Big Secrets

Rating:
Summary: More noise than substance
Review: A must-have for human sponges, Big Secrets gives the low-down an all the important stuff in life. No, Walt Disney is not frozen, and yes, there ARE messages on records Mom doesn't want you to know about. Never mind about who shot JFK or Area 51 -- Big Secrets is truly the good stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Bigger Secrets is quite amusing!
Review: A nice companion piece for those who are interested in urban legends, how magic tricks are done, and those who get a thrill out of knowing things they aren't supposed to! I got it from the library when I was a teenager and I've read every book in the series since. The first is the best though.

Rating:
Summary: Psst! Wanna hear a secret?
Review: Did you know that the seductive essence of KFC's secret blend of herbs and spices is nothing more than pepper and MSG? Yikes, no wonder I can chow down the 12-piece box in one sitting!

Author William Poundstone provides a wide variety of esoteric knowledge in BIG SECRETS - everything from an analysis of Coca Cola, an explanation of bar codes and the Rorschach (inkblot) Test, an interminable listing of "secret" radio frequencies, the truth about subliminal shots in movies and ostensibly secret messages in popular song tracks, and an answer to the question "Is Walt Disney's corpse frozen?".

The range of topics in this book is wide, and for that I'd award five stars. However, though I'm reasonably intrigued by the arcane technology of printing currency, the magician's technique of sawing a woman in half, and whether or not there's two-year old fish in Worcestershire Sauce or a secret bank in Beverly Hills, I couldn't care less about the secret ingredients in high-end perfumes, the details of Freemason initiation rites, the method behind the Amazing Kreskin's feats of telepathy, or how playing cards are "marked". And that's the book's biggest problem. While there's likely to be something of interest for everyone in its pages, not everything will be of interest to the individual reader. Therefore, since I read for entertainment, BIG SECRETS is, for me, only a three-star entertainment vehicle. Also, since the book was originally published in 1983, twenty-one years ago - it's woefully outdated. I mean, nothing is mentioned about a secret email address for Bill Gates or what Martha Stewart does when she goes slumming.

According to Poundstone, 7-Up is the only major soft drink with no "secret" ingredients. Maybe that's why the beverage is so boring.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and well written
Review: I don't understand some of these negative reviews. It's my impression that those reviewers were upset at Poundstone for telling about their secret organizations. All that aside, this book and its two sequels, Bigger Secrets and Biggest Secrets, are full of fascinating information you're not supposed to know. The formula for Coke, how to beat a lie detector test, how David Copperfield floated a ball, secret stuff on U.S. currency, etc. Poundstone also writes well. His prose has a touch of dry wit to it. This is an excellent book and hard to put down. In Bigger Secrets he blows the lid on how David Copperfield vanished the Statue of Liberty in 1983, which in my opinion is one of the most interesting things he's exposed. I wish he'd write 10 more sequels--I'd buy them all.

Rating:
Summary: Speculation about mostly irrelