The Encyclopedia of Superstitions Review

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(More customer reviews)Richard Webster's "The Encyclopedia of Superstitions" is a collection of superstitions, primarily from the Western world [not including regional superstitions] and are alphabetically listed, from A to Z. However, the author lists not just superstitions associated with particular objects, creatures or people, but also anything associated with the subject, e.g. divination, though not strictly a form of superstition, has associations with the subject and hence the author includes it and even mentions the different forms of divination.
A typical entry reads something like this - "Purse: It is important to place a coin in any purse that you intend to give away as a gift. This ensures that the person who receives the purse will have good luck and will never run out of money. See coin, money"
The list of superstitions is by no means exhaustive as the author himself in the preface mentions the large scope of superstitions of cultures across the globe. Perhaps at some point, there will a compendium of Eastern superstitions.
On the whole, this is an amusing and interesting read for fans of trivia, and may even be helpful for purposes of research. There aren't much illustrations, just random black and white drawings of objects of superstitions. Final verdict: a fun & informative read!


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Have you ever rubbed a frog on your freckles?

Trivia fans and fun fact fanatics will adore this fascinating, flickable encyclopedia of superstitions! Richard Webster presents over five hundred of the most obscure, curious, and just-plain-freaky superstitions of the Western world.Discover batty beliefs about baldness, beans, and the Bermuda Triangle, and peculiar practices regarding hiccups, hearses, and hunchbacks. From modern myths to centuries-old lore,The Encyclopedia of Superstitionsoffers a wealth of wonderfully weird beliefs on just about every topic you can imagine:HolidaysBirth DeathWeddingsColorsGemstones TreesFlowersFairiesWeatherNumbersAnimals BirdsInsectsHousehold ItemsZodiac SignsGamblingThe Human BodyFood

"[T]his reference makes for compulsive browsing."-Publishers Weekly

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Take Time for Paradise: Americans and Their Games Review

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(More customer reviews)A. Bartlett Giamatti wrote this book immediately prior to his unexpected death in 1989. It appeared in print posthumously. That he would pen a paen to baseball at the height of the Pete Rose scandal, as his last published work, is ironic. His prose is sublime. The slender volume is a monograph on the nature of the game of baseball. It is timeless because it is not tied to temporal events. With little alteration, the book could have been written a hundred years ago, or (I hope) a hundred years hence. The Commissioner of Baseball and former Yale Professor of Renaissance Literature explores the intellectual facination of the game. From the geometry of the diamond to the Homeric nature of the baserunner's struggle to reach home again, Giamatti's story is enlightening as well as entertaining. Insights into the nature of our society flow naturally, given that sport in general should be seen in the context of the civilization that spawns it. One that I found to be especially memorable was on the commonalities of learning that change from generation to generation. Giamatti wrote of how the rising generation would understand the world through a computer screen, even as their progenitors had seen it through books, and of the differences, both great and small, that it would make to the thought patterns of our young. All this against the literally timneless fabric of a game played without a clock. -Lloyd A. Conway

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A philosophical musing on sports and play, this wholly inspiring and utterly charming reissue of Bart Giamatti's long-out-of-print final book, Take Time for Paradise, puts baseball in the context of American life and leisure. Giamatti begins with the conviction that our use of free time tells us something about who we are. He explores the concepts of leisure, American-style. And in baseball, the quintessential American game, he finds its ultimate expression. "Sports and leisure are our reiteration of the hunger for paradise- for freedom untrammeled." Filled with pithy truths about such resonant subjects as ritual, self-betterment, faith, home, and community, Take Time for Paradise gives us much more than just baseball. These final, eloquent thoughts of "the philosopher king of baseball" (Seattle Weekly) are a joyful, reverent celebration of the sport Giamatti loved and the country that created it.

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Collision at Home Plate: The Lives of Pete Rose and Bart Giamatti Review

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(More customer reviews)I worked for Pete Rose after his suspension, and this is by far the most accurate book on the scandal - and it does not spare Rose any criticism. Reston unearthed evidence I thought would never see the light of day and does the public a great service, particularly in debunking the Giamatti myths. Essential reading for anyone interested in the subject. My only criticism is that he has little good to say of anyone involved.

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