Big Secrets
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Are there really secret backward messages in rock music, or is somebody nuts? We tested suspect tunes at a recording studio to find out.
What goes on at Freemason initiations? Here's the whole story, including -- yes! -- the electric carpet.
Colonel Sanders boasted that Kentucky Fried Chicken's eleven secret herbs and spices "stand on everybody's shelf." We got a sample of the seasoning mix and sent it to a food chemist for analysis.
Feverish rumor has it that Walt Disney's body was frozen and now lies in a secret cryonic vault somewhere beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean exhibit at Disneyland. Read the certified stranger-than-fiction truth.
Don't bother trying to figure out how Doug Henning, David Copperfield, and Harry Blackstone, Jr., perform their illusions. Big Secrets has complete explanations and diagrams, nothing left to the imagination.
William Poundstone
William Poundstone is the bestselling author of more than a dozen nonfiction books, including Fortune's Formula, Gaming the Vote and Priceless. His books Labyrinths of Reason and The Recursive Universe were both nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
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Reviews for Big Secrets
69 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The best part was the "hangover cure' which is 75 Proof, a hint of how unreliable this book is, especially since I have over the years given away several copies of Poundstone's Labyrinths of Reason: Puzzles and the Frailties of Knowledge, a far better albeit vastly more complex book, geared for a general reader.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Outdated and boring. Couldn't bring myself to finish the book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book does a better than expected job of delivering on its promise to let you in on some big secrets, such as secret ingredients of Coke and so on. Fun to read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Along with Cecil Adams' "Straight Dope," Bill Poundstone's seminal work literally wrote the book on exposing hidden truths and dispelling myths and misconceptions. A must for the bookshelf of every critical thinker and seeker of knowledge.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In these days of the internet, few secrets are still very secret, but this collection of obscure knowledge was still pretty interesting. My favorite parts were the detailed investigations into questions without clear answers, specifically the historical recipes for things like Coca-Cola and perfumes. The funniest bit was the revelation that chemical analysis revealed that rather than 11 secret herbs and spices KFC fried chicken was spiced with salt, pepper, and no measurable quantities of any other spices.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This "Book of Secrets" is certainly not all it purports to be. Many of the "secrets" aren't very secret at all. Many are little more than speculation. And some are outright false. The section on the Freemasons, for example, would never gain you entrance into a meeting of that group as almost none of the information provided is correct, according to many, many published works about the organization. It sounds more like the author has confused the Masons with the Odd Fellows, or some other "secret" group. Likewise, the revelations about today's master magicians are really the methods used over 100 years ago. Though they may be similar in their basic principles, it is not really the same way they are done today. In short, the book has a great premise that was apparently poorly researched and never fully delivers.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Big Secrets (1983), Bigger Secrets (1989), and Biggest Secrets (1994) are a trilogy of books written by William Poundstone. The tagline for the series is "the uncensored truth about all sorts of stuff you are never supposed to know."I purchased the book of Big Secrets primarily for the contents of Part Five, Chapters 19-23, about magic and psychics.• Chapter 19. David Copperfield's Dancing Handkerchief in a Bottle• Chapter 20. Harry Blackstone, Jr.'s Sawing a Woman in Two• Chapter 21. Uri Geller's Blindfold Drive• Chapter 22. Doug Henning's Vanishing Horse and Rider• Chapter 23. The Amazing Kreskin's Social Security NumberI have a love-hate relationship with books like Poundstone's. As an amateur magician, I love to be in the know about magic tricks and illusions, especially the closely guarded ones as performed by such celebrities as Copperfield, Blackstone, Jr., Geller, Henning, and Kreskin. On the other hand, I hate it when someone writes an exposé of magic tricks or illusions for the general public, thus ruining their effect for everyone else.If you are not a magician or an aspiring magician, please do not read Chapters 19-23 in this book. Doing so will destroy the entertainment value of these tricks forever after.On the other hand, as soon as you think you know how a magician ticks, he tocks. There are more elusive methods for performing some of these effects than Poundstone reveals.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Various secrets are revealed - like what Roschach blots are supposed to mean, the formula for KFC, hidden song lyrics, and was Walt Disney really frozen? This 1983 book seems a bit dated.