To be educated is to know a little bit about many different things. To be extremely well-educated is to know a great deal about absolutely everything. Martin Gardner is extremely well-educated, but there's more to reading his book than being informed by a well-informed man. This gargantuan collection of 47 essays covers everything from the workings of quantum physics to the odd pursuit of pseudo-science to the existence of God, and the reader soon realizes that Gardner wants to do more than merely lecture on brainy subjects. A master skeptic and brilliant thinker, he knows how to ask the right questions about anything. He has the gift of being able to explain complex subjects and processes to an average person without condescension. And perhaps most important, Gardner has developed an unerring sense of what is important, and to read his writing is to feel the importance of an idea and of thinking for its own sake. The Night Is Large is an education in itself.