psalmcat's review against another edition
3.0
Reading this book is a bit like reading an index. Actually, it's a lot like reading an index; my husband said, at one point while it was sitting around, "What a boring book!"
Well, no, actually it's not boring. I did skip around a bit (like most of the science sections and most of the whole last chapter on "General Knowledge and Philosophy." But reading the chain of command in different countries of the world was quite entertaining. So was Kipfer's explanation of ISBNs, for a different reason: according to her, only the second two digits in an ISBN are assigned to the publisher. This, of course, means there are a total of 100 American (English-language) publishers. Uh, no.
When I find an error like this in a book that purports to be "How Everything in the World is Organized into Hierarchies, Structures, and Pecking Orders" it lowers the amount of trust I have the the rest of the knowledge. There are, however, loads of charts and details for things like comparing gods and goddesses cross-culturally, explaining the Muslim prayer sequence, showing all the traditional place setting parts, and so forth. A fun browsing kind of book. It also has a nice bibliography, where you could find out where to get details about the lists in this book.
Well, no, actually it's not boring. I did skip around a bit (like most of the science sections and most of the whole last chapter on "General Knowledge and Philosophy." But reading the chain of command in different countries of the world was quite entertaining. So was Kipfer's explanation of ISBNs, for a different reason: according to her, only the second two digits in an ISBN are assigned to the publisher. This, of course, means there are a total of 100 American (English-language) publishers. Uh, no.
When I find an error like this in a book that purports to be "How Everything in the World is Organized into Hierarchies, Structures, and Pecking Orders" it lowers the amount of trust I have the the rest of the knowledge. There are, however, loads of charts and details for things like comparing gods and goddesses cross-culturally, explaining the Muslim prayer sequence, showing all the traditional place setting parts, and so forth. A fun browsing kind of book. It also has a nice bibliography, where you could find out where to get details about the lists in this book.
pussreboots's review against another edition
3.0
When I was studying for the library media technician test (for a job that lost funding before they finished the hiring process) I spotted The Order of Things by Barbara Ann Kipfer. The title intrigued me and the author's name seemed familiar.
Turns out Kipfer wrote another index style book that I took with me to college, 14,000 Things to Be Happy About. I read that book cover to cover, annotating the ones I agreed with and the ones that left me scratching my head.
The Order of Things is a compendium of things one might want to know. It's basically a list of lists across a wide range of subjects from the arts, sciences, history, mathematics and so forth. As the book covers so many topics in such fine detail it's not something to read casually from cover to cover.
It would, however, make an excellent reference to a home library. If I had a copy, I'm sure I'd quickly have it annotate and flagged with Post-It Notes. I love a good and quick reference book.
Turns out Kipfer wrote another index style book that I took with me to college, 14,000 Things to Be Happy About. I read that book cover to cover, annotating the ones I agreed with and the ones that left me scratching my head.
The Order of Things is a compendium of things one might want to know. It's basically a list of lists across a wide range of subjects from the arts, sciences, history, mathematics and so forth. As the book covers so many topics in such fine detail it's not something to read casually from cover to cover.
It would, however, make an excellent reference to a home library. If I had a copy, I'm sure I'd quickly have it annotate and flagged with Post-It Notes. I love a good and quick reference book.
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