The Big Book of Big Secrets - the Uncensored Truth About All Sorts of Stuff You are Never Supossed to Know

by William Poundstone

The uncensored truth about all sorts of stuff you are never supposed to know. Learn the answers to hundreds of questions such as . . . What's the best way to beat a lie detector test? What's really in Spam?, Coca-Cola, the secret recipe for Mrs. Field's Cookies? What's the meaning behind all those seemingly meaningless doodles of graffiti? What's the truth behind the rumor of Walt Disney being cryogebnically frozen and hidden in a secret vault benath Disneyland? . . . and many, many more.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Trivia

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

William Poundstone is the author of more than ten non-fiction books, including 'Fortune's Formula', which was the Amazon Editors' Pick for #1 non-fiction book of 2005. Poundstone has written for The New York Times, Psychology Today, Esquire, Harpers, The Economist, and Harvard Business Review. He has appeared on the Today Show, The David Letterman Show and hundreds of radio talk-shows throughout the world. Poundstone studied physics at MIT and many of his ideas concern the social and financial impact of scientific ideas. His books have sold over half a million copies worldwide.

Reviews

[Matt Mazenauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really really wide variety of topics, meaning whole parts end up mostly unappealing to me, but for the most part, it's truly interesting little behind the scenes information. 100% of it is apocryphal though, mostly coming across as "I heard this. FROM A SOURCE!" but if you suspend your disbelief, it's just fun to think that this is some tome of mystery and magic stuff that no one has heard of before.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This contains the usual fare like "the ingredients for the spices in KFC's chicken" etc, but to me, this book was worth it because I was introduced to the so-called "numbers stations". Look it up on Wikipedia. Crazy stuff.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I bought this 8 years ago, I didn't realize that half of it was written in 1983. A lot of these "secrets" aren't so secret anymore--and some of those that are secret aren't very relevant. But, still interesting.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Outdated and full of "secret" recipes for processed foods. Still, a few interesting chapters about magic tricks and codes.