Customer Reviews

Pirattitude!: So you Wannna Be a Pirate?: Here's How!

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yes, yes (or "aye," if you're gonna be like that), it's funny, shipmates. The authors Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket are the same witty piratical pundits who appear on NPR every International Talk Like A Pirate Day (they founded it, not incidentally) and they do not disappoint--far from it.

Here's the thing I did not expect about the book, and loved: This book educates you, when you're not looking, on pirate history. Can you name the Seven Seas? My doubloon says you can't. The answer is in "Pirattidue" along with a heaping of similarly fascinating bits. It also educates you on how to be a pirate. For real. Yes, you might need a time machine to hone your technique, but if you're interested in how it was done, you won't be disappointed. And if you don't find this interesting, you'll be proven wrong.

I liked this book overall. It has a mix of handy tips for acting like a pirate, like a pirate-name-generator and pirate party games. It also has interesting pirate factoids and trivia at various points in the margins. Also, the authors usually project the right mix of enthusiasm and self-deprecation to keep the book fun.

That said, it is still a bit of a stretch to turn this material into a complete book. I would stack my pirate street cred (ship cred?) up against anyone's. I've given a 45-minute lecture to medical residents in full regalia and voice, and yet even I was finding that the schtick was getting a bit old by the end.

Bottom line - this is a great gift for the pirate in your life. If you personally know a swarthy dog, or have a friend who likes to go by the name "Black Dave", then this would be the perfect thing to give them on "Talk Like A Pirate Day". Five stars if that is why you are buying. If, on the other hand, you are just a casual reader with little interest in a silly pirate book, then 2-3 stars would be about right.

If you want to learn to not only talk like a pirate, but swagger, swear, cook, pickup women, tell the future, throw a party and lots more like a pirate, these guys have a book for you! The guys who invented "International Talk Like a Pirate Day" have written the funniest book about men (and some women) who stole and killed for a living I've ever read. There's lots of quizzes and tests - but nothing that you need to take seriously. It's all in fun, and these guys seem to have fun in bunches.

Learn how to find your inner pirate. It'll change your life! And with Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket as your guides, you'll laugh a lot too.

The NY Times says pirate attacks are on the rise world-wide, so I decided to get me some Pirattitude as a defense. I am sure glad I did -- very useful. And very witty.

Great book for an funny evening read.

We chose to give copies of this book as gifts for Christmas and the responses from our friends and family have been unanimously positive. I would recommend it for all of the wanna-be pirates in your life.

Arrr! This is one funny book. Reading it will make you laugh, so don't drink your rum at the same time. When I read the last page and closed the cover, I knew that Pirattitude had changed my life!

Well, I thought after Popeye had fled the scene, there would be nothing left to live for -- man was I wrong!!!! This short book captures the madcap whimsy that IS being a pirate. I highly recommend Pirattitude to anyone looking for a cleverly written, funny book about the hi-jinks of those crazy pirate people.

I could be clever and write this whole review in "pirate-speak" to show the comedic nature of this book, but I'm just not going to. Two guys, "Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket", managed to come up with a mini-phenomenon with Talk Like a Pirate Day(TLAPD) [celebrated on September 19] due to the promotional help of Dave Barry. This humor book attempts to take you aside and teach you 'pirattitude' so that you may fully support TLAPD. At no point do these two claim to be experts on the Age of Piracy, quite the opposite, in fact they outright tell you that there was no real fact checking of any kind that took more than two minutes. So largely, this is based upon Hollywood pirates and what can be deemed common knowledge of pirate history. This is really nothing but a bunch of humorous bits crammed together to promote TLAPD but these guys also make no claims that it is really anything else but that. It's light adult humor and if your expecting anything more than it serves you right to be mad about "wasting my money". I knew this was going to be nothing deep and that's what you get, it's a bit like reading a stand-up comic routine rather than watching it.

Overall, it's sophomoric humor but still enjoyable and is here to try and lighten people up to partake in the ludicrous-yet-fun phenom of Talk Like a Pirate Day. If you expect anything more than you shall be deservingly pummeled with fists and forehead.

This had a few funny bits, but I think I only laughed out loud twice. The second half of the book was painful, it had gotten so predictable. I could have finished it for them. For humor, it relied almost exlusively on turning everything pirate-related into a sexual joke. It got old fast.

Style-wise, they try very, very hard to be Dave Barry - even going so far as to suggest that a funny phrase is a good name for a rock band. I suggest that you skip this effort and go straight to the original, who makes me laugh out loud on nearly every page.

Piratitude. You may be thinking to yourself, "What is that?" Or you may be smart enough to have figured it out by yourself first. In any case, I'm going to explain it to you in the best way I can. Piratitude, simply put (There is a far better definition in the book than I could ever think up) is to be a Pirate and to know it.

When you are a Pirate you will experience many life altering side effects. You will hold yourself in the highest esteem, you will do things you never thought you could do before, you will have so much fun that sometimes, it hurts. But it's all worth it in the end. Being a Pirate is one of those pleasures in life that everyone should experience but not everyone can...

...Until now! "Piratitude! So You Wanna Be A Pirate? Here's How!" The book states, luring you into the world that John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur and Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers have created. A wonderful world full of intrigue, adventure, and more than a fair share of booty! If you are one of the many who want to become a Pirate in the best sense of the word, then you need to pick up this book. You'll be partying like a rock star (A rock star Pirate, imagine that) before you can say "Hoist the belaying pins!" Why you would have to say that in the first place, I'm unsure. But I am sure of one thing. If you want to be a Pirate, you need to pick up this book.