Customer Reviews

Mental Floss: Genius Instruction Manual

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

 

 

The GENIUS INSTRUCTION MANUAL is the latest book from those fun and crazy people at Mental Floss, the magazine and publishing organization that tries to make trivia and learning cool (well, they are as close to cool as a trivia organization can get). Following the pattern from other Mental Floss books, e.g. COCKTAIL PARTY CHEATS, GENIUS INSTRUCTION MANUAL is full of little informational tidbits to make you at least appear to be a genius after reading the book. The book starts off with some of the hobbies that famous geniuses of the past have had as well some pastimes that famous geniuses have had that led to their ultimate demise. There's a section about time travel, modernism vs. postmodernism, the basics of rocket science, famous artists, string theory, relativity, famous artists, and some great savants of history. There are also sections on how to dress like a right-brained genius and how to dress like a left-brained genius. About every twenty pages or so, there's a page that tells you how far you are to becoming a genius, e.g. "Congratulations! You are now 60% of the way toward full-fledged Genius." I found the GENIUS INSTRUCTION MANUAL to be a very educational, entertaining, and rewarding book. I learned some things I didn't know before. For instance, I never knew that Beethoven probably suffered from lead poisoning. A great gift for any person who likes learning and who has a sense of humor (smart people with no funny-bone wouldn't get this book), e.g. a gag gift for college students.

I've read other books by the same author, and would honestly rate this much less interesting. It doesn't really go into anything or any subject, with any depth; so don't expect to become a genuis. It will tell you which people owned dogs, then jump to who played mucsical instrutments. I find it difficult to stay focused, and honestly just skip boring pages. However, perhaps that's why I was able to purchase it for only $3.00 dollars new.

This book is a quick read but lots of fun. It has interesting trivia, short overviews on a lot of topics. It continues to demonstrate why "Mental Floss" is such a fun magazine with off the wall, smart humor.

I love mental_floss and this book has a lot in it to love: quirky little factoids with irreverent little asides, all written to read quickly for those of us with short attention spans. (My favorite fact in this book is Pablo Picasso's real full name - whew!) However, the book also exemplifies mental_floss' shortcomings as a provider of reliable information. The sheer number of typos and grammatical errors makes one wonder about the quality of fact checking, as does the mathematical explanation that contains an incorrect calculation (whoops). As I usually do when I read the magazine, I wish they would cite their sources, so that I could check for myself when something they write makes me say, "Really?"

Bought as a little holiday gift for my son. He loves mental floss and this one did not disappoint.

Easy to read, fun, interesting, and informative. Great for car trips... or on an end-table... or in the bathroom, lol.

Not nearly as interesting as the Intellectual Devotional books. Kind of amusing but also a bit juvenile. I know they are trying to keep things interesting, especially some dry topics. It's a fun read but I can't recommend buying it. Get it from the library.

For anyone who is addicted to Jeopardy or likes to show off their vast knowledge of all things this is the perfect guide to help you achieve a higher level of "geniushood". It gives interesting and enlightening tidbits on a vast array of topis (rocket science to Shakespeare). This book really win take your genius to infinity and beyond. If you are smart you will purchase immediately, if your not then this isn't the book for you anyway...

This is a shallow, often incorrect, not very funny attempt at a trivia book. As a rule I don't expect trivia books to be examples of great literature. I mean, come on, they were designed as call of nature reading. However, I am a stickler for them being correct. There were too many errors I caught off the top of my head in this text to believe that there were not many more I did not catch. As its premise is that it presents interesting facts, the admission of quite a few incorrect statements, especially in the arts area, was an irk I could not get over.
Even if the book had every fact correct, I would still only rate it 3 stars as the idiotic (meant to be humorous, but not successful at it) premise of the book being a step by step guide to becoming a genius falls flat, and detracts from the work as a whole.
There are better books to read on the toilet out there. I would not get this one.