Customer Reviews

505 Unbelievably Stupid Web Pages

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I wish Crowley would just list the sites, give a brief description and leave it at that. The "comments" are awful - I don't even know the guy and I seriously dislike him because his comments bug me THAT much. I have hisother book, 505 Weirdest OnLine Stores. You know, both of his books are a good resource for when you're bored and want something funny to look up while you're in front of the computer, but Mr. Crowley, seriously, your attempts at humor and being "cool" have failed miserably. Stick to just listing stuff. trust me.

Both the book and the sites in it are funny. The comments about the sites are irreverent and guaranteed to provoke a laugh or two. Even the "Stupid" label for many of these sites is "tongue-in-cheek", as it is clear the author found them quite hilarious. Of course, some of the sites (the ones who take themselves seriously and are not "meant" to be humorous, but are) really are "Incredibly Stupid". This book skewers a few sacred cows along the way, but that's usually the basis of true humor.

All in all, a fun read. This book may not change the course of world history, but it will make you chuckle.

I liked this book because it was very well written and shows that children with Autism have a good chance to make it. I was referred to this book by an autism site because the writer is a 17 year old boy with High functioning autism.

Excellant. My 7 year old autistic son loves it.

A few of the sites listed are actually entertaining, but most are just the usual online drivel. The writer's comments are as boring as the websites he lists; either his sarcasm doesn't translate without emoticons, or he simply isn't a very good writer. This book would have worked much better as just a website itself. I may have bookmarked the website, but I definitely wouldn't pay for the book.

My mother bought this book, and I thought that it was a bad idea to purchase it, because websites (especially the more useless ones) are ephemeral. However, most of the sites are still online as of November 2004. I have been using the internet for many years, and a large number of these sites were ones I was already aware of. My mother, though, is sort of a newbie, and she really enjoyed visiting these sites; she has gotten some great laughs out of them. This book would make a great gift for your internet-newbie relatives -- those who have a sense of humor, anyway!

Some reviewers have essentially remarked that Dan Crowley is immature in his approach to dealing with his subject matter. I am certainly not defending this book as a piece of high literature, but I am willing to wager that not too many of these critics wrote a book at age 17. For the record, I think Crowley is occasionally tedious (the word "stupid" must be the most common adjective in the book, and the Homer Simpson references are irritating after a while, as is his hatred for cats), but I don't think he is particularly mean spirited (he thanks the creators of all these sites for providing him with material, after all). As the author he gets to define his subject, he chose the 505 stupidest sites on the web, and some of the ones he chose really do deserve to be singled out for special condemnation. Examples of humorous senselessness abound: www.cheeseracing.org (a site dedicated to incinerating wrapped cheese slices on a grill); a site dedicated to the church of William Shatner; a site devoted to the "Sounds of Pasta" (different types of pasta being poured into a pan sound files), and of course, Britney's Guide to Semiconductor Physics, with features involving Britney Spears and advanced physics (including explanations of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers which you can read while looking at your Britney wallpaper.)

Clearly this book was not the originator of the silliness or stupidity of the subject matter involved, and I think it's great that a 17 year old wrote a book like this. It is sometimes a bit repetitive, but overall it is a good first effort. Incidentally, Crowley has written a second book covering stupid online stores ("The 505 Weirdest Online Stores"), and I think he has improved as a writer since publishing this one.

Most of the sites I went to from this book (which, admittedly, weren't that many) worked as of July, 2005.

Last week I went to a book sale at the library. Though books on history, science, and philosophy tended to be decades old, the ones on computers and the internet tended to be only copyrighted a decade prior, and they were already being sold for quarters. That reminded me of this book, which my brother got for Christmas years ago. He moved away and left pretty much all his books, saying I could have any of them I wanted, and I decided to look at the websites in this book.

As of February 2011, when I looked at it, about 7 out of 10 of the links listed in this book are dead. Anything with geocities is automatically out, and if a website was notable when it came out, you might, if you're lucky, find a broken, picture-less version of the website on The Wayback Machine (a website I'm sure will be a dead link too in a few years).

Published eight years ago from when I'm writing this, this book is already hopelessly out of date. Books on many subjects can have long life-spans, and novels can be read until their pages fall out, but when it comes to books on computers and the internet, timing crucial, with this book as a case in point. Whether it was or wasn't a good book in 2003 is a moot point by now. In 2011, almost every link mentioned in the book is already dead, and this book is now best used as kindling, or to be recycled to make magazines or daily newspapers with an even shorter expiration date than this book.

Well, Thank you Dan, you have sent us many paying customers, who found out that the "Universe of Bagpipes" is really a Good Site, about a little known Subject: 30 Bagpipes from many different Countries. It's obvious that you (and/or your parents) show a willing ignorance, and hatred for, Bagpipes of any kind. Perhaps you should download the mp3s here on Amazon to enlighten yourselves, but I'm not holding my breath....hah-ha !
Getting a review of any kind and being damned with faint, or no praise at all, is always a good way to create interest, as long as the names are spelled correctly. Thank You Dan, you did that part right !
Your Piper, Sean Folsom

I also discovered this book because I found out a web page of mine is listed in it (#297, Japanese Pizza page). I haven't actually read the book but you have to give the kid kudos for writing a book on what is, essentially, a list of sites you might find on the Internet. I'm giving him four stars for having the good taste to include my site though given the factual accuracy for the entry I have to doubt the rest of the book. (He says my page is the home page of a Pizza restaurant in Japan even though if you read the first two sentences on my page, it's readily apparent that it's not.)

I was doing a Google search for one of my usernames to see where all it would pop up on the web, and came across a listing for this book. Apparently, at least two of my webpages are in it! Maybe more! All I could access with the free sample viewer were references on page 129 to two of my sites, "Fendick Swern's Dreamy Dreamworld" and "On The Hoof." Apparently, they are numbers 248 and 249 on the list. I entered the name of another one of my sites in the search engine and a page number came up, but I was denied access to a free sample.

These are just knock-off sites that I did for fun years ago--how in the world did this guy ever find them? What a mind-boggling surprise. I guess I should buy a copy of the book, huh?

(I have to rate it in order to post this, so I'm giving it a mid-range "3.")