the intellectual devotional

Last week, while walking through the book store, my eyes fell on the reference section. I've always been a fan of reference books, especially recent releases like Book of Secrets and Schott's Original Miscellany, just because it's so much fun to flip open one of these books, read a few pages, and jam some interesting but trivial bit of knowledge into my brain. It's stimulating, and it always feels like time well spent.

When I passed the reference section last week, I saw this book that was faced out, with an interesting cover and a title that I instantly understood: The Intellectual Devotional. I picked it up to confirm my suspicions, and was thrilled when I read to back cover: "Daily Devotionals have long been a favored tool of those looking for a regular dose of spiritual growth. The Intellectual Devotional is a secular compendium in the same tradition -- one year's worth of daily readings that will refresh the spirit, stimulate the mind, and help complete your education."

I managed to suppress the urge to squee right there in the store, and I went straight to the check-out line. Then I went back to the shelf, picked up the book, and took it with me to the check-out line. Then I bought it. Heh.

The book isn't dated, but is organized by day of the week, so if you bought it today, you could open to the first Tuesday and begin enriching your mind. (This is a good place to start, by the way, because the first Tuesday entry is about James Joyce's Ulysses.)

Every day has a different theme: Mondays are for History, Tuesday is Literature, Wednesday is Visual Arts, Thursday is Science, Friday is Music, Saturday is Philosophy, and Sunday is Religion.

It's a great idea, and if you're like me and crave some sort of intellectual stimulation every day, you'll be really happy to have it in your library. The material is entirely appropriate for teenagers, too, making this a cool gift for those smart kids in your life.

Comments

[Brian]

I'm reading that myself right now! I borrowed it from the library after I stumbled across it by accident. It's a really good read and the perfect bathroom book for my brother's house... he has a collection of such volumes.

[nation333]

Squee! Thank you, it will be my next purchase, what a fantastic idea..
Beth

[Jack's Raging Mommy]

Ok, I'm hooked. One of the things I have found about being a SAHM is that if it weren't for the internet my brain would atrophy. This sounds perfect!

[Michael]

Wil-

You should also check out The Engines of Our Ingenuity from the University of Houston and Houston Public Radio. It's a short 4-5 minute segment "about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them."

It might be on your local public radio station daily but if it's not it's available as a podcast through iTunes.

I usually listen to it on the way to work in the morning and it gets me thinking enough that I don't notice it's done for a couple of minutes :-)

[gregshortdotcom]

My wife, Christy, gave it to me for Christmas after I saw it at the local Borders in their new release section. She reads it to me nightly.

[Syndelin]

Great find Wil!

Thanks for sharing it with us. =)

[dbol39]

Thanks for the links--I bought all three, so hopefully that's a few pennies for you as a kickback (although I did buy one of them used...).

And I know you like to watch TV and all, but I'll still plug my favorite author and his best book: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. I can't recommend it highly enough.

[Giladani]

Wil (and everyone else)-- if you really dig these kinds of books and haven't read it already I highly recommend The Book of Lists series and the People's Almanac series (done by the same people). Some of them are slightly dated now but are still excellent reads. I beleive the three books of the original People's Almanac are out of print as are the second and third Book of Lists but any reasonably good library should have them.

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Lists-David-Wallechinsky/dp/1841955531/sr=8-3/qid=1168992887/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-6615265-6719344?ie=UTF8&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Almanac-Presents-Twentieth-Century/dp/0879519444/ref=pd_sim_b_5/102-6615265-6719344

[sharladawn]

Well, hey, you shoulda went Squee in the store.

That sounds slightly perverted.

I added the book to my wishlist on Amazon. My list is growing, and I keep adding things to it from your site :)

[mcewen]

You're very bad for my bank balance you know! I think I may also have to buy a bigger nightstand!
Cheers

[GDISTORM]

Wil:

Sounds like a great inspiration. We cn always use those things tat give us some sort of intellectual stimulation or act as a catalyst in our lives. Personlly, I appreciate devotionals like these, as well as the religious ones. They simply inspire us in slightly way. Thanks for the entertaining heads-up Wil ... as always its appreciated.

[SpaceCadette]

Ok, several comments!
nation333: I thought you said you head would be "a trophy" -which I totally didn't get until re-read it a few times and finally read atrophy ;)

Syndelin: Wow... "Amusing Ourselves To Death" -Blast from the past! Neil Postman was my teacher about 20 years ago. I agree it is a good book. The music on The News still jumps out at me now every time.

Wil: I went to amazon and clicked on "The Intellectual Devotional's" preview pages. It looks like they've got a week's worth of preview pages. I'm going to read one a day, as intended, and see if I can commit to a whole year's worth by the end of the week! :)

[Haecker]

Seems like an interesting read. Thanks for posting about it

[Ash]

Does Brian's post (first one) mean that he takes library books into the bathroom? It's a little vague, but it can be interpreted that way. Hmm...

Those books sound good... I'll check them out. Thanks.

[jamenta]

I loved reading "Bartlett's Quotations. Fabulous book. It is a book that Sir Winston Churchill has a well-known comment about:

"It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more. "

Roving Commission: My Early Life (1930) Chapter 9

[Khalil A. Cassimally]

You may well like this new book then: The Open Laboratory. It's edited by a Ph. D and the book is a collection of the science blog posts of the year 2006! With the popularity of Seed's scienceblogs.com, the science blogging world has become so much more popular now and this book is just a fine collection.

Check it out if you can. It's available in both paperback and pdf over at lulu.com

[Darmok]

It's funny you write about this--I just bought this book on Sunday! The entry on Ulysses was good; it makes me want to read the book (I've never read it). Guess I'll have to add one more book to my reading list!

[Brian Greenberg]

So basically, this is a study guide for the old Trivial Pursuit game, right?

(They should have reserved one of the days for "Roll Again").

[John]

I will have to look this up. I need something to kick my brain in gear every day!

[cate368]

Thanks Wil! I needed a gift idea for my husband, who usually takes forever to read books since he just reads for a few minutes each night. This will be perfect!

[Katrina]

I wanted to find this post to add a thank you for the reccomendation. I ordered it last week, and waited to start it this week. I love the idea of small nuggets of intelectual thoughts, and when I showed it to the husband, he demanded it get a home on the coffee table, and hes reading it now as well.
If nothing else, it gives us something short we can both read daily and discuss outside of the usual 'how was your day? did you water the plants?' diatribe.

[Joost Schuur]

I picked this up the other day after reading this recommendation. A great read. My only problem is I have to fight the urge to read ahead!

[Her_Rachness]

I can't find this book anywhere here! However, I did find the official website (http://www.theintellectualdevotional.com/index.html) With a free 7 day experience. I contemplated it, but decided I'll keep searching and hope the book will grace the bookstores here soon. I do have another devotional and I'm eager to get this one too.