The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class Hardcover – October 3, 2006

The final volume in the Intellectual Devotional series offers 365 capsule biographies--one for each day, except Leap Day--of "the world's most celebrated, brilliant, despicable, and memorable characters." There are leaders, philosophers, innovators, villains, authors and artists, rebels and reformers, preachers and prophets, beginning with the Pharaoh Khufu (aka Cheops) and going on to Benazir Bhutto. The bios are arranged in roughly chronological order (if it had been me, I'd have sorted by birthdate), and each includes the subject's dates and major accomplishments (although I noticed a couple of omissions in that of Theodore Roosevelt, hardly surprising in a man who wore such an assortment of hats in his busy life), plus two or three "additional facts" at the bottom of the page.Of the 365, only eight were still living at the time of publication: Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, the Unabomber, Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Radovan Karadzic, Gunter Grass, and Vaclav Havel. Of course, as in all such lists, your mileage may vary; personally I'd have ignored these and included instead Christopher Columbus, Beethoven, Robert E. Lee, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy (for getting a man on the moon, facing down Russia in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and establishing the Peace Corps), Lyndon B. Johnson (for Vietnam and the Great Society, though the latter was something of a bust), Hitler (who almost singlehandedly caused World War II), and Jawaharlal Nehru. The print is a bit small, which may cause problems for some readers, and the index would have been improved by bolding the page number on which each bio actually appears. But it's still an interesting assemblage of influential people, and longer than many.

This book covers a very broad range of topics with only page per topic, so I didn't expect much and prepared myself for a superficial treatment. But being the generalist that I am, I was obligated to give the book a try anyway.I'm pleasantly surprised by how the good this book is. Having only one page per topic is of course still a serious limitation, but the authors make efficient use of each page and do about as good a job as anyone could. The range of topics is broad and interesting, the information is (almost always) accurate, the insights are useful and sometimes impressive, and the overall writing quality is consistently high.As other reviewers have noted, one flaw of the book is that the font size is too small, and I'm surprised that the editors let that go through. It wasn't really a problem for me, but it may be a fatal flaw for readers with vision problems.Another semi-criticism is that it's not clear that this book is ideally suited for any particular audience. For readers who aren't already well read, the fragmented and jumping-around format of the book may inhibit understanding and retention (but of course the book can be read more than once to help remedy that). And for readers who are already well read, the book will be more of a review, so they may not learn much, although I did manage to pick up some useful new tidbits despite extensive prior reading on many topics.Even with the caveats noted above, I still definitely recommend this book to readers who are oriented towards broad generalist learning. The book is a quality resource for that purpose, and there aren't many alternatives to choose from ( The Bedside Baccalaureate: A Handy Daily Cerebral Primer to Fill in the Gaps, Refresh Your Knowledge & Impress Yourself & Other Intellectuals  is another good choice).

As someone who is always craving to learn, I am on the constant lookout for devotionals like this. Religious devotionals often feel shallow and uninteresting and don't teach me anything new. So when I saw the concept of this book, I got very excited. However, there's something missing.One of the reasons I like to read a "devotional" in the morning rather than something in-depth like a book dedicated to a subject is that I am looking for something to orient my attitude around, something that will encourage/inspire me to pursue virtue and meaning in my day. This devotional does not do that. It tells you some interesting facts about the subject of the day...and that's it. If that's what you're looking for in a devotional, great, this is the book for you, but for me, for a DEVOTIONAL, I want something that's going to share a practical application, something that will share information and then make that information relevant to my daily living. If I just wanted to start my day with some fun facts, I could Google "fun facts" every morning. But I need more. And I think the health benefits of reading devotionals are more intrinsically tied to the very aspect that this devotional excludes.

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.

There's not really much to say about this, other than that I highly recommend it if you love General Knowledge & random nuggets of information. Presented very simply, with a different fact for every 365 days of the year. The bonus is that you don't have to wait until 1st January to start, as the book instead starts on Monday Day 1 of week 1, so you can begin any week you like. There is a full page for each day, and each day has its own subject. So, Mondays are for History, Tuesday = Literature, Wednesday = Visual Arts, Thursday = Science, Friday = Music, Saturday = Philosophy, & Sunday = Religion (all religions). It's a fun, painless way to learn. I also ordered the Biographies version, which features a different historical figure for each day (under the same subjects), from Ancient Egypt up to the modern era. It's a shame they are not available on Kindle, but hey-ho.

Great way to learn something new every day. Haven't read through all of them but if I still had school-age kids at home, would have read one to them at the start of every day. But enjoying it for myself and often share what I learn with adult children and spouse!

bit too much for me

As you can see on the pictures the presentation of the book is rather horrible.

Lovely book. Extremely educational. However, after my observation of the book I purchased for 7 something pounds I discovered that somebody brought it for 1.00 from a thrift shop in America. So, why did I pay an extra £6?Good book though, lovely with some herbal tea.