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 [Paperback] [2009] (Author) Maggie Koerth-Baker, Will...

by Maggie Koerth-Baker

Be amazing

Who says you can't? It's time to get off the couch and take your life to the next level.

Step one: stand on the shoulders of geniuses

What good are the world's greatest geniuses if you can't muddy their shoulder pads and use their accomplishments as a step stool? mental_floss has combed through every success story in history to deliver this ultimate how-to guide for climbing your way to greatness.

Step two: bask in the glow of admiring fans

Whether you want to glow in the dark, swallow a sword, quit smoking, find Atlantis, live forever, get out of jury duty, buy the Moon, sink a battleship, stop global warming, become a ninja, or simply be the center of the universe, Be Amazing covers all the essential life skills. Just absorb a few pages, then let the hero worship begin!

You will need:


A hunger for greatness
Some duct tape
This book
You may want:


Sidekicks and/or minions
An impressive nickname
An amazing outfit

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Reference, Trivia, History, Self Help, Comedy

Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[jv poore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've missed my Mental Floss magazine. This filled the void beautifully and my brain is so much better for it. Thanks to Polly, because good friends give the best books.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haven’t you always wanted to be amazing? Be Amazing offers up dozens of ways to achieve this goal from being a teen idol and wrestling an alligator to winning a duel and drinking like a caveman. Though the writing style is light, most entries contain genuine (if impractical) stories of how people throughout history have attempted to make their mark on the world. Want to be a loveable eccentric? Read about Joshua Norton, the self-proclaimed Emperor of the United States who was so beloved by the people of San Francisco that he received free room and board until his death. If you’re thinking of something amazing on a smaller scale why not quit smoking in the tradition of the citizens on Nabila, Fiji? The process involves chain-smoking, a mild hallucinogen, and some rather unpleasant reprimands.
You won’t be able to resist laughing over and sharing these stories.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book, full of factoids and interesting info. Fun to discuss with friends and family. I started reading this one day and left it on the table. The next time I picked it up, my husband had a bookmark in there, too. Then my oldest daughter. My husband had a dream that night that he picked it up to read and there were 6 bookmarks, one for each member of the family. That idea isn't unreasonable. We all enjoyed it.

There were some instances when I wanted to take a red pen to it. It had some basic usage errors, notably "who's" frequently in place of "whose." This didn't effect my overall enjoyment of the book, but it did make me feel like it was thrown together. More careful editing would make it seem more reliable and professional.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book. It was long and took a while to finish but it was remarkably easy and fun to read. It was full of interesting facts that I wouldn't expect to find in more "serious" history collections. It's a lot of fun and gives you great ice breakers for parties. i.e. Robinson Crusoe was based on a true story, the origins of the phrase "running like a chicken with it's head cut off," and how to leave a beautiful corpse behind years after you're dead (it's not as morbid as that sounds). In addition to being entertaining and informative, it's also funny. Many of the articles are written with a certain amount of sarcastic wit making it more amusing than dry.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book can give you conversation icebreakers for the rest of your life. It's full of odd facts, bizarre stories and unforgettably wacky characters. This is a perfect book for someone with a busy schedule, because the stories are bite-sized and convenient to pick up and put down and get absorbed into the next story.

I read it over breakfast for a couple of weeks - it's just like reading the back of cereal box!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this might just be my favorite of all the mental_floss books. And because of this book, I am even *more* amazing than I was before.

[Kolbe Wolniakowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book really fast. It was funny and full of information that I didn't know and there were times when I laughed right out loud. I would recommend this book to anyone.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactly what mental_floss is good for -- random stories with information you otherwise would've never found out. My mind that oh so loves trivia oh so loved this book.

[Leew49 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Branwell Bronte, brother of Emily and Charlotte, never amounted to much. Mice that eat one-third fewer calories live one-third longer lives. The Quaker cereal company once put deeds to one square inch of the Yukon territory in their cereal boxes. The claim that humans use only one-tenth of their brain is based on bad science, but that did not stop Einstein and Margaret Mead from repeating it. After proposing to six different women and being refused all six times, Beethoven moved into a brothel.

