The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class

Do you frequently find yourself at a loss for words? Are you the constant listener to someone else's mindless chatter simply because you can't think of anything interesting to say? Authors Kidder and Oppenheim offer factual options in this cleverly written book to enliven your conversations and broaden your knowledge on a variety of subjects. Their compilation offers History, Literature, Visual Arts, Science, Music, Philosophy and Religion explained in brief one page summaries. Each day you read one page only, absorb it. By the end of the week you will have explored each field of knowledge at least once a week. As your knowledge expands, so does your confidence and your conversations have more interesting substance. Each day, while reading the book, I shared the information I had learned with my husband and friends who were delighted to discuss Ernest Hemingway, Cloning, illusion vs reality, Hammurabi's code of Laws, Noah, Plato, The Solar System, Vaccines, Albert Einstein, the Solar system, Da Vinci, Plato, Handel, atoms, Aristotle, Mozart, and Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" painting, just to mention a few passages. Actress Scarlett Johanssen portrayed "the girl" in a recent film based on Vermeer's life, so we gained more insight into how that portrait, "Girl with a Pearl Ear-ring," manifested, then our conversation strayed naturally to the quality of current motion pictures like "The Horse Whisperer" and " Island," in which Scarlett Johanssen was also featured, and that is exactly the purpose of this book, "to wake up our brains," enliven our thoughts, enhance our communication skills so that we become more confident and knowledgeable and stop hesitating to engage in diverse and dynamic conversations. No need to be a hesitant, shy, silent observer. After reading this book, step into life armed with more knowledge and facts!

This is simply put a fascinating and fun book. Its like a miniature index of intelligence. There are things in here that will interest you or perhaps intrigue you enough to encourage another book buy. This time on a new topic, again, inspired by this "mini index" of intelligence. Simply put - fascinating and fun.

I'm giving this book 5 stars for delivering on its premise. Basically, you get the topical benefits of an expansive, liberal arts education in easily digestible bits. As a springboard into further study, I think it is excellent. As a reference into the topics covered, think of it as Cliff Notes for an encyclopedia. Although organized into daily readings, the material is so interesting that there is a strong temptation to read ahead, which is what I did. The selections are well written and entertaining, although I did find the entries on Music somewhat difficult to follow, since reading about musical concepts seems to be a poor substitute for listening to them. My favorite topics were in History, Science and Philosophy. I'd also like to point out that the publishers did a great job in designing the physical aspects of the book. Given the fact that it is to intended to be read over the course of the year, you would expect the cover to be durable and stain resistant, which it is. The book also has a book mark ribbon, to help avoid the prospect of losing your place. If you're looking for comprehensive information on the subjects covered, you will be disappointed, but if your expectations are in line with the intent of the authors, you will be very pleased.

A great book to keep on your nightstand....Am planning to give it to my former co-workers for the holidays...As a retired teacher, I know that what often effects students' reading ability is their lack of "background knowledge" in different disciplines. I can see this book being used in the classroom as a fun way to build up this knowledge.