Knock on Wood - by Jeffrey S Rosenthal (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, author of the bestseller Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities, was born on Friday the thirteenth, a fact that he discovered long after he had become one of the world's pre-eminent statisticians. Had he been living ignorantly and innocently under an unlucky cloud for all those years? Or is thirteen just another number? As a scientist and a man of reason, Rosenthal has long considered the value of luck, good and bad, seeking to measure chance and hope in formulas scratched out on chalkboards.

In Knock on Wood, with great humour and irreverence, Rosenthal divines the world of luck, fate and chance, putting his considerable scientific acumen to the test in deducing whether luck is real or the mere stuff of superstition.

From the Back Cover

For centuries, people around the world have prayed for good luck and warded against bad. Every language features a good luck greeting. Sailors have long looked for an albatross on the horizon as an auspicious symbol. Jade, clovers, rabbits' feet, wishbones: these items have lined the pockets of those seeking good fortune. For some, it's bad luck to walk under a ladder, to enter and leave a home through different doors, or to say "Macbeth" in a theatre. But is there such a thing as luck, or does luck often simply explain common sense? Don't walk under a ladder because, well, that's just dangerous. You won the lottery not because of any supernatural force but because a random number generator selected the same numbers that you picked out at the corner store. You run into a neighbour from your street on the other side of the world: chance or pure fate? (Or does it depend on how much you like your neighbour?)

Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, author of the bestseller Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities, was born on a Friday the Thirteenth, a fact that he discovered long after he had become one of the world's preeminent statisticians. Had he been living ignorantly and innocently under an unlucky cloud for all those years? Or is thirteen just another number? As a scientist and a man of reason, Rosenthal has long considered the value of luck, good and bad, seeking to measure chance and hope in formulas scratched out on chalkboards.

In Knock on Wood, Rosenthal, with great humour and irreverence, divines the world of luck, fate, and chance, putting his considerable scientific acumen to the test in deducing whether luck is real or the mere stuff of superstition.

Review Quotes

"A thoroughly engaging book. Each page provides a charming anecdote illustrating an insight that will make you smile in recognition of a surprising truth. Get this book for yourself but also for family and friends both those who believe only logic, science, and cause and effect have all the answers." -- Michael Adams, president of Environics and author of Could It Happen Here? Canada in the Age of Trump and Brexit and Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values

"'Good luck!' Something we say almost every day with best of intentions but little thought. What are we really honouring when we say good luck? Knock on Wood is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand why things happen." -- Darrell Bricker, CEO, Ipsos Public Affairs, co-author of The Big Shift

"Rosenthal is a light-hearted and entertaining writer. He reveals quirky numerical facts that may surprise you." -- Toronto Star

"Even for the math challenged among us, Rosenthal makes numbers understandable. Rosenthal's style is highly readable . . . . Numbers and logic and probability are not topics you'd think could be made lively or entertaining. But the probability that it can be done well by Rosenthal is pretty high." -- Winnipeg Free Press

"[Jeffrey Rosenthal is] your favorite professor, the one who made a difficult subject easy to understand by illustrating insights with practical examples from the world around us." -- Michael Adams, author of Fire and Ice