What Are the Chances

This interesting trivia-style book discusses basic odds and chances written in an easy question-and-answer format. Subjects range all over the map, from liklihood of marital success and crime victimization, to turning gray by the time you are 50. There are questions about health problems, the workplace, attracting the opposite sex, length of athletic careers, etc. In short, interesting information attractively presented, though a few answers have changed over time since this book arrived in 1990. My brother read from these pages during a recent dinner, and we had fun chiming in with our guesses (sometimes debating the book's answers). This is a fun and readable look at many questions from everyday life.

The modern person is bombarded with statistics, some of which are false, some true in a very narrow and hence unusable sense, others which are true but misleadingly so and the remainder which are provably true. This book is a collection of the probabilities of events occurring to a randomly selected person. Examples include: *) If I am a college student, what is the probability that I will cheat on a test? *) What are the chances that I will grow up incompetent in reading/writing or in math? *) What are the chances that my hysterectomy wasn't necessary? *) What are the chances that I will marry a woman of another race? *) Which dogs are most likely to bite? *) Is it riskier to drive in Spain or Japan? *) If I drive a lot, on which day of the week is it most important that I wear clean underwear? As the last question indicates, some of the questions are humorous in nature. The authors have gone to great lengths to try to cover some of the "old wives tales" areas. I got a great deal of enjoyment out of reading this book. Some of the facts were surprising, some hard to believe, but all of them were interesting to read and ponder. Clearly, the authors did a great deal of research in developing this book and I commend them for their explorations into the world of unusual facts.

I really enjoyed this book as pure entertainment! Knowing that I am more likely to be on The Tonight Show than be struck by lightning is quite comforting! At turns, shocking and silly this book is just plain and simple fun!