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BOOK REVIEW The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultural Class by David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim Rodale Books - October 2006
Reviewed by Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty This is probably one of the shortest book reviews I have written thus far. And for good reason! The Intellectual Devotional is not a book you're supposed to read in one session or two or three or even four. In fact it's supposed to be read in 365 reading sessions -- one a day for a year -- and I didn't want to cheat! (Now actually I have to confess that I did cheat a little bit and skimmed through the book simply glancing at the many topics discussed and, furthermore, I have legitimately completed the first week of "devotionals" as of this writing.) Regardless, I think this secular "devotional" is a clever idea. I have many "spiritual" and "religious" devotionals in my personal library, but this is the first "secular" one I've encountered. I'm told others exist; if so, I haven't seen any. Since I probably won't write a review of this book a year from now, I'll simply relate my general impression about it at this point in time. As I've said, I think this is a clever idea, and I wish I had thought it up myself thirty or forty years ago and published my own version. I am a great believer in continuing adult education and this is a pretty nifty way for anyone with reasonable intelligence and little time to learn some very important things about the "high culture" of human knowledge. "A page a day will keep ignorance away!" or something like that. The "devotional" includes some of my favorite people -- Plato, Aristotle, Wittgenstein, for instance -- so I can't complain. And NO! I didn't really cheat -- I perused the Index (thank the Muses for that valuable addition to the book!) and noticed their names were included there. One of the neat things about a book of this type and genre (I guess there's a "devotional" literary genre; if not, I just added it to the compendium) is that you DON'T have to sit down and read it right away. You've got all year to enjoy the reading experience. And learn something important to boot! It's constructed so that History is the topic on Mondays, Literature on Tuesdays, Visual Arts on Wednesdays, Science on Thursdays, Music on Fridays, Philosophy on Saturdays, and -- voila! -- Religion on Sundays (I don't know if that latter topic was specifically intended to appear on Sunday, but it is appropriate, I guess -- at least for most of us). Seven fields of knowledge covered in seven days. Clever, that! (Arguably one could maintain there are more than seven fields of knowledge, but let's not be picky!) OK, my first week of reading -- that is, seven topics covered in seven days -- was interesting and, I know it's hard to believe, but I actually learned a couple of things I didn't know before. Like about the Lascaux Cave Paintings being discovered in 1940 (how'd I miss that?) and that Dolly, the famous (or infamous, depending on one's point of view) cloned sheep was the mother of six lambs (all bred, by the way, the old-fashioned way) before she was euthanized at the age of six. Lest one think I'm being cynical here and consider these somewhat unimportant details, such is not true. The Cave Paintings were an important discovery and contributed to our knowledge about early human beings; the topic of "cloning" is very important and the Dolly experiment is a vital contributor to the discussion of this currently controversial issue. Now, I could appeal to your more selfish nature in suggesting that The Intellectual Devotional is just the right book for you. For instance, I could suggest that you read this book so that you can impress your friends and family with your new "Cultured" Personality and/or your new "Intellectual" Self. Or I could suggest to you that the knowledge you acquire from a year's reading of this book would permit you to dominate the conversation during dinner parties or at social gatherings. Or I could argue that reading this book will give you an "edge" when it comes to finding a job, winning a million dollars on a game show, or speechifying from a soapbox. But that would be tacky on my part. So I won't. What I will do is highly recommend this book as a useful tool for easily expanding one's own knowledge about the world of the past and the present in tiny, easily digestible tidbits. Furthermore, I think this book would be an excellent gift to present to a teenager and get him or her started on the journey toward true and worthwhile "self-education" which, in my opinion, is the most important intellectual habit one can develop. And please note: There are 365 daily lessons in this book; that means that when you have completed your yearlong journey of intellectual adventure, you may have learned 365 new ideas or details you didn't know before. No mean feat, that. I am almost at 900 words. Most of my book reviews contain a thousand words or more, so I have to stop or this won't be one of the shortest book reviews I've ever written. In conclusion, then, let me suggest that you can't go wrong with this book. It's a fun way to increase your intellectual databank for your own enjoyment. Forget impressing others. Impress yourself! Keep this tome on your bedside table or beside your favorite chair and have some fun learning something new every day. 
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Enrich your life with a book about politics and current events... Enrich your political & social life with a politics or news magazine... |
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