The World's Worst: A Guide to the Most Disgusting, Hideous, Inept, and Dangerous People, Places, and Things on Earth [Paperback]

Mark Frauenfelder (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2005

Bookstore shelves are lined with tomes dedicated to the finest things that life has to offer. This is all well and good, but the real entertainment is to be found not in the cream of the crop, but at the bottom of the barrel. The World's Worst is a celebration/indictment of nearly 50 infamous and little-known exemplars of the awful. In thoroughly researched, scathingly funny essays, author Mark Frauenfelder avoids the obvious and digs deep to tell the fascinating tales of the worst people, places, and things on Earth for the reader's amusement and edification. Half of the entries are also mischieviously illustrated by the author. Addictively readable, and sure to appeal to fans of the popular Worst-Case Scenario and Darwin Awards series, The World's Worst is hilariously unafraid to wallow in the mire.

Selected Horrible Highlights:
Most Unappealing Fetish
Most Disgusting Coffee Drink
Most Horrific Self-Help Technique
Least Adorable Pet
Saddest Fate for an Island Nation
Worst Molasses Related Disaster

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mark Frauenfelder is the author and illustrator of Mad Professor (0-8118-3554-5) and has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times , LA Weekly , Wired , and Playboy . Co-founder of the popular bOING bOING weblog, he lives in Southern California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (May 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811846067
• ISBN-13: 978-0811846066
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,394,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a writer and illustrator living in Los Angeles. I am the editor-in-chief of MAKE magazine (http://makezine.com) I co-founded bOING bOING magazine, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Wired Online. I write a monthly column for Playboy called 'Living Online,' and was the co-editor of The Happy Mutant Handbook (Putnam-Berkley, 1995). Find out more about me at http://boingboing.net

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Short Book on a Long Subject, July 10, 2005

By 

William Holmes "semloh2287" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The World's Worst: A Guide to the Most Disgusting, Hideous, Inept, and Dangerous People, Places, and Things on Earth (Paperback)

"The World's Worst" is really entertaining as far as it goes, but a cursory review of this morning's newspaper suggests that it should have been a much longer book. Still, each of the book's fifty short chapters is quite witty and enoyable to read. Among the entries: kopi luwak, the world's most disgusting beverage, which involves processing coffee beans through the digestive tract of a civet cat (can't wait to order that at Starbucks); the most disgusting fruit (the durian, "like eating ice cream in a sewer"); the most gruesome bug bite (revenge of the brown recluse spider); the worst-smelling flower ("corpse flower" says it all); the world's worst molasses-related disaster (it killed 21 people in Boston in January 1919, so apparently "molasses in January" isn't so slow after all); the most disgusting behavior on an airplane (I think I'd rather take my chances with the civet cat); and the lamest former dictator (now living on his Mom's couch).

"The World's Worst" is light, fluffy, entertaining and a quick read. And it's very sequel-friendly--the next volume(s) will no doubt be just as amusing.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A lot of filler, July 5, 2005

By 

J. LeBrecht (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The World's Worst: A Guide to the Most Disgusting, Hideous, Inept, and Dangerous People, Places, and Things on Earth (Paperback)

Indeed, this book made me laugh and grossed me out. All good, in my opinion.

My beef is that although the book is 176 pages long, it really has about half of that in content. Each "chapter/entry" starts off with a whole page dedicated to a sentance stating what the subject is, "Most Disgusting Drink", for example. Then the entry usually starts off in the middle of the next page. The lay out of this book makes it seem like it's a lot longer than it really is. Take a look at the example. I would have hoped for a longer tome.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It Can Always Get Worse, January 14, 2007

By 

J. Brian Watkins (Laie, Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The World's Worst: A Guide To The Most Disgusting Hideous; Inept, And Dangerous People, Places, And Things On Earth (Paperback)

Mr. Frauenfelder has scoured the globe for interesting bits of trivia related solely by their ability to horrify. Whether natural perils or stomach turning drunken antics, the book holds one's attention. Perhaps in reading of such events and things we can take solace in our normal and safe lives. Seriously, who first decided to make a drink out of berries scavenged from the dung of a wild cat? Who first opened a fruit that smells like rotting flesh and decided to taste it?

My only complaint was that the format was extremely limited. Perhaps in keeping with the jocular tone of the work the author didn't want to get into too much detail, but detail is precisely what makes many of these things fascinating.

If you have a friend or acquaintance who is discouraged, this would be an excellent gift. Perhaps we have an innate need to constantly reestablish that things can always be worse.