Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

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!… (mais)