Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Careful - not for everybody

Customer Rating:

I had high hopes for this book but was left a little disappointed. There was lots of stuff in here that I had forgotten but most of it I will surely forget again because I'm not too interested. The bits I was interesting in (maths and science) I found that I did know (because I read sciencey books anyway) and it felt a bit lightweight in that area. The book mostly covers early secondary school topics and touches on some of the basics from 'O' level (I guess that's GCSE now). Overall, I think it is worth a read and it does deliver what it tries to. My problem is that my expectations were unrealistic (but that's not the author's fault).

a feast of bite sized information

Customer Rating:

This is the age of bite ( or is it byte) sized information. The older generation i.e. me think we are divided from the younger by the fact that we learnt our information by rote. The old exam system was based you learning what the teacher told you or wrote on the board and you passed exams by regurgitating it . As a result we confused knowledge with intelligence.These days you do not have to know the capital of Kazakhstan ( Astana) as the Internet will tell you. I am often told by the less intelligent that most human endeavours are easy or straightforward because you can look it up on the Internet. They forget it is raw information and you have to intelligently apply it. I constantly tell people that no doubt it tells me on the Internet how to build a car or a house but I will not be attempting to do so. This book is the information we oldies think we should know. I have to say that even though I went to a Grammar school have a fair collection of A levels and a professional qualification there is a lot in there that they neglected to tell me. or I wasn't paying enough attention. It is handily divided into English language literature, maths, science, history, geography and general studies. Some of the don't tend to change but whole countries have disappeared and been replaced by new ones. If you knew Upper Volta is now Burkina Faso and the capital is Ouagadougou you need to get out more or maybe you do to pub quizzes. Like i before e this is a great book but again suffers form one minor criticism it should have an index. Highly recommended and a joy to read.

...I Do Now!	Customer Rating:
Leafing through this in the book shop my smug, 'I still know that!' expression was rapidly replaced with an, 'I never knew that!' look of horror!... So I bought it immediately, and having just finished this delightfully ingenious tome I am now happy to say that although I may not have 'Known That', I do now! A great book, birthday and Christmas presents for this year are taken care of!

Great Stuff	Customer Rating:
I bought this book for my Dad, trying to look clever whilst reminding him he is old. When he started asking me if "I knew this or that" I realized how much I had forgotten from school, and I made a complete fool of myself. I asked my father to lend me the book now! I needed a quick read through, but he wouldn't let me have it!! Great fun. Mark

What is photosynthesis?!

Customer Rating:

Apparently, like loads of other people, I go around thinking that I still know everything that I learnt at school, when in fact, I bet I can't remember half of it, and it wasn't even that long ago! When someone actually asked me to tell them what photosynthesis was I found that I no longer knew anything more than 'it's how plants live and something to do with carbon dioxide and green stuff in leaves'! And more disturbingly all my basic maths skills have also got lost somewhere in the depths of time. This book is a godsend to anyone who wants to be reminded of all these skills so that you no longer feel like a dunce at the pub quiz or just generally really, and it also has loads of things that I was never even taught at school which are of genuine interest. It looks so nice on your shelf too that its a good one to buy for awkward relatives and friends - as long as they won't be insulted!!