An Incomplete Education, Revised Edition
You'll find everything you forgot from school--as well as  plenty you never even learned--in this all-purpose reference book, an  instant classic when it first appeared in 1987. The updated version  takes a whirlwind tour through 12 different disciplines, from American  studies to philosophy to world history. Along the way, Judy Jones and  William Wilson provide a plethora of useful information, from the plot  ofOthelloto the  difference between fission and fusion. It's not a shortcut to cultural  literacy, the authors write in their introduction, but it's an  excellent "way in" to the building blocks of Western  civilization: the "books, music, art, philosophy, and discoveries  that have, for one reason or another, managed to endure." Think of  it as finishing school for your brain; study up and you'll gain a  lifetime's worth of cocktail conversation--as well as a new list of  books you simplymustread.