Customer Reviews

Mental Floss Presents Be Amazing: Glow in the Dark, Control the Weather, Perform Your Own Surgery, Get Out of Jury Duty, Identify a Witch, Colonize a ... Girl, Make a Zombie, Start Your Own Religion

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

 

 

I most definitely don't regret purchasing this book, albeit for the wrong reasons (free t-shirt). This book was funny and informative to say the least, but it is not a how-to or self-help, which I was led to believe. I don't know how other Mental Floss books are (so maybe I could have known what to expect), but I can imagine they are just like this one: an amusing facts book.

This book has great and wonderfully random facts and info (mainly historical), like how to get out of jury duty (one of the few useful facts), or the real deal behind ninjas (WARNING: if you love ninjas, this might be a little too informative), or even how to get out of quicksand (another rare useful tid-bit). I would recommend it as a bathroom or coffee table book, but that is not to say it was poor quality. Just a very light (-hearted) read.

This was purchased for someone who was recovering from cancer surgery. It is a great "get well" gift because it is a bit unusal and brings a smile to your face just reading the cover. I told her I wanted her to use this healing time constructively - learning to make herself invisible, to glow in the dark, and to start her own religion and such. :)

Informative and funny. I was worried it would be stuff I've already read from the magazines and other books but it is unique. I really enjoy it.

The Be Amazing book is fantastic. It's like one of those teachers from high-school that just knew everything about anything. I haven't finished it yet, but I carry it around with me so whenever I get a few minutes to sit down I can read another section. I've even shared some sections with my friends and they love it too.

Once again, my favorite magazine has produced a witty, interesting read with the added bonus of making me feel smarter. No complaints here.

Be Amazing is a truly fun flipper of a book filled with "must know" information such as How To Be a Teen Idol (According to Tutankhamen and David Cassidy), How to Know Everything (according to a university student named Smellie) and my own personal favorite: How to Convince Others to Do Your Bidding.

You will buy this book.

You will buy this book.

You will buy this book.

(Thank you.)

First off, I absolutely love Mental Floss magazine, so check this mag out if you've not done so already. As far as the book "Be Amazing" I have to say I was not very impressed. I really, really, wanted the book to be good, but I kept finding myself saying "this is just dumb". I was hoping it would be more like the magazine and it is nothing like the magazine. I'm also reading "History of the World" that was released by Mental Floss and this book is incredible, thus far. Check that out if your looking for a good Mental Floss type of book (chock full of knowledge and written in a very entertaining way).

Largely a collation of ways people have done the things listed, rather than a clever "how-to" book it purports to be. Sometimes interesting, but overall disappointing and not even very funny.

While I certainly wasn't expecting to learn all the things this book purports to teach, I did at least expect the book to be relatively on-topic. The author clearly wants to hook us with the title and the chapter headings, but what follows in each case is a vaguely-related collection of historical anecdotes that fail to deliver what the title advertises.

Here's one example of the strange pattern which repeats itself over and over again throughout the book: there's a chapter called "impress your in-laws." Sounds like a useful skill, right? The author tells a story about a Japanese rite-of-passage for young adults who are turning twenty that introduces them to society. Very interesting story about a random tidbit of Japanese culture, yes .... BUT ...

... One, this was NOT INSTRUCTIVE, which kind of contradicts the supposed thrust of this book. And two, perhaps more importantly, this has nothing to do with in-laws or even with impressing anybody!

This happens again and again, in more ways than I could cover here.

What it boils down to is, the author knows a lot about history, anthropology, etc. Whatever. She has a lot of random information to impart, she wrapped it in a way that she thought would hook someone reading the title, but didn't care that her packaging is a totally inaccurate representation of the contents of the book, which for my money, is basically dishonesty in advertising.

Now, maybe I'm missing some kind of hip, ironic, non-sequitorial approach to humor that everyone else who found this book through BoingBoing.net understands better than me, but I'm not buying it (except that I did).

Whatever the author's rationale, this book jumps completely off the rails ... into a mildly annoying brand of incoherence.

It takes a lot of work and imagination to be someone other people want to remember for all time. We're not talking about eating-a-lot-of-hot-dogs or profiled-by-People-magazine level of awesomeness. We're talking about being the type of person to the history books for learning to grow meat, becoming a superhero, or ruling with an iron fist.

There are plenty of self-help books out there that teach you about building your self-esteem, but that's nothing compared to learning the secret of time travel (hint: head for the future) or walking on fire (know your physics; ashes make great insulators for your tootsies).

For those who want to become the epitome of awesomness, "Be Amazing" is for you. Written by contributors to the Mental Floss website, it's a lot like Cecil Adams' "Straight Dope" books, which combines questions people really want to know the answers to with the research to back it up, plus ample amounts of humor.

For example, to find the mate of your dreams, "Be Amazing" draws on studies of hormonal behavior showing that women prefer very masculine men (considered unfaithful but hot in bed) to have flings with -- think Christian Bale or Alley Oop -- but marry men with softer features, considered better at childrearing and faithful (think Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp).

In addition, the illustrations by Mike Rogalski take the text and put a twisted spin on them -- such as putting a huge Swiss army knife in the hand of a duelist, dressing a llama in a hazmat suit and dressing Andy Warhol stocking grocery store shelves (with Campbell's soup, natch) -- that adds another level of fun.

As a self-help book, it shouldn't be taken seriously (unless you really do want to learn how to drive a tank, or become an American icon). But if you ever need to know how to operate on yourself, build an inland sea, become a ninja or become an American icon, "Be Amazing" will show you how. It won't be easy; it may even be freakin' impossible; but it will be amazing.