Customer Reviews

Big Secrets

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I don't understand some of these negative reviews. It's my impression that those reviewers were upset at Poundstone for telling about their secret organizations. All that aside, this book and its two sequels, Bigger Secrets and Biggest Secrets, are full of fascinating information you're not supposed to know. The formula for Coke, how to beat a lie detector test, how David Copperfield floated a ball, secret stuff on U.S. currency, etc. Poundstone also writes well. His prose has a touch of dry wit to it. This is an excellent book and hard to put down. In Bigger Secrets he blows the lid on how David Copperfield vanished the Statue of Liberty in 1983, which in my opinion is one of the most interesting things he's exposed. I wish he'd write 10 more sequels--I'd buy them all.

"Big Secrets" (and its sequel, "Bigger Secrets") are wonderful. The thing I like best about them is Poundstone's own honesty--he doesn't keep any secrets of his own. He tells you exactly _how_ he found out what he found out.

A Shriner may pledge that if he divulges the secrets of his order, he may incur "the penalty of having my eyeballs pierced to the center with a three-edged blade." But Poundstone discovered a Masonic supply house ("The Geo. Lauterer Corporation") that works by mail order and doesn't check ID, ordered a selection of titles, and tells us all of the inside skinny on IAOM and Tubal-Cain.

"Big Secrets" tells as much as Poundstone could find out about the secret formula for Coca-Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken. It tells how the Rorschach test works and how to cheat on it. It tells several methods by which magicians saw a woman in two (you see, one of them is patented, so if you write the patent office and ask for patent #1,458,575...)

"Bigger Secrets" is equally good, maybe better. I think my favorite is his description of what the Rosicrucians are really like, but his explanation of how David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty Vanish and his analysis of backward and "subliminal" messages in records and movies are also excellent.

I'm a librarian with over fifteen years' experience in my profession, and this is one of my favorite reference books. I find it more amusing than irritating that this book's rating has been driven down by, variously, a magician, a bitter would-be know-it-all, and a couple of Freemasons. The way that they respond to this book is probably one of the best testimonials to its relevance and quality.

The "big secrets" that Poundstone reveals are, in large part, not that difficult to discover on one's own. With all of the Masons walking around, there are bound to be a few that will blab about the sooper-seekrit initiation ceremonies. With all of the minimum-wage fast food workers, it has to be pretty easy to get a sample of the KFC chicken coating for analysis. With all of the magic books that have been written and published... you get the idea.

The real secret that Poundstone reveals in these instances is that they really aren't secrets, but have been promoted as such by those who benefit from the illusion of secrecy. The whole myth behind Coca-Cola, for example--that the formula is secret, that there's a secret ingredient "7X", that only two people know the formula, and they each only know part of it, and that they can't travel on the same plane--is pure corporate hogwash. The recipe for the syrup has been part of the public legal record for decades. The centuries-old initiation rites of the Masons are pretty much like the ones that you made up for your neighborhood "No Gurls Alowd" clubhouse when you were eight, only with somewhat better props. Stage magicians are still flogging the same tired tricks that were old when Houdini was a kid in Appleton, Wisconsin. And so on.

Naturally, some of the same people who want the general public to believe that these things are unknowable, save only to an initiated few, are upset that Poundstone stuck them between covers for anyone to read. But for the rest of us, who delight in discovery and the puncturing of myths, the book is a sheer blast.

Out of the three "Big Secrets" books, this one is the best. "Bigger Secrets" and "Biggest Secrets" have some great stuff in them as well, but there is also a lot of "so what?" information in them. Perhaps a little "padding". The first book, though, has some great stuff. Especially entertaining are the items about things you find on money and the info on Disneyland. Defenitely worth the read.

A must-have for human sponges, Big Secrets gives the low-down an all the important stuff in life. No, Walt Disney is not frozen, and yes, there ARE messages on records Mom doesn't want you to know about. Never mind about who shot JFK or Area 51 -- Big Secrets is truly the good stuff.

This book should have been subtitled "Uncensored Speculation About All Sorts of Stuff You Are Never Supposed to Know". I'm all for books that blow the whistle on supposedly secret things that should be public knowledge. I enjoy reading fun facts, esoteric trivia and "How do they do that?" kinds of books.

"Big Secrets" however, was pretty much a letdown. The section on foodstuffs was pure speculation. Poundstone had various samples of foods like KFC's coating, Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper sent to labs for analysis and lists their "probable" ingredients. While this is interesting, it is not necessarily a revelation of a big secret. I can make wild guesses based on bad science, too. Maybe I'm just bitter because I didn't think of compiling my guesses into a book and selling it to rubes for ten bucks.

