MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time [Paperback]

Keith Zimmerman (Author), Kent Zimmerman (Author), Jamie Hyneman (Contributor), Adam Savage (Contributor), Peter Rees (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2005

Leave no urban myth untested.

Could you kill someone by dropping a penny from a skyscraper? Can an unsuspecting scuba diver be sucked out of the water by a firefighting helicopter and get spit out in the middle of a forest fire? Can you save yourself in a plummeting elevator by jumping just before it hits bottom?

Special effects experts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, hosts of the Discovery Channel's top-rated "MythBusters, " use modern-day extreme science to show you what's real and what's fiction. With photographs, illustrations, blueprints, and exclusive interviews to document the mythbusting process, "MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time" will examine dozens of urban legends, from exploding toilets to being buried alive -- these guys have tested them all. Eye-opening, jaw-dropping, and even laugh-inducing, this book will delight armchair scientists, curious readers, and fans of the show alike. Keith and Kent Zimmerman are the "New York Times" bestselling coauthors of Hell's Angel and The Best Damn Sports Book, Period, among others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Gallery Books; Original edition (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141690929X
• ISBN-13: 978-1416909293
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #491,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-done book based on a great show!, January 3, 2007

By 

Readz Alot (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time (Paperback)

I've only caught MythBusters a few times on tv, but enjoy it enough to have shelled out for the book. It's fun to be able to read about their efforts without having to go to the effort to remember when the show is on tv ...
Well written, with the same sense of humor and fun that Adam and Jamie display on the air.
(And, for the reviewer who panned the book because she 'didn't know it was based on a tv show,' ... why should you blame the book because you didn't read the description? The summary very clearly states what the book is about, and what it's based on!)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great pictures and myths- should come out with more of these, December 30, 2006

By 

Jimbobwe - See all my reviews

This review is from: MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time (Paperback)

This is a fun little book with great color pictures and interesting myths. One could be tempted to skip through all the writing about what they actually did during the show and just read if the myth's busted. Very interesting and easy to just flip through- certainly don't need to read it cover to cover.

Considering these 30 myths were probably from about 20 of their many episodes, they should come out with more books like this so people who don't get the Discovery Channel (like me) and can only catch it occasionally somewhere else can read up on the myths in these nifty books.

20 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother if you watch the show on TV, January 7, 2007

By 

Jim Janecek - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time (Paperback)

If you don't watch TV, then you might find this book vaguely interesting.
But I got this for an XMAS gift and I watch the show on TV. I found this book to be redundant at best.

Other than a bit of background info on the hosts and the producer, there is absolutely nothing in this book that you won't find on the TV shows.

All the info they cover is just a re-hash of each episode from the TV show, and given the choice, the TV show version is much much better than a print version that literally has low-resolution "screenshots" from the episodes to illustrate.

I was also surprised to find the last 11 pages of the book Absolutely Blank!
This was not a mis-print, it was probably cheaper to print the book with those pages left blank than to physically leave them out. The authors could not get enough information to fill in the blank sections?

The book seems to be a rush-job that just capitalizes on the popularity of the TV show.
The TV series this book is based on illustrates everything in the book MUCH clearer than the book itself.

Given the option, buy or rent the DVDs of the TV series and forget about this book.