David S. Kidder has written for the NYT, the WSJ, USA Today and other publications. Noah D. Oppenheim, a producer of NBC’s Today show, has written for Esquire, the WSJ, Men’s Health, and the Weekly Standard.

Don’t let the pretentious subtitle of this fact-filled volume put you off. There are many interesting pages of information in a 1-page/day format: Mon: History, Tues: Literature, Wed: Visual Arts, Thurs: Science, Fri: Music, Sat: Philosophy, and Sun: Religion. You’ll need good eyesight since the font size drops after the first paragraph, and additional-fact footnotes are in a tiny font. The Index is very useful as each once-a-week topic appears under its category among the seven and also on its own. So, with format matters clarified, the contents are very well chosen, considering each of the 7 categories category is limited to 52 choices.

I relearned – that is, had my memory refreshed and often expanded – very many topics in perusing this informative devotional. I also learned much new, especially about the technicalities of music. Because of my background, I was able to critique most carefully science and religion. In these two areas I encountered several mistakes, which probably reflects the limitations of the seven contributing writers (one for each category) and/or the six contributing editors (none for religion!). I can easily imagine this book being at the level of a secular but non-scientific liberal-arts college. But don’t let my critiques put you off to this delightful book. I kept it by my side and looked at it almost every day. Usually, after reading a day’s page, I couldn’t restrain myself from reading the next page, then the next, …, as the sight of them led me on and on. Mostly I would read one week at a time, enough to let my mind digest seven different themes before reading any more. This gift book deserves and gets a very high recommendation from me.