Customer Reviews

Panati's Extraordinary Endinggs Of Practically Everything And Everybody

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am amazed at how often I have to return to this book for information. It's unbelievable how often you'll need to look up information about plagues, wills, cemetaries, etc. Contains info about death, sex practices, extinctions, capital punishment, etc. Everything you ever wanted to know about death and dying!

This is one of the most amazing books in my library. It's a little macabre -- part one, "Last Things First", starts with the chapter on Death. But the descriptions of the last hours of many noteworthy people are worth the price of the book alone, and that's only a small part of the book.

My only complaint is that it's a little too thorough where American presidents are concerned -- this bit drags, in stark contrast to everything else in the book.

I am disappointed to see that it's out of print.

You want death,doom and massive body counts? Then this book is for you. Where else can you learn about how many people died of the black plauge, thyphoid Mary and all the glorious comunnicable contagens? It's all here. Too bad it's out of print.

Like I have said before, I love Charles Panati's books! This, in my opinion, is one of his best ones. Very informative, as are all of his books. Great information in the right amount on every subject you could possibly want to know about death including how different forms of death were created such as the electric chair and guillotine, last will and testament of such historical figures as Hitler and Shakespeare and all the American presidents, list of the leading killing diseases and their origin, extinct animals, examining life span and the deterioration of the senses, thanatographies and much more! Anybody interested in this kind of stuff should deffinately buy this book.

I loved Panati's "beginnings" book so I thought, gosh, how bad could the endings be? Well, it wasn't bad - I gave it three stars after all. It was just a lot less exciting and enjoyable than beginnings.

To a degree it's because the endings are less joyful as occasions than beginnings. Everyone loves beginnings, but when things come to an end it's usually not because they were still thriving and successful. So, in and of itself this book was bound to be a little darker. Just hoped it wouldn't have been THIS different from the 'beginnings' book.

it's an interesting book filled with little known details about death and other endings. i was at a loss as to what rating to give the book. he wasted time on the extinctions, though he picked the largest extinctions, they are also some of the dullest. Too many pages were spent on wills and other mundane thing. but, when he discussed the deaths and last words of famous people throughout history, the book really picked up. but i can see how much research he put into the book, so i gave him four stars instead of three.