Customer Reviews

Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is kind of a The Dangerous Book for Boys but for men. It covers a variety of subjects like eating dangerously, making a flame thrower and making gunpowder or your own Absinthe. There is some interesting stuff in it and an important thing to realize about this book is in the title "Projects and Ruminations" It isn't just projects it also talks about various pursuits that are a bit dangerous like eating dangerously or the hottest pepper in the world.
Plenty of safety warnings and a real focus of the book is on the science/art of doing things in a way that makes dangerous less risky.

This book is definitely not for boys, grownups only.
What I like most about the book is the variety of resources it gives you on where to get supplies for your projects. And these suppliers and sources vary widely. The author calls this the art of Obtanium.

With a title like "Absinthe and Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on The Art of Living Dangerously," I expected a wider variety of different projects, stunts, and useful information. The Bulk of the book, however, has nothing to do with Absinthe or Flamethrowers, and is devoted largely to making small batches of gunpowder and using it in various ways.

I don't have anything against making or using gunpowder specifically, but with so much space devoted to the chemistry-intensive gunpowder projects, all the other interesting topics like absinthe, zippo tricks, bartitsu, knife-throwing, and bullwhips get significantly less attention.

Bill Gurstelle is a great maker who takes on ambitious projects and then shares them. This book follows in his great tradition of awesome books that combine great projects with storytelling. Besides being a book that gives you a roadmap for making life more interesting, it's got great projects and Bill's storytelling ability makes it a great read. Even if you want to live the dangerous life from an armchair perspective, you'll love this book! I give this book 5 stars for sheer entertainment value and for inspiring me to live life closer to the edge!

The projects in this book may be considered dangerous at the nunnery, but certainly not to anyone who picks up the book looking for what its front and back covers suggest it can offer. I go to sea for days at a time catching and tagging some of the biggest sharks in the ocean and may be slightly biased as I fall beyond the "golden third" (median to one standard deviation above in a scale of having a risk takers mindset) but come on. There's actually a section titled "how to drive fast". I was topping speeds of 110 at age 15 and I'm guessing anyone else who feels compelled to drive fast has already done so without the aid of a book. He also has a section on how to smoke! How daring. In fact, any of the activities that interested me such as building homemade rockets, throwing knives, and making smoke bombs I have already gotten my fill of in high school.

The notes on saftey bored me to tears.

I wanted to distill my own absinthe and build a flamethrower. However the book only dabbles on the history of Absinthe, how to drink it and what seperates the good from the bad. Good information, but now what I was looking for. The flamethrower he constructs seems to me like a totally lame waste of time and money. It in no way resembles the one on the cover and is basically an oversized, fixed, propane torch.

I do have to give it a second star maybe even a third because I enjoyed reading the non-project related sections and the benefits of taking risks. I couldn't have agreed more. And the projects may give you some real excitement if you've been a total wuss your whole life.

I was very excited when I saw this book suggested by Amazon. I read the first few pages online, and was very intrigued. Gurstelle has done his research, for sure. The opening pages discuss psychological theory about thrill seeking individuals, and is very well-written. His explanation about the manufacturing of gun powder seems as informative and cautionary as it should be. But when I got to the chapter about smoking cigarettes, I immediately thought, "Aw man - this is a hoax. I don't need advice about how and when to smoke. This is all about image. It's superficial." And truth be told, it turned me off so much, I haven't bothered to pick it up since I made it a few pages into this chapter. I skimmed the rest of the book, but found nothing that really grabbed me. Learning how and when to appear cool and rebellious is not what attracted me to this book, but if this is what you're looking for, this one might have some good leads.

Bill Gurstelle has done it again! This is an amazing, entertaining, disruptive, instructive guide to fun. You could call it the true "Dangerous Ideas For Boys" and Girls book... because Bill shows you how to do all the things Mama told you not to... and makes an exceptionally compelling case for why it is meritorious to do them!
The New York Times gave the book a glowing review today (June 10, 2009) which was well deserved. Never mind that, Bill taught me how to make a flamethrower ---perfectly safely, I promise :)--- and you can too. We live in an age where disruptive ides are critical to our future. Thank you, Bill! Moms and Dads: Buy the book for your kids! Give them the "license" to invent.

Last summer I saw the New York Times rave review of this book, and as a longtime fan of "Backyard Ballistics" I have really been looking forward to the read. Gurstelle's new book is like "Backyard Ballistics" with philosophy and style. It's great. And I don't think it really matters if you plan on making gunpowder, building any of these contraptions, or digesting any of these edibles -- you can stay in your armchair, away from your garage, and still love taking this tour of dangerous living. (For those on the adventurous side: great instructions, plenty of photos, clear diagrams, and, yes, flamethrowers.)

Absinthe and Flamethrowers builds a pretty good case for why adding a bit of dangerous living is a good thing that actually makes people happier than if they eschewed risk. It's probably not going to appeal to the meek, risk-avoiding side of the personality spectrum. Still, I'm not really that much of a risk taker and it sure made me at least start thinking about doing some of the semi risky stuff he advocates.
The author has written other books with lots of projects to try and they are all fun reads.
Some readers probably won't get the author's message, but I think they're the exception, not the rule. Decide for yourself!

In "Absinthe and Flamethrowers", how-to author Bill Gurstelle provides a guide to reducing the risk of some unusual DIY projects to tolerable levels.

The first section, "Why Live Dangerously?", offers an analysis of risk-taking personalities and the potential personal and social benefits of "edgeworking", as in "working on the edge" of safety. The second and main section, "How To Live Dangerously", gets to the meat of the subject via a series of practical projects in "Playing with Fire" (explosive devices and experiments), "Thrill Eating" (including the infamous fugu) and similar hazardous actitivies.

My inner purist requires me to note that while Gurstelle's history of Bartitsu, an Edwardian-era martial art, is largely accurate, his project for that section requires the reader to construct a shoulder-length hiking pole. Bartitsu stick fighting was, in fact, optimized for a 36" long walking stick, and the difference in length and weight does affect the practicality of certain self defense techniques. Also, significantly, the text offered as Bartitsu instruction in this chapter does not match the accompanying illustrations.

Special interest quibbles aside, "Absinthe and Flamethrowers" is a quick, fun read and offers a refreshingly pragmatic take on the benefits of "living dangerously".

Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously Wow, Science Fair Projects for grown-ups. A lot of fun to read with more than slightly dangerous revelations and some history thrown in. I didn't know that about saltpeter. Have fun with this book and learn something about yourself.