Fat, Dumb, and Ugly : The Decline of the Average American

Rating:
Summary: A reader
Review: A fantastic book that should challenge Americans to stand up to the facts. The shocking realities that come to light through this book are as telling as those in FAST FOOD NATION. A MUST read.

Rating:
Summary: idiotic and cliche
Review: does Peter think he;s being unique and witty by presenting us with meaningless statistics? This book is utterly pointless. For one thing, numbers and statistics don't mean anything since you can make numbers say anything you want. Second, the numbers Peter DOES give are useless!!! Who CARES how many people buy plastic flamingos!? is that supposed to show how stupid we are? give me a break. Peter manages to hit on every cliche and stereotype of America. I frankly found this offensive because this is still the greatest country on Earth. Are we perfect? no! by no means!! But this book paints an unrealistically negative point of view. Yes, Americans are fat. But so are many other countries! No, Americans aren't the "smartest" but, we are no dumber than most other countries. Peter seems to think obesity and stupidity are totally unique to America, when this is simply not the case. I beg of you, find something worthwhile to read and don't bother reading about how stupid and ugly we Americans are. Shame on you, Peter. Go move to Iraq and see how you like over there.

Rating:
Summary: A Wake Up Call to America
Review: Thank you Peter Strupp, for holding up a mirror of truth to our culture. Sure, America is a marvelous country that has achieved wonderful things. But we're forgetting ourselves. No one improves by resting on their laurels. Our game has gotten sloppy, and it's high time we shape up!

Rating:
Summary: Made me think...
Review: This book is AMAZING. Peter Strupp has taken hundreds of statistics about the American way of life and compiled them into this little wonder of a book. At first read, it's very humorous, but when you step back for a moment and consider that all of these statistics are FACTS, it really makes you think about where our culture is heading...

And to 'a reader': if buying a quarter of a million pink flamingos annually doesn't make us dumb, or doesn't highlight the fact that a big percentage of us have bad taste, then waht does?!