Uncle John's Presents: Book of the Dumb

Uncle John's Facts and Trivia

by John Scalzi, Bathroom Readers' Institute

A celebration of dimwits, lunkheads, bad ideas and just plain wrongheaded foolishness. In every field of human endeavor, there are people, things, and ideas that rank among the best mankind has ever produced. This book isn't about any of that stuff. If there's one thing human history teaches us, over and over and over again, it's this: Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. Time and again, the human capacity to do really dumb things pops up in surprising and sometimes unusually inventive ways, and almost always catches those who do the dumb things by surprise. From crashed Mars landers to vegetable-flavored Jell-O to land wars during bitterly cold Russian winters, The Book of the Dumb chronicles some of the biggest moments in human folly in every field of human endeavor. Author John Scalzi (a frequent contributor to the Uncle John's Bathroom Reader series) takes the reader through the whole of recorded history, looking for the best examples of the worst ideas, regrettable utterances, and crackpot theories in the fields of arts, science, politics, sports, entertainment, and more.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Trivia, Ebooks

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2003

About the author

John Scalzi, having declared his absolute boredom with biographies, disappeared in a puff of glitter and lilac scent.

(If you want to contact John, using the mail function here is a really bad way to do it. Go to his site and use the contact information you find there.)

Reviews

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some people are born dumb, some have dumbness thrust upon them but this book, collated and edited by John Scalzi, celebrates those who have achieved dumbness. Often hilarious, there is also a sense of wonder that permeates the pages that the world still has so far to go.

[Jesse Duncan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, I read this on the toilet .... do you want to borrow it? The title tells the whole story!! 'nuff said.

[Remo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hoy, sesión doble, estimados lectores. Estos libros fueron lo único medio legible que pude encontrar en la única librería generalista del barrio francés de Nueva Orleans. La idea, de nuevo, es relatar historias en las que los protagonistas cometen, dicen o narran estupideces. Aunque se ve que el autor ha intentado pasar un filtro para que no se le cuelen leyendas urbanas, el filtro es demasiado débil para mi gusto: sólo da noticias que previamente haya dado alguna agencia de noticias. Pufff... Eso es un coladero. Concretamente, la agencia de noticias Ananova, que es parte del grupo telefónico Orange, es un nido de bulos. Si quieren comprarse un libro que narre estas historias, les recomiendo que busquen a alguien especializado en leyendas urbanas, que a ese será mucho más difícil que se la cuelen.
Mi opinión, para los dos libros en conjunto: Perfectamente prescindibles.

[G. Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found myself laughing at some of the unfortunates in this book. It's hard to believe there is such stupidity in the human race.

One of my favorites is the man who decided to surprise the guests at his own surprise party. He fired a shotgun into the air. He succeeded in surprising them, but then he tripped and accidentally shot six guests who had to be rushed to the emergency room. This sort of ruined the mood of the party.

[Ubiquitousbastard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not amazingly written or particularly insightful, but for some reason I had trouble with stopping. A bunch of people did stupid things, and these events are sarcastically represented, and that I guess equals must read? I don't know, it's just addictive.

[Candy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humor is its purest form - humans doing dumb things. Perfect way to celebrate April Fools Day!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite of the series, but like all of the others I still found it difficult to put down. An entertaining, fairly fast read.

[Patricia Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

as always love uncle johns this book looks at people who do dumb things.This book is good for a laugh.

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a whole we are dumb at one time or another. But some of the people in this book bring a whole new meaning of dumb to the table. If you want to feel better about yourself this book can help, because you can read it and say boy am I glad I'm not that dumb or you say but for the grace of God that could have been me. There is even a quiz to test your ability to spot the real dumb from the fake dumb. If you would like to find out just how dumb we can be as humans then grab a copy and read.

[JDK1962 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a collection of News of the Weird-type filler articles, conveniently assembled in book form. Good for some last minute light reading in bed while waiting to become sleepy (or to get the taste of Insane Clown President out of your mouth, when you are forcibly reminded that November 2016 wasn't just a horrible dream).

[Phorc Ewe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the incidents in this book were fairly entertaining. The dad joke quality of the commentary about most of them, not so much.

They also repeated a quote: pages 200 & 212.

And I may be wrong, but the grammar of the title feels off to me.
Is presents a verb or a noun? Or should it be Uncle John instead of Uncle John's?

[Chani Kynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know those Faith In Humanity Restored Memes, the ones that are suppose to make you feel good about living on Earth and being human??? Well after you read those read a story out of this, your feelings about humanity will be way more realistic.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesomely hilarious!

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's truly fascinating how dumb people can be!

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really my taste - skimmed most of it. Some of it was interesting but most I couldn't be bothered with. if you like snippets of info about random stuff then this might be your cup of tea. Not mine

[Pierpa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Garbage.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

very entertaining book, and great length of the stories and anecdotes....I like it better than their normal books

[Ronald L Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read Its sure to make any reader feel smarter.


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