1000 Things Worth Knowing

Fowler, Nathaniel C. (Nathaniel Clark), 1858-1918Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 313K words
Chapters: 32

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.1000 Things Worth Knowing by Nathaniel C. FowlerAuthor: Fowler, Nathaniel C. (Nathaniel Clark), 1858-1918,Language: English, Class: AG: General Works: Dictionaries and other general reference books, Release Date: Mar 20, 2018

Editor's review

This is a typical old-style compendium of knowledge, listing in short entries the common facts people of the time thought worth knowing, broad in coverage and brief in form. Its value lies not in systematic rigor but in what it reveals about one era's intellectual tastes: what counted as "useful," which claims were popular, and which explanations bear the clear limits of their age. Flipping through at random, readers pick up scattered facts and also sense how knowledge itself changes. As a public-domain e-book, it works well as casual reading or a side source of snippets for writing and speeches. Note that much of it reflects views from a century ago; do not apply it directly to practical judgments about health, science, or law. Read it with a critical eye, as a mirror on old common knowledge rather than a modern life guide.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy browsing old-style encyclopedias and are interested in the history of knowledge
Content creators in need of miscellaneous talking points and writing material
Language learners who want to practice speed reading in English and prefer short entries
General readers curious about everyday common knowledge and social attitudes a century ago

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking accurate, modern, practical knowledge for reference
Readers who need coherent argument or systematic study
People with little ability to discern outdated claims, who tend to accept everything at face value

Reading tips

Keep it as bedside or commute reading, a few pages at a time, without aiming to finish.
When you come across health- or science-related content, mark it and check modern sources.
Extract interesting entries by theme to build your own notes on old common knowledge.
In English reading, grasp the main point of each entry and skip obscure details to keep up speed.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is the knowledge in this book accurate today?

It cannot be treated as accurate as a whole. The book was written a century ago, and many entries reflect views popular at the time, some since corrected or refuted by modern science. Read it as a historical text; for practical judgments on health, science, law, and similar matters, always rely on current authoritative sources.

Are the entries organized systematically?

From the available information, it is a general-knowledge reference book made up mainly of short entries, not a textbook that builds up subject by subject. It suits browsing at random and jumping to subjects of interest rather than reading cover to cover for a complete line of knowledge.

How difficult is the English? Is it good for reading practice?

The entries are usually short with fairly direct sentences, good for speed-reading practice and vocabulary building. But the book is old, and some expressions and word choices are dated. Aim to understand the gist of each entry rather than parsing every word, and look up old-fashioned phrasing only when it blocks comprehension.

Is it suitable as a source of writing material?

It can inspire ideas and provide talking points, but do not quote its factual claims directly. A safer use is to let an entry suggest a topic, then check modern sources for accurate information; if you quote the original, note its historical context so readers do not mistake it for a current conclusion.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Fowler, Nathaniel C. (Nathaniel Clark), 1858-1918 Author

Nathaniel C. Fowler (1858–1918), whose full name was Nathaniel Clark Fowler, was an English-language author about whom relatively little biographical information is available. Only his birth and death years and one representative work can be verified from public records. His surviving book, 1000 Things Worth Knowing, is a collection of practical knowledge and everyday facts. As the title suggests, it is organized in an itemized format and covers a wide range of subjects, emphasizing usefulness and quick reference for ordinary readers who wished to consult or accumulate general knowledge. Books of this kind were popular in British and American publishing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, presenting information concisely for casual browsing. Fowler's work belongs to this tradition, and its value lies mainly in the organization and popularization of knowledge rather than in literary creation. Because public information is limited, his nationality, profession, and specific experiences cannot be described in detail.