that's where you are more like to see wear and tear. The more I'm reading this book the more I'm learning. And although this doesn't completely delve into every subject, it enlightens me enough to point me in the right direction and is really enjoyable read. It has subjects that I feel I'm an expert in and don't need any more advice (such as Pets, Home technology and travel). And it also has subjects I want to learn more about and am far from an expert like gardening, real estate, parenting, investing, career paths, and so much more. I'm impressed by how much is in this book and how clearly things are explained. I would recommend this book to anyone and I know that I will be referencing it again.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What You Need to Know About Everything, January 14, 2007

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything: The Essential Companion for Everyday Life (Hardcover)

I don't know just how many entries there are in this book, but the index alone runs for 21 pages, five columns wide, tiny type. You wouldn't think that a book like this would be needed in the day of Google and Yahoo reacy to supply you with tons of information in a few seconds.

But with those tons of information, which one do you trust? Which ones are simply ads trying to get you to buy something? This book is put out by the New York Times. If you can't trust them, who can you trust. And it's organized in a more or less straight forward way to make it easy for you to find what you are looking for. It's broken down into several major categories, as follows:

Health and Fitness
Food and Drink
Money
Spending and Saving
Education
Careers
House and Garden
Travel
Sports and Games
Arts and Entertainment
Everyday Science
Law and Mores

Under these broad subjects are a hundred or so smaller categories with dozens of entries under that. I'd list some of the entries, but it's easier just to say that almost everything you could possibly think of is almost certainly to be included from fly fishing to pricy vacation, from antique furniture styles to fishing lures, from investing in Wall Street to investing in wine.