Rating: 
Summary: The Darwin Awards
Review: The Darwin Awards Plume Books, 2000, 308 pp., $6.99
Wendy Northcutt ISBN: 0-452-28344-2
"Only two things in this world are infinite-the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the universe." -Albert Einstein. Einstein said it all; humans can be stupid. Do you know about the darwin awards? These awards are handed out to idiots who do really stupid things. This book has a ton of short stories about idiots who either something really dumb or die trying. It's full of awards, honorable mentions, personal accounts, and urban legends. If you want to read something funny then read The Darwin Awards.
I think that anyone that would want a good laugh between the ages of nine and up would like this book. This book is only good for laughs, though there are some parts where there is an explanation or two on how something happened in the passage. On a scale of one to ten I rate it an eight. I rated it an eight, because it's one of the funniest books I've read, but that's all it is.-Ryan Scott
Rating: 
Summary: Mean-spirited
Review: This book pours salt on the wounds of bereaved families.-That's all I want to say. But Amazon says I have to say what I want to say in several sentences rather than one sentence for this review to be posted. So: I don't think this book is a great book. I don't think there is kindness or humility in this book.-But you can decide on that yourself. What I want to say is that this book pours salt on the wounds of bereaved families.
Rating:
Summary: The Darwin Awards
Review: This book takes a look at human stupidity which either results in the stupid one's demise or at least sterilises them so that they can not reproduce. A lot of the tales in here are not confirmed and are written under urban legends. I have actually heard most of the urban legends before, some told a lot more funnier than in here. They are pretty funny though for example the scuba diver who was scooped up by a fire fighting plane and dumped on the middle of a fire. This book is divided up into eleven sections which group together deaths under specific headings. Unfortunately the writer seems to like to waffle on with boring introductions to each chapter. Obviously they have good research and collating skills but not such a good writing ability when it comes to being creative off thier own bat. You also have to get to page 32 before even getting to the first death tale which is a bit ridiculous. This is a good read but a bit of a let down. If you buy it expecting a few laughs you'll be satisfied but if you expect to be laughing your head off from cover to cover then maybe purchase something else. I've been told the sequels are a lot better, and this book was good enough to tempt me to read them and find out.
Rating:
Summary: One of those books you want to loan to friends...
Review: This is one of those books that you want to loan to friends (or buy as a gift -- perhaps using the money in the "stupid tax" jar in the kitchen). I'd been reading the annual awards on the Net for years, and mailing the funniest ones to friends; the tale of the man who welded cargo plane takeoff-assist jets to his car is so outlandish as to not be believed -- and apparently, shouldn't be, so take some of these stories with a grain of salt, even when they're purported to be true. We all love to read about people from the "shallow end of the gene pool"; it makes us feel that perhaps we're not as dumb as we worry we might be. If you've ever thought about doing just about anything listed in this book...well, um...maybe we'll see you in the next edition. The Darwin folks have been doing fine, fine work for years, and it's good to see a payoff for them, especially when it's as funny as this. I think it could have been longer (or denser), but it's certainly a good value.
Rating:
Summary: I really enjoyed this book!
Review: Wendy Northcutt has done a great job of cutting the urban legends out and providing the reader with a nuts and bolts, "this really happened, so be afraid" kind of book! Please don't buy this book thinking it has anything to do with Darwinism. . . I hesitate to add that, but according to a friend at a book store, there have actually been people that held this belief. This book is about the odd, humorous and often bizarre ways that people, which should likely have been taken out of the gene pool anyway, have offed themselves (or come close to it). You will wonder if what you are reading is true, but Northcutt is careful to be VERY specific in the details, should you decide to check them out yourself! In the case of urban legends (stories of things that happened to your brother's girlfriend's Uncle's third cousin) Northcutt has included some that you've probably heard, and some that are regionally specific. (Yes, the man that tied balloons to a lawn chair and drifted thousands of feet in the air is true. . . The guy that strapped a rocket to his car-wheelchair-bike is not) Buy this book for humor value, if nothing else. I recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for everyone.
Review: You have to have a warped, sick sense of humor to enjoy this book. Fortunately, I and almost everyone I know has just such a sick sense of humor. The basic concept is marvellous: The Darwin Awards are imaginary awards, given to those who improve the human gene pool by eliminating themselves from it in spectacularly stupid ways, thus demonstrating that this was, ultimately, for the best. Generally, this means engaging in terminal stupidity, but occasional "winners" "only" injure themselves in ways that render them permanently infertile. The book also includes "(dis)honorable mentions", who do NOT eliminate themselves from the gene pool, but whose stories are good enough, and whose stupidity is spectacular enough, that the only reason they don't qualify for an award is failure to meet that requirement. Not all of the stories in the book are true; they are all labelled, at least hypothetically accurately, as to whether they are "confirmed", "unconfirmed", "personal accounts", or "Urban Legends". I felt that too many stories were included that were unconfirmed; the whole point to these stories is that they're true. Anybody can make up a story about spectacularly unbelieveable stupidity; what's the fun in that? What makes these stories interesting is the awe one feels at their truth. I can understand including the best of the unconfirmed stories, listed as such, if the author suspects that they're probably true. But the Urban Legends should be eliminated; they detract from the whole. Further, some of the stories get overly cutesy in the telling; those that merely factually report the events, without attempting to embellish the natural humor inherent in the story work best. In summation: IF you find the basic concept funny, you will probably enjoy this book, even if it isn't as well-done as I'd expected. If, on the other hand, you are offended at the concept of laughing at the demise of a fellow human, no matter how well-deserved that demise might be, (or if you're a creationist) then you certainly won't be amused by this book.
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