What are the Seven Wonders of the World? And 60 Other Great Cultural Questions

I bought this for two reasons: the first - it is a Folio Edition, and is quite a visual work of art - the attractive cover, and the lino-cut style picture which accompanies each of the 65 ‘questions' are really quite stunning; the second - who can resist the seven wonders of the world, right?

the pyramids at Giza; the hanging gardens of Babylon; the statue of Zeus at Olympia; the temple of Artemis at Ephesus; the mausoleum at Halicarnassus; the colossus of Rhodes & the Pharos of Alexandria. Well, I have been to the site of three of them.

So this book, despite its artistic merit, is not really a readable book - in a cover to cover sort of way. It is more a dip in, dip out, quirky read.

It really consists of 61 questions, with the short version answers, then a more lengthy explanation, or just background information around the answer.

The questions - well they are all questions about numbers - a large selection of three's (Who are the: three gods of the Hindu trinity; 3 sons of Adam; 3 Magi and what gifts did they bring; what were the 3 temptations of Christ; etc) a similarly large number of four's ( What are the: 4 voyages of Gulliver; 4 chief winds in ancient Greece; Who are the: 4 horsemen of the apocalypse; the 4 Bronte siblings; etc) Some five's and sixes, a heap of seven's (7 wonders of the ancient world; 7 voyages of Sinbad the sailor; 7 sages of Greece; etc) a couple of eights, some nine's, two tens (10 commandments, 10 plagues of Egypt) a single eleven (the states of the Confederacy) and a bunch of twelve's (Latin names of the months; 12 labours of Heracles, 12 apostles, 12 knights of the Round Table; and the 12 signs of the zodiac; etc)

and a thorough index.

So the questions are taken from history, from literature (Dante and his unreadable (for me) Divine Comedy is all through this), from religion (not just Christianity, but there are a heap of bible stories).

So for the artistry of a beautiful book - 5 stars, for subject questions - much more hit and miss - 2 stars, for the answers, and the content 3 stars. So I guess closer to 3 than 4 stars for me.