The Ultimate Book of Optical Illusions

by Al Seckel

Prepare to be amazed! Inside the covers of this incredible, colorful collection are hundreds of the world’s most powerful optical illusions. They’re beautiful to behold, and stunning in their trickery. Some of the mind-boggling images seem to spring into action, vibrating, pulsing, and spinning like a hula hoop. Other ambiguous illusions feature two subjects in one: the fun is in finding them both in the single picture—including a mouse playing hide and seek in a cat’s face and a strange desert mirage where palm trees imperceptibly morph into camels. And still more, like “The Impossible Terrace,” which couldn’t exist off the page: just try to figure out if you’re viewing the space from above or below. Every one is astonishing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Science, Picture Books, Childrens, Adult

368 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2006

Reviews

[Punk]

355 pages of optical illusions. Many of them the exact same optical illusion over and over. Some of them aren't even illusions. Spinning around with your forehead on the knob of a baseball bat results in dizziness, not illusions! Seriously, that was on page 24, so the fail sets in pretty quickly.

There's no explanation for why these illusions fool the mind, just captions that guide you to find the rabbit or decide if these two lines are really the same size. Hint: They always are.

Two stars: repetitive and frustrating.

[Beele]

Book of deceit

[Jessica]

This was fun to share with the family. The images are large to share the book between two people at the same time. There is very little words, just a brief description of each illusion under it. I like how this is good for people and children of all ages. Definitely a keeper, and so worth the money I spent n the book.

[Georgia H.]

The Ultimate Book of Optical Illusions by Al Seckel is a visually engaging collection of perceptual tricks, impossible images, and pictures that make you stop and wonder what the heck you are actually looking at.

The book includes a wide variety of optical illusions, from images that seem to move or shift to ambiguous pictures and impossible structures that challenge the way the brain interprets what the eyes are seeing.

Some of the images are reminiscent of M.C. Escher, one of my favorite artists of all time, particularly the ones that play with perspective and create structures that could never actually exist. I love trying to work out exactly how an image is fooling me—or sometimes simply accepting that my brain refuses to make sense of it.

At the same time, it does not have to be approached like a puzzle book that needs to be worked through systematically. It is just as enjoyable to pick up, flip through a few pages, and casually browse the illusions.

A fun visual collection that works equally well for trying to puzzle out the tricks or simply appreciating how strange and unreliable our perception can be.

[Stephen Sorensen]

This book contains hundreds of optical illusions but it rarely gives even the slightest credit to the artists that produced the illusions and almost always changes the names of the art so that even if you wanted to find the original work you wouldn't be able to.

Seckel was the main author of Masters of Deception (2004), so this "Ultimate Book" (2006) was a disappointing step down from that.

If the goal was to catalogue optical illusions and rip them from their titles and artists, job well done.

[Pikul Tybalt]

AWESOME PICTURES!!! SIMPLY AMAZING!! MUST BUY!!

[Ramadhan]

It is a wonderful book

[Frederick Gault]

Great fun. Good for kids.

[Victor]

Worth reading, sure, but it repeats the same illusion 3 times. You won't get a headache from reading it all in one sitting, but you will get bored. Some of them are pretty great, though.

[Michelle Berjano]

Me he mareado mazo pero ha merecido la pena

[What the Fluff]

Super fun optical illusions, as the title suggests. It has all the classic optical illusions that will make you think, "HOW exactly does that work?"

[Julien Rapp]

This is more of what might be considered more of a coffee table type book for entertaining guests than reading. It is a great book of illusions that our minds see with the information gathered from our eyes. It is both entertaining and educational. I think that everyone who is curious about how we think we see the world, or just wants to have some fun with friends should have a copy.

[Jesse]

Some great images and a lot of fun.

[Cass]

The one with the woman who suddenly opens her eyes will change your life I swear!

;D

[Pepquímic]

Fantastic book plenty of the most surprising Optical Illusions.

[Stephanie]

Love these but they give me a headache after awhile lol

[Leeroy]

Meh. I wanted this book to be more fun than it was.

[Jeroen Berndsen]

A magnificent collection of classics and (to me at least) unknown illusions, sorted into categories. For anyone interested in illusions, this book is a must-have.

[Cat Noe]

Aimed more at kids than adults, but it's highly entertaining for what it is. This would make a great coffee table book. Light, fun, more amusing than bouncing penguins across a computer screen.

[J]

liked it more than expected.

[Sienna]

Very optical

[Theresa]

kids will enjoy looking at this non-fiction optical illusion book.

[Eira]

It got very repetitive in the last 100 or so pages. Lots of the illusions were just repeated, but with different colors and things to make it slightly different.

[Natalie]

These optical illusions are amazing! I would suggest to read it on a long car ride to pass time!