But I digress.

Poundstone provides a section titled "Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain", which gives explanations for various magic tricks, most of which have become common knowledge since Fox's Masked Magician blew the whistle a couple of years ago, but we have to give the author credit for doing it first. Most people don't know that there are magician's trade magazines (just as there are carpenter's and car enthusiast's trade magazines) that you can buy at any well-stocked bookstore. Within the pages of these magazines you will find much of the same information included here, as well as advertisements for catalogs that will sell you any of the same tricks and kits for building many of the setups. No big secret, really, for anyone who takes the time to find it.

In a chapter called "Alice, Let's Cheat", Poundstone tells us how to master an eyechart, the Rorschach Inkblot Test and a Lie Detector. Now, while I can imagine information on the lie detector test being useful if I am ever charged with murder, I cannot even speculate on why someone would want to go to an optometrist's office and walk out with the wrong precription because they chose to use the secret knowledge gained from this book. Nor do I understand why someone would pay a psychiatrist big bucks to give them misleading information on the inkblot test. If you are the type of person to lie on a test of this kind during an employment interview, then all I can say is "good luck to you."

So. These are the "Big Secrets" William Poundstone reveals to us. While I cannot confess to being even slightly edified or better off for having read this book, I will say that it makes the time pass on an airplane very quickly, so it is of some use. The writing is entertaining, if snide, and people who are not inclined to open their eyes and observe the world around them will be educated and amused.

Yes, it's true that this book is over 20 years old and contains a bit of outdated information. So what? It's still an enormously entertaining read, and contains much information that is not outdated at all, such as the actual inkblots used in the Rorschach test. Putting together this sort of book a decade before the Google era was quite an accomplishment.

"Big Secrets" is also notable for its breadth of coverage and its selection of topics that are almost all interesting. The major weakness of Poundstone's later volumes in this series -- "Bigger Secrets" and "Biggest Secrets" -- is that they are much more uneven. Sure, it's great that "Bigger Secrets" was the first to publish the true recipe for Antoine's Oysters Rockefeller (parsley, olive oil, and capers are the main ingredients -- no spinach!), but the book as a whole is much less interesting that "Big Secrets."

Use this book as a fascinating, well-researched starting point and you won't be disappointed.

I read this book in the late 80's (as you can see it was published in 1985) and loved it. It was truely fascinating. Some of the people below who don't like it, are probably reading it 15 years later, and it is dated. Some of the information it gives which was a revelation back then, is not so impressive now. But I still find the section on secret radio frequencies fascinating. There's various short wave radio freqencies (at least there used to be)where anonymous voices read random numbers. Probably spy stuff.

Did you know that the seductive essence of KFC's secret blend of herbs and spices is nothing more than pepper and MSG? Yikes, no wonder I can chow down the 12-piece box in one sitting!

Author William Poundstone provides a wide variety of esoteric knowledge in BIG SECRETS - everything from an analysis of Coca Cola, an explanation of bar codes and the Rorschach (inkblot) Test, an interminable listing of "secret" radio frequencies, the truth about subliminal shots in movies and ostensibly secret messages in popular song tracks, and an answer to the question "Is Walt Disney's corpse frozen?".

The range of topics in this book is wide, and for that I'd award five stars. However, though I'm reasonably intrigued by the arcane technology of printing currency, the magician's technique of sawing a woman in half, and whether or not there's two-year old fish in Worcestershire Sauce or a secret bank in Beverly Hills, I couldn't care less about the secret ingredients in high-end perfumes, the details of Freemason initiation rites, the method behind the Amazing Kreskin's feats of telepathy, or how playing cards are "marked". And that's the book's biggest problem. While there's likely to be something of interest for everyone in its pages, not everything will be of interest to the individual reader. Therefore, since I read for entertainment, BIG SECRETS is, for me, only a three-star entertainment vehicle. Also, since the book was originally published in 1983, twenty-one years ago - it's woefully outdated. I mean, nothing is mentioned about a secret email address for Bill Gates or what Martha Stewart does when she goes slumming.

According to Poundstone, 7-Up is the only major soft drink with no "secret" ingredients. Maybe that's why the beverage is so boring.

I was expecting more intriguing subjects, although I did enjoy some of the entries. Some were overly analytical; some were not interesting at all. I don't think it's worth the $9.99 price. I recommend waiting until the price drops before buying.