Customer Reviews

The Experts' Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book contains instructions on how to do 100 things in right around 300 pages. Do the math. Each subject is treated at a pretty high level, unless it's something limited in scope, such as tying a Windsor knot.

The brevity made the book fun to read. I did find some useful gems: Manage Your Time by Stephen Covey, Swim by Summer Sanders, Make a Toast by Carley Roney, among many others. Other essays were cheeky and amusing: Tell a Story (Ira Glass), Tell a Joke (Howie Mandel), Tie a Bow Tie (Tucker Carlson).

Some essays could have used illustrations (or for those that had illustrations, better ones): Do Push-Ups and Sit Ups, Hold a Baby, Fly a Flag. Others were just not helpful: for Swing a Golf Club, Jim McLean tells us to take lessons; for Conduct a Background Investigation, Terry Lenzner says we should hire a pro. Huh?

Finally, there were the essays that might describe the best way to do something, but it's a process I know I'll never follow. For example, I'll just have to go through life never applying lipstick correctly, because I just have better things to do with my time.

Despite (or maybe because of) its unevenness, the book was fun to read. Because all the essays were short, I got through it pretty quickly, too (especially after reading the essay on speed-reading).

If you're looking for a little amusement where you might actually learn a few things, you won't be disappointed.

This book is like some sort of delicious, chocolatey, rich dessert - I want to consume it as slowly as possible because it is so good! Every time I pick it up I have plans to read just a couple of chapters, but so far, find myself intrigued to keep reading just ONE more, and then just ONE more.............finally I force myself to stop at six or seven chapters - I don't want it to end too soon. While I have learned many, many new things, my favorite so far is the chapter on how to wash hair - all these years, more than 10,000 hair washings, and I never knew you should alternate shampoos several times each week. Something so simple, but makes a big difference. Mmmmmmmmmm..........wonder what I'll learn tomorrow!

What a great idea! This book provides advice from 100 of the world's leading experts in their field. Larry King writes "How to Listen". Donald Trump writes "How to Negotiate". Peggy Post writes "How to set a formal dining table". The Head Groundskeeper of Fenway Park writes "How to mow a lawn". The first American to summit Mount Everest writes "How to keep warm". The chapters are addictive and topics range from a couture wedding dress designer teaching us how to sew a button to the head of the Center for Disease Control telling us the right way to wash our hands. This is not a serious, overly detailed "how to book" --- each of the 100 chapters provides a fun 3-4 page overview. Even in the areas that I thought I knew it all I learned a whole bunch of new tidbits.

This is a good little guide by various authorities in their fields, even if they don't go into a lot of depth. I especially liked the chapter on speed reading, and while it wasn't an "Evelyn Woods Reading Dynamics Course", it was pretty effective for me. Ira Glass' chapter on how to tell a story was fun and concise, also.

This is not meant to be a ponderous guide to life, just a collection of helpful tips by various experts. If you know all this infomation already, get the book for clueless teenagers you might know.

It's an interesting book, but most of the things you already know through common sense. And some of the things they supposedly show you how to do, are just very vague lists of ideas, such as Donald Trump's "How to Negotiate". With a list of 10 items telling you how to negotiate, they range from "know waht you want to "the key is knowing when to loosen up." Also, "Be open to change" and "Trust your instincts". None of these things tell me anything I didn't already about how to negotiate, and I don't know how to negotiate! I thought this would be a step-be-step how-to book and it really is pretty generic and unhelpful. I mean, Frederick Fekkai tells us how to wash our hair and says we must do it every day and his tips are helpful, but honestly, I don't think everyone SHOULD wash their hair every single day, I think it's often more damaging if your hair is dry, and I thought he would talk about different hair types and things like that. I guess I just thought the book would be broader in its descriptions than it is considering the author got all "experts" to do the writing. Plus it's a little boring.

Don't we all share Samantha's sentiment that "the list of things I don't know only seems to be growing as I discover how much more there is to learn"?? The Experts' Guide is an excellent way to relieve some of the stress from all the things we keep putting off to learn when we have "more free time". In just a few fun minutes you can become your own tailor, learn how to properly pick up your rice with chop sticks, and absolve your guilt from jumping straight to the Sunday Styles when reading the newspaper. This book definitely has something for everyone & is certainly the perfect gift when you just don't know what to get!!

A few months ago, my wife and I bought our first car together and I insisted on getting a stick shift, figuring I could teach her how to drive it in a few short hours. Well, I was wrong, and now my wife never wants to drive the thing. So when I thumbed through this book at the bookstore last week and saw the chapter on how to drive a stick shift, I had to get it for her. And let me tell you, it's been a big help -- we went driving this weekend so my wife could practice what she learned, and she was more comfortable than she'd ever been! I guess sometimes it's easier for people to learn stuff at their own pace, and The Experts Guide was just the ticket. We were both happy to find many other useful nuggets of information, all presented in quick, entertaining bites. Am I satisfied with this book? You betcha...now my wife can drive herself to the grocery store!

Presumably, everyone already knows how to breathe and make a bed. Clearly, there's another point to this book other than to teach you how-to. Reading this little gem is something like watching an episode of Monk: you share in the madness of people who pay attention to aspects of the mundane and turn the quotidian into a form of art. Sure, some tips are funnier than others. You will laugh if you enjoy the absurd. You will be puzzled and disappointed if you take things literally. But really, don't you know how to wash your hair?!

This book is an example of a good idea that didn't quite make it. The idea is having many experts in their fields teach how to do many things, and to arrange all this advice in a book. However, in doing so, a book is created for which there is not much use! A book like this would normally have two uses---one would be something to read through for fun, and the other would be to use as a reference. I tried reading through this for fun, and it just wasn't fun. The subjects were not one that were interesting just to read about, if you weren't planning on doing them----some examples are tying a tie, washing a car, buying a diamond, changing your oil---good topics, but not really fun to read about! On the other hand, it would be a rare occasion you would be able to use this book to actually look something up when the need arises---for example, how often do we look in a book to learn to swim, or drive a stick shift, or tell a joke, or wash a car? Those are things you usually learn along way from others, and even if you were in need of learning how to do them, I don't think you'd usually look in a book to find out how. And it would be hit or miss if the topic you needed was covered here---100 may seem like a lot of topics, but how many millions more would you NOT find here? That said, each individual topic seems well done, and I appreciate the fact that each is done by someone who really knows what they are talking about. I wish I could give this book a better review, but I really can't recommend spending your money on something that would get so little actual use.

After reading it at the store, I bought a copy for each of my four children, and one for me. Now I can say to myself, "I have taught them everything they need to know." And at 55, I open the book to find the things my parents did not teach me. I will be buying any new follow-up as well. Maybe I missed something.

Bob Kumse