Este sitio utiliza cookies para ofrecer nuestros servicios, mejorar el rendimiento, análisis y (si no estás registrado) publicidad. Al usar LibraryThing reconoces que has leído y comprendido nuestros términos de servicio y política de privacidad. El uso del sitio y de los servicios está sujeto a estas políticas y términos.
13 is part detective story, part cultural history - the first to separate truth from myth surrounding the world's most universal superstition. Why is 13 an unlucky number? Why, where and how did the superstition begin? Why do we have an obsession with the number 13 and how does this affect our daily lives? Is there a place for superstition in modern culture? In 13, a book of 13 chapters of 13 pages, Nathan Lachenmeyer reveals the extraordinary history of one of the most prevalent and enduring superstitions in the Western world - the belief that 13 is an unlucky number. It is also a book about superstition in general - why do people believe in a superstition, knowing that belief to be irrational? How and why do superstitions die out? What was the original name for the movie Friday the 13th? (It had nothing to do with 13.) Which is the only New York hotel to have a 13th Floor? Who, out of Edgar Allen Poe, Woodrow Wilson, Oscar Wilde, Victor Hugo and Adolf Hitler had a deep-rooted phobia of 13, and who was particularly fond of the number? History, mythology, mathematics, psychology and trivia all play their part in this intriguing book about the world's unluckiest number.… (más)
A look into superstitions, beliefs, and attitudes surrounding the number 13, including how they've changed and developed over time. It's not incredibly well-organized and in places it gets pretty repetitive. The whole book is only 200 pages, and yet I feel like it could and should have been tightened up a lot.
Still, I respect how much effort the author put into researching the topic, and I did learn some interesting stuff. I was particularly interested to read about the existence of Thirteen Clubs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose members enjoyed flouting, defying, debunking, and generally having fun with superstitions. They sound like my kind of people. For my own part, I've always had a real fondness for the number 13. Partly because I dislike superstitions and am happy to champion an unfairly maligned numerical underdog (an attitude that the author also talks about a bit in the book), but also because I turned 13 on a Friday the 13th and have 13 letters in my full name. I've always said that if there was anything at all to superstitions about the number, I would never have survived to adulthood! ( )
Overall, this was a very interesting book starting with the creation of the Thirteen Club (to fight the idea that 13 is unlucky) to the psychology and sources of superstitions related to the number 13. There were points where the author got a little too detailed into some of the minutiae of the superstitions, and I found the psychology section particularly dull. But with a little light skimming of that area, the book picked up again and I'm already thinking of ways we can use some of its content in planning my daughter's 13th birthday party... ( )
Who knew that the number 13 had such a background? I am different from most people, in that I view this number to be one of my luckier ones. However, there are several people that have a phobia about the number 13, and this book goes into detail about that as well as other fun facts about the odd number. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The superstitions about Friday and 13 were once believed by those reputed wise; now such men regard them as harmless follies. But probably . . . years hence many beliefs of the wise of our day will come to seem equally foolish. Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be stisified with bad ones.—Bertand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950)
Dedicatoria
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
For Arlo, who makes his parents feel lucky everyday
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Preface The book was covered in torn and stained brown paper—a handmade dust jacket ravaged by time.
Chapter One The Thirteen Club With malice toward none and charity to all," we have invited every race and creed to join our movement, and render their aid in crushing an evil not advocated by any class, but injurious to all alike. —Chief Ruler David McAdam, Thirteen Club Annual Address (January 13, 1890)I had never heard of the 13-at-a-table superstition until I read the Thirteen Club articles in Miscellany.
Citas
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Perhaps this is the lesson of unlucky 13; superstition is not an isolated country of irrational beliefs any more than the superstitious are its dim-witted, frightened citizens; reason governs a much smaller domain in the world of ideas than we are accustomed to acknowledging. In the end, to believe otherwise is simply to embrace another positive, hopeful superstition—another lucky 13.
13 is part detective story, part cultural history - the first to separate truth from myth surrounding the world's most universal superstition. Why is 13 an unlucky number? Why, where and how did the superstition begin? Why do we have an obsession with the number 13 and how does this affect our daily lives? Is there a place for superstition in modern culture? In 13, a book of 13 chapters of 13 pages, Nathan Lachenmeyer reveals the extraordinary history of one of the most prevalent and enduring superstitions in the Western world - the belief that 13 is an unlucky number. It is also a book about superstition in general - why do people believe in a superstition, knowing that belief to be irrational? How and why do superstitions die out? What was the original name for the movie Friday the 13th? (It had nothing to do with 13.) Which is the only New York hotel to have a 13th Floor? Who, out of Edgar Allen Poe, Woodrow Wilson, Oscar Wilde, Victor Hugo and Adolf Hitler had a deep-rooted phobia of 13, and who was particularly fond of the number? History, mythology, mathematics, psychology and trivia all play their part in this intriguing book about the world's unluckiest number.
)
)
)
Google Books — Cargando...
(3.65)
6
Still, I respect how much effort the author put into researching the topic, and I did learn some interesting stuff. I was particularly interested to read about the existence of Thirteen Clubs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose members enjoyed flouting, defying, debunking, and generally having fun with superstitions. They sound like my kind of people. For my own part, I've always had a real fondness for the number 13. Partly because I dislike superstitions and am happy to champion an unfairly maligned numerical underdog (an attitude that the author also talks about a bit in the book), but also because I turned 13 on a Friday the 13th and have 13 letters in my full name. I've always said that if there was anything at all to superstitions about the number, I would never have survived to adulthood! (