Ironic?
After exactly one week, I've just finished the first book of my crazy reading project, "Panati's Extraordinary Endings of Practically Everything and Everybody", by Charles Panati.
A brief review:
Essentially, this is a book of trivia surrounding the endings of various things and people. Included are accounts of the deaths and wills of US presidents up to Nixon, accounts of the extinction of various species of animal, summaries of past epidemics, an overview of some of the (often bizarre) medical and social practices of historical times, and accounts of the endings of many famous personages. I don't know if I'd say it's "Practically Everything and Everybody", but the author certainly makes a good stab at it.
This book makes to pretense to be anything but entertainment, and it certainly achieves that goal, including just enough scientific and historical trivia to also make it somewhat educational, if only in a highly summarized extent. Some readers may find parts (okay, LARGE parts) of this book highly macabre and possibly disturbing, but I found it to be more fascinating than anything.
I did note a few mistakes and possible innacuracies, but those are probably to be expected in a book with such a broad and random scope. I learned a lot of interesting facts from reading this book, so all in all (and particularly for someone with a short attention span like I have) it was an enjoyable and engrossing read.
On to the 100's!
A brief review:
Essentially, this is a book of trivia surrounding the endings of various things and people. Included are accounts of the deaths and wills of US presidents up to Nixon, accounts of the extinction of various species of animal, summaries of past epidemics, an overview of some of the (often bizarre) medical and social practices of historical times, and accounts of the endings of many famous personages. I don't know if I'd say it's "Practically Everything and Everybody", but the author certainly makes a good stab at it.
This book makes to pretense to be anything but entertainment, and it certainly achieves that goal, including just enough scientific and historical trivia to also make it somewhat educational, if only in a highly summarized extent. Some readers may find parts (okay, LARGE parts) of this book highly macabre and possibly disturbing, but I found it to be more fascinating than anything.
I did note a few mistakes and possible innacuracies, but those are probably to be expected in a book with such a broad and random scope. I learned a lot of interesting facts from reading this book, so all in all (and particularly for someone with a short attention span like I have) it was an enjoyable and engrossing read.
On to the 100's!