Life in Five Seconds: The Short Story of Absolutely Everything

by H-57

Winner of the 2013 Cannes Bronze Book Design Lion and the Epica awards, Life in Five Seconds is a gift for anyone with a good sense of humor and a short attention span.
 
H-57 is a design and advertising with two decades of award-winning work in advertising and the masterminds behind the online infographic "History of . . . " series, which has amassed worldwide popularity. Told in ingenious pictographs that are witty, provocative, and to the point, Life in 5 Seconds takes on 200 important events, inventions, great lives, wonders of the natural world, and cultural icons and boils away the useless details to give you the pure essence of knowledge in a bold and irreverent set of illustrations that speak to today’s caffeine-charged, jet-fueled, information-overloaded society.
 
You’ll laugh out loud as you finally understand the differences between Satan and Santa Claus; explore the vibrancy of artists from Beethoven to Banksy; compare the masonry in the Great Wall of China to that of the Berlin Wall; weigh the importance of Elvis; deconstruct the genius of Ikea; play with the history of video games; and plumb other vitally important holes in your knowledge.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Comics, Art, Design

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2013

Reviews

[Komal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A week ago when I was ill and felt like doing nothing, my sister brought over this book at night and we both poured over it and pretty soon I forgot that my whole body ached and I felt like shit. It's a very quick and fun read and even though our interpretations of the illustrated stories were (most of the times) way off the point, I had a really good time with Life in Five Seconds.

If this is what coffee table books are like, I think I want more of them.

[lorinbocol · Rating 4 out of 5]

i secondi che si impiegano per decrittare le immagini danno la misura dell'editing ancora necessario alle nostre sinapsi. (alcune sequenze sono geniali).

[Luca Masera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divertente.

3,5

[Dr. Tathagat Varma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved this book so much that after buying a paper copy, I recently bough the kindle version too. Very creative, and the power of this is in its simplicity and brevity of pictures.

[Bethany Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly - just wanted to buy it to have it. Something I’ll want to pass down, I think.

[Pablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buenísimo, me gusta que al final enseñan como usar su método para simplificar historias.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the concept, I am sharing with my friends. We made it into a game.

[D.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book appeared as if out of nowhere on a recent shopping trip, and I picked it up for a steal (after being haunted by it for a week or so).
The creators at graphics studio H-57, Matteo Civaschi and Gianmarco Milesi, set out to tell a handful of historically important life stories in quickly digestible 'infograms,' and posted those online. The idea stuck, expanded and eventually evolved into this book, which goes beyond those initial characters (Hitler, Jesus, Michael Jackson, Marie Antoinette, Julius Caesar and Napoleon) to figures famous, infamous and pop-culturally trivial, as well as including historic sites & events and pop-culture phenomena.
For the most part, the images work well, combining timeline direction with language-free instruction-manual simplicity. If there are times that it fails, it's largely because it comes to close to contemporary popularity and away from any sense of historicity (seriously, in 10 years will anyone remember 'Posh & Becks'?).
Life in Five Seconds is a fun book to have lying around somewhere that it could be easily picked up and perused by company (though some of the graphics get a bit racy and/or violent), and its original cover price (£9.99) isn't even unreasonable (though I wouldn't have paid it). However, for something to live in one's library, it would almost immediately outlive its usefulness.

[De Lustige Lezers' Leesgrage leesclubje · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Short Story of Absolutely Everything” vat zo’n 200 gebeurtenissen, uitvindingen, personen en films samen in een paar icoontjes. Voor wie weinig tijd, een onstilbare honger naar kennis, of een korte aandachtsspanne heeft ;)

[Becki Iverson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a witty, inspiring book that is actually more suited to group perusal than reading alone. Each of the infographics is imaginatively put together, and after practicing a few times one can catch on to the style. I can think of so many applications that would suit this perfectly; I'd particualrly like to see someone turn this into an ongoing app/tumbler that could be used for game nights. I really, really liked this concept and I hope to see more from these two.

[Jen Surname · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting, but a fun book. Reading it feels a bit like a trivia quiz! There are some beauts in here and I can already envision nicking some of the ideas and using them as a quiz at work.

[Imam Alwaery]

Creative, Smart, and so simple. Love it
كتاب مبدع وبسيط وخلاق بطريقة عرضه وأفكاره .. نصيحة لكل مبدع ان يتصفحه .. لأن لا أظن أن مصطلح "يقرأه" واردة مع هذا الكتاب

[Reinhilde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart, witty, creative, tongue-in-cheek, funny - all in one book. Will be high on my gift list this year :-)

[Komuniststar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Idealna knjiga za "čitanje" u društvu.

[Serena.. Sery-ously? · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alcune storie sono fenomenali AHAHAHA!!

[RoseB612 · Rating 4 out of 5]

První věta: Adam and Eve

Poslední věta: Mark Zuckerberg

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full Review: http://louiseereads.blogspot.com.au/2...

4 Stars!

[Lizzie Ludovico · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a good book but there is PG-13 stuff in it.

[Suzan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful and different book. Makes your mind think outside the norm. I really enjoyed this book.

[Don Gubler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very excellent picture puzzles. Clever and succinct.

[martin eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! je suis fan!

[Evgeniy Vasilev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny book. Reading it feels like playing a trivia game.