Fans of the website mental_floss have long known that truth is not only stranger than fiction, it's a whole lot funnier. BE AMAZING, set up as a parody of self-help books, is a remarkably entertaining collection of odd facts and unforgettable stories. The authors describe it as the "ultimate how-to guide for climbing your way to greatness." Well, the deliberate hyperbole is hard to miss, but that's no reason to miss some very enjoyable reading. The chapters are short enough to be read in a few minutes apiece (perfect for TV commercial breaks) and have enough eyebrow-raising potential to justify annoying your spouse (as I did) with countless anecdotes and out of the way facts.

As far as climbing your way to greatness, well, you might want to be selective as to which chapters you decide to take to heart. Drink Like a Caveman is one option. Or you might prefer to Outrun Molasses, Be Killed by Soda Water, Gain Superpowers, or--why not?--Be the Center of the Universe.

The authors are also thoughtful enough to help you prepare things you will need in order to achieve your amazing goals. The section called Swallow a Sword, for example, lists things you'll need: a sword, a severely repressed gag reflex, and, of course, good insurance.

Lots of fun here. You may want to use some of the chapters as starting points for further reading (What was Branwell's problem, anyway?) or just take them at face value for a few minutes of humor and relaxation.

[Ambrose Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not really a "how to" collection, but a book of facts.

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot even begin to explain how much I've learned from this tome of knowledge. Definitely too much for one pass through. Certainly this will be read again on next summer's reading list

[Kady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun quick book with random facts.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Title: Be Amazing: Glow in the Dark, Control the Weather, Perform Your Own Surgery, Get Out of Jury Duty, Identify a Witch

Description: Published by Mental Floss, that magazine of really smart trivia that totally scratches my itch to know bizarre facts about everything under the sun. This book is a collection of short (generally 2 pages) accounts of little known facts under the guise of teaching you how to do them. For example, in order to perform your own surgery, you need: one pocketknife, intestinal fortitude. That sort of thing.

Writing style: Entertaining and witty, but there is no connection between the entries, so it was sort of like reading an encyclopedia straight through.
Audience: trivia buffs
Major ideas: the world is an awesome weird place.
Wrap-up: If you can’t get enough of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, this is the book for you! 3.5/5

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was sort of fun, it's basically an organised extension of the Mental Floss web site, and as such has many internet-like features, including but not exclusive to frequent spelling errors, style issues, and general editing problems. I don't regret reading it, but I won't be reading it again.

[Erikka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this a four, because the information was interesting and I like the way trivia and historical stories were presented as instructions for how to be an awesome person. (Well, more awesome). However, this book is absolutely riddled with typos and the English teacher in me just cannot let that slide.

[Levi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't get this book if you're expecting to learn any useful skills from it. Do get this book if you're looking for some very interesting conversation starters! Like all Mental_Floss works, it's a treasure trove of only the most entertaining factoids.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what an entertaining book. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It has something for everyone, and I had to google a lot of the things that were listed here, so I could find more information. If you like the magazine, you are sure to enjoy this book!

[Jen]

Enjoyable and instructive. I didn't finish it because I moved on, not because it wasn't worth reading.

[Luke Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great for the most part, but some parts could have benefited from some fact checking.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not that amazing after all.

[Eclarep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. Snippets of information perfect for flights and other interrupted reading sessions. Plus, I now know how to start a coup.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A proponent of Stoicism, Chrysippus apparently died from laughter while watching a drunken donkey eat a plate of figs.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a how-to book or a humor title, it's a trivia book. As long as you read the book that way, it is enjoyable.

[Raya P Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of curious bits written with a humourous tone.

[Jinnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty good, as far as mindless trivia goes.

[Gretchen Turonek]

This was a fun one. If you're looking for an instruction manual, you won't find one here, but you will find a book full of interesting science and history trivia. It could have used a more thorough edit, unfortunately, but the tone is witty and the text very easy to read.