false 1 3 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Dec 09 08:51:54 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 09 08:52:52 -0800 2007
I had a couple reasons for picking up this book. First, it’s a relatively new release, but it’s made to look all old and retro/cool. The ‘fancy’ script on the cover, the heavy hardback binding, and pretty end papers on the inside all = old. But it’s not. I knew it was a newer book, but I still managed to get roped in by the old-time feel of it. Even the print and illustrations have the old time feel. Think 1960’s text book/manual. So the binding and sheer ‘pretty book’ factor had me.

Also, I’m a boy. And I’d like to read about dangerous things. All kinds of stuff I could build or try. All of it dangerous! So those two factors had me also.

Yeah, I don’t think I recommend this book to anyone. The only way this book is dangerous is if you dropped it from high atop a skyscraper at an unsuspecting crowd below. Or used it as a blunt object to pound some (insert your own thought here) into the authors. Or set fire to it hoping you never have to see it again and it catches something around it of value on fire as well. Or,…. I’m out.

It’s 200+ pages of ho-hum. I still pretty much consider myself a kid at heart and there wasn’t much of anything in there that I really wanted to try to build or do. The few things in there that looked effort-worthy had terrible directions and illustrations. I consider myself a person that can visualize something if you describe it to me. Even with terrible directions, I can usually figure things out. I had a heck of a time understanding some of the steps that were described in more than a few ‘try this’ items. And a couple of those had pictures accompanying the directions!!!

An admirable thing this book tries to do is inform the reader. There’s a decent amount of history and other ‘important stuff every boy should know’ type things in there. I understand that I’m not the target audience for this book, but the info was written in such a way that I almost question its accuracy. Not quite to the point that I’d go looking something up and actually learn about it, but almost. Maybe that’s how this book is dangerous. It tricks you into trying to figure things out for yourself because it’s written so poorly they figure you’ll have to research the topic(s) yourself to get a clear picture of it.

Anyway, I’m not going to waste any more of my time on this one…and neither should you.]]>