• The Book of Common Fallacies

  • Falsehoods, Misconceptions, Flawed Facts, and Half-Truths That Are Ruining Your Life
  • By: Phillip Ward, Julia Edwards
  • Narrated by: Traber Burns
  • Length: 21 hrs and 35 mins
  • 3.4 out of 5 stars (144 ratings)

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The Book of Common Fallacies

By: Phillip Ward, Julia Edwards
Narrated by: Traber Burns
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Editorial reviews

Even though our current society is flooded with a constant stream of information - nonstop TV programming, websites upon websites - it doesn't always translate to correct information. The Book of Common Fallacies, by Phillip Ward and Julia Edwards, is a scrutinizing and entertaining look at many of the popular beliefs and "facts" we have come to accept as gospel. With a clear and engaging performance by veteran narrator Traber Burns, this audiobook sets the record straight on things ranging from the truth behind the hallucinogenic qualities of absinthe, to the width of the Atlantic, to the comical theory that the size of a man's member can be ascertained by the size of his feet.

Publisher's summary

Everything you thought you knew was wrong!

Long before Snopes.com and Wikipedia, The Book of Common Fallacies set out to debunk popular beliefs and set the record straight. By tracking down the facts and citing experts in a multitude of fields, Philip Ward points out the senseless ideas that we have come to accept as fact. Newly updated with today’s common misconceptions, The Book of Common Fallacies exposes the truth behind hundreds of commonly held false beliefs.

©1978, 1980, 2012 Philip Ward and The Oleander Press. Additional content 2012 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Book of Common Fallacies

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A few good entries, but most are obscure

Was The Book of Common Fallacies worth the listening time?

I felt the urge to fast-forward often! I would say that more than half of these "common fallacies" are ones that I have never heard of. It should have been called "Very Obscure Fallacies". I thought it was going to have more "old wives tales" and things you hear every day. Most of these I can't believe that people would have thought was true, except maybe 1000 years ago! There are LOTS of common fallacies that I hear all the time in the general public that were not even mentioned, but yet very trivial things that no one would ever say or think of like "A phrase always means what it says", I mean huh? Also, quite a few of the "Fallacies" were merely opinions, or things that cannot even be proven or disproven - so how can those be fallacies?? I found myself saying "what the....??" a lot while listening to this book. Every now and then, however, I did hear something familiar, and it was neat to hear the origins behind the fallacy.

Any additional comments?

Just a weird book, so many trivial and uninteresting things that are passed off as being common. I'd love to know where on the planet most of these are common.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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You will never believe how dumb you really are.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

It is riveting! I never knew there were so many things I thought were true that aren't true!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It makes me incredulous. I kept saying "What! You're kidding!"

Any additional comments?

The reader is a bit dry, but don't let that put you off. The book is a lot of fun!

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible. Very Old fashioned

This extremely old information - like fallacies about smoking from 50-100 years ago. Not worth anyone’s time in 21st Century

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Condescension

This sounds like a guy talking down and making fun of the 'inferior' it is horrible. Do not waste your time or money on this garbage.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

All bases are covered: I misuse, HATE, or disagree with everything

(As posted in GoodReads)
It took me all the way till he"E" to realize that it was, actually, divided into alphabet initialization's, but even still, it was not always clear what word was actually being referred to. Certain terms, like "fallacy" were used numerous times despite the apparently appropriate letter. Even still, it was a kind of nice collection; of some of the words/phrases I was guilty; some of them have been particular annoyances of mine for sometime; with some of them I just didn't agree. I guess that means that all bases are covered :-)

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Good idea. Badly done. Subject matter wandered,

What would have made The Book of Common Fallacies better?

It should have better researched. Also a closer match of the material to the title of the book.

What do you think your next listen will be?

The next 'Empires Corp' book.

Have you listened to any of Traber Burns’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

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  • DM
  • 10-12-21

highly entertaining & informative

well worth reading. Some really good stuff, funny stuff, & very interesting stuff in here.
Suprising how much we take for granted really is incorrect or used incorrectly.
Enjoy!

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Book is dated

Not my kind of book, if you like hearing someone drone on and on about fallacies no one in your day to day would bring up have fun. I do however enjoy its attempt at being the arbiter of fallacies while letting their own slip in between explanations. For example claiming "A bee leaves the hive in search of honey." Made me giggle but nothing worthwhile in my opinion.

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The Book of Obscure Beliefs

I didn't last an hour. I've never heard of many of the "fallacies", and most seemed to just be superstition. It sounds like it was written in the 1930's, but cites studies done in the 2000's. It sounded fun, but turned out to be quite boring and uninteresting.

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Not worth my time

I was really looking forward to listening to this book but I couldn’t make it even an hour into the read before I turned it off. The book is written in stiff, archaic language that reminded me of boring college textbooks. The prose was so formal that I had trouble taking in the information being conveyed. Furthermore, when providing examples of the fallacies being discussed, he would cite books or articles that I’ve never heard of, either expecting the reader to already be familiar with them, or to stop their listening to go look them up.
And as for the “common fallacies”, I only recognized perhaps 40% of the examples he mentioned. I don’t know when the book was written but I’d guess it’s at least a few decades old. And in case you were wondering, I’m no spring chicken either: I’m in my forties. In the preface, the author invites the reader to contact him with suggestions for improvements to the book, whether by addition, correction, or deletion of material. Seems like he should have deleted half of the book if he wanted to keep the current title rather than changing it to “historical fallacies”.

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