Customer Reviews

Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise?: An Imponderables Book (Imponderables Books)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Imponderables series by David Feldman is a fun series of books filled with the answers to the questions that both adults and children often wonder about. This particular book is, I believe, the second in the series. It provides the answer to the proposed question in the title including such strange questions as: "If nothing sticks to Teflon, how do they get Teflon to stick to the pan?" I believe you get the idea. This book is one of those books which you will inhale like a bag of peanuts and will return to time and time again when the question comes up again and you have forgotten the answer. It is particularly handy if you have an inquisitive child in your house too!

The quiz format was a blast as my enitre family of brilliant minds listened and answered. We enjoyed the questions, the challenge and the game! Much more interesting than the book version simply because it could be shared. For those of us who love trivial information and think there is little as fun as learning new things (and laughing at what we thought we knew but didn't), it is a blast. It wasn't meant for non-thinkers or impatient people (or the kind that look at the answers to their crossword puzzel!).

This book was pure pleasure reading. I finished the whole thing in a few hours. Great questions, with clear, easy-to-udnerstand answers. I'd love to read other books by the same author.

This is a great book to have. Beyond simply answering some of those nagging questions of life, there is some great trivia in here to impress (or annoy) your friends and family. And as the answer to each imponderable runs from a paragraph to a few pages, it's perfect for when you have limited time. In short, it's excellent bathroom reading for aspiring Cliff Clavens.

Haven't you always wondered about the difference between "floatsam" and "jetsam," why you need to dry clean a raincoat, or what happens if you take the "do not remove" tag off of a mattress? This book attempts to answer these and other "imponderables." While it is not especially exciting to sit down and read, flipping through it and reading only questions that interest you is a fun way to pass the time. I learned a lot of useless bits of trivia this way. While it may not make an especially exciting audio tape (as previous reviewers have mentioned), it is an interesting and enlightening book.

A funny little book, filled with trivia information that will show you how to live a happier and more balanced life.....For instance, you will never again have to go to the psychiatrist to discuss your frustration, about your inability to understand things like: Why have humans lost most of their body hair? Why are hamburger bun-bun bottoms so thin? Why do doughnuts have holes? For a relatively small sum, you will get rid of tranquillizers, since you will not awake anymore in the middle of the night, wondering about: Why don't people get goosebumps on their faces? Why are there eighteen holes on a golf course? What happens with the tread that wears off tires?
Last but not least, this fact filled book, will enable you to settle all those boring, but potentially dangerous arguments with your couple about delicate issues such as: Does putting women's hosiery in the freezer forestall runs? What purpose do wisdom teeth serve? Why does Coca-Cola from a small bottle taste better than Coca-Cola from a large bottle or can?
So, rush now, if you really want to know why clocks run clockwise.Or not, if you have other, existencialistic (real), problems......

Our granddaughter was thrilled to receive this book for Christmas. She is very inquisitive and she loves to read. She especially likes to be able to have the answer to odd little questions people sometimes ask. At nine years of age she just likes to KNOW! It was a great choice for us.

Note: This review refers to the paperback, it appears that the audio book is significantly different.

Until I sat down to review this book, I did not realize that the author has made an entire cottage industry out of this concept. The general idea is very simple: Have people send him questions on matters (a) which most of the rest of us might not have thought of and (b) for which no immediately obvious answer presents itself. An example of such a question, which the author calls an 'imponderable' is the book's title. The book addresses about a couple hundred imponderables, and concludes with a top ten list of 'frustables', questions for which he was unable to come up with satisfactory answers, and an index.

In rating the book, especially for comparison purposes should I read other similar ones in the future, it seemed useful to me to define a set of criteria, and I have settled on these:

1) How interesting is each question? For instance, upon reading or hearing it, does it stir my inner curiosity, or does it leave me cold? This is the most subjective criterion of the three.

I found that most, but not all, of the questions did pique my curiosity at least to some extent, but that is probably to an appreciable amount due to how well the questions matched my general interests. Also, for some of the questions I already knew the answer, so they were not that interesting to me, but these were balanced by questions for which I did not even know that what is being asked is the case.

2) How thorough is the answer? Does the author really give a satisfactory explanation, and is it well-researched? How ingenious is it?

Generally, the answers appear to be satisfactory, but I have caught some inadequacies. For instance, when addressing the question "Why does American Electricity run on AC?", he gives the reason in such a brief manner that someone without a background in basic E&M is unlikely to really understand the answer. He also fails to mention that AC was developed by Tesla even while mentioning his rivalry with Edison and that Westinghouse bought the patent.

3) How well-balanced is the mix? Encountering the 99th question on the same subject, to give an extreme example, is going to make even the most interesting set of questions bland (unless your passion about that subject knows no bound, but then you are not a typical reader).

On this criterion, the book does very well. There is a good mix of questions pertaining to etymology, human mores, sports, economics, science and technology and other questions hard to classify, and having a couple hundred questions seems like about the right number for a book-lenght manuscript.

In summary, I can only point out that a few of the answers could have been better.

I've always been a Q&A fan, so David Feldman's great books were just the thing I needed to read. There are questions for everyone, but the risk with that is that there are undoubtedly some questions you just won't be interested in. Many of the questions are also irrelevant in the modern world, as it is a slightly older book. I love the tone in Feldman's answers: sprinkled with sarcasm, making for an even more enjoyable read. As funny as the answers are, of all things, the illustrations accompanying some of the questions. Priceless!

Rating: 4/5

I learned a lot reading this book of unusual "Why" questions about things I never thought about. The answers are short and to the point but well researched. It's an amusing book that I enjoyed reading a bit at a time. A good reference book, especially if you have children who are constantly asking "why" questions!