Luck: Understanding Luck and Improving the Odds

Barrie Dolnick, Anthony H. Davidson

Harmony/Rodale, Nov 6, 2007 - Mathematics - 256 pages

Have you ever noticed that you talk about luck every day of your life? Luck is your silent companion, sometimes bringing awesome parking spaces, a chance meeting with a new love interest, or a small windfall. Most of the time you probably don’t even pay attention to luck. Chances are, you only really think about luck when you buy a lottery ticket or participate in a contest.

Luck is so much more than that.

If you take steps to live longer by eating right and exercising, why wouldn’t you also take similar steps to improve your good fortune? Barrie Dolnick and Anthony Davidson asked themselves this very question, and set out to study luck and decipher how it works. In this insightful and engaging book, they share the secrets they’ve uncovered so you can use luck more effectively in your day-to-day life. Where does luck originate? Does one need to be “born lucky” in order to be lucky? Answering these and many other pressing questions, Dolnick and Davidson investigate both ancient and scientific approaches to luck. From early man to famous rationalists, luck has been prayed for, played with, and courted. You’ll learn how ancient practices such as the I Ching, astrology, tarot, and numerology have been used to understand luck, and how great mathematicians studied luck–some guided by their own interest in gambling. Every- one wants to be lucky. Once you know the fundamentals of luck, the authors take you through your own Personal Luck Profile so that you can use this wisdom and try your luck. People do a lot of weird things to improve their luck–and now you can make smart choices and informed decisions about how to play with yours.

Contents

• Preface хш: 1
• Luck in Our Own Backyard: 13
• Luck and the Natural World: 31
• The Future of Luck Through: 49
• Luck Through the Meaning: 71
• Probable Luck Reasonable Luck: 89
• Gambling Sheer Games of Luck: 101
• The Modern and Wacky World: 125
• Applying Astrological Luck: 149
• Your Personal Numbers: 173
• Applying Tarot: 183
• Applying Time: 189
• Applying Stones: 197
• Venus in the Signs 19252017: 203
• Jupiter in the Signs 19252017: 225
• Sources: 231

About the author

BARRIE DOLNICK is the author of twelve books (this is lucky number thirteen!). She works as a consultant and astrologer, in addition to teaching metaphysical concepts to the general public. She is a regular contributor to Match.com’s Happen magazine.

ANTHONY H. DAVIDSON is an attorney and has long studied luck and its effects on risk taking.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Luck: Understanding Luck and Improving the Odds
• Authors: Barrie Dolnick, Anthony H. Davidson
• Publisher: Harmony/Rodale, 2007
• ISBN: 0307405303, 9780307405302
• Length: 256 pages
• Subjects: Body, Mind & Spirit / Witchcraft; Mathematics / Research; Self-Help / Personal Growth / Success