An Incomplete Education |  | Authors: Judy Jones, William Wilson
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy Used: $0.01
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Avg. Customer Rating:  85 reviews
Sales Rank: 949560
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 656
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 7.5 x 1.8
ISBN: 0345295706
Dewey Decimal Number: 031.02
EAN: 9780345295705
ASIN: 0345295706
Publication Date: May 12, 1987
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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Amazon.com
You'll find everything you forgot from school--as well as plenty you never even learned--in this all-purpose reference book, an instant classic when it first appeared in 1987. The updated version takes a whirlwind tour through 12 different disciplines, from American studies to philosophy to world history. Along the way, Judy Jones and William Wilson provide a plethora of useful information, from the plot of Othello to the difference between fission and fusion. It's not a shortcut to cultural literacy, the authors write in their introduction, but it's an excellent "way in" to the building blocks of Western civilization: the "books, music, art, philosophy, and discoveries that have, for one reason or another, managed to endure." Think of it as finishing school for your brain; study up and you'll gain a lifetime's worth of cocktail conversation--as well as a new list of books you simply must read.
Product Description
Answering questions about the film industry, this work takes listeners on a tour of English poetry, and gives them a handle on 350 years of opera with incomparable wit, style, clarity, and brevity. Here is all the crucial information on these subjects, distilled to its essence and served up with the consummate flair. Simultaneous release with the Ballantine hardcover reissue.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 80 more reviews...
 Glib, clever, cynical, and nearly empty; May 18, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is that rare book that is not merely bad, but despicable. Sadly, it serves as exemplar of the very problem it claims to attack, which according to the glib introduction, is "a world of bits and bytes, of reruns and fast forwards, of information overloads and significant shortfalls."
The authors are too much in love with their own cleverness to provide the curious reader with lucid information, preferring to sabotage clarity with cynicism and loading the text with parenthetical references to pop culture, to the reader, and of course, to the authors themselves.
"Five Composers Whose Names Begin with the Letter P" is a pithy chapter head for bookstore browsing, but should a more complete education really include Poulenc and not Debussy? And if Puccini was lucky enough to have the right initial, why not explain what makes his music perennially popular, rather than making the gratuitous observation that Verdi fans may find him vulgar? Now in its third presumably profitable edition, this book is that most vulgar of accomplishments, the triumph of marketing over content. Puccini's operas, in contrast, are awash in gorgeous melody.
 Afraid I Lost It April 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I recently had to move and I lost a couple boxes of books. The first book I thought of was An Incomplete Education. Finding it wasn't lost made my day all by itself.
A definate must read! March 29, 2008
Chock full of stuff that you shoulda learned in school but didn't. I wasn't interested in it at first, but it was recommended to me by a family member and I'm glad it was. Funny And informative.
 Will this book make me a smarter person? March 28, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is not a "breezy little book of interesting facts" you will have hours of fun reading. It actually assumes you know a great deal more about the items it intends to teach you than you probably do.
I would say it is as much fun as reading a text book, but in truth, it is as much fun as reading 3,684 text books. Yes, that much fun.
Warning: Higher Level Humor March 11, 2008
This is my favorite book. I am so looking forward to the update. The best way to read this book is to know just a little bit about a subject then use it to fill the gap. It is not detailed but just enough that you get the "gist" of things.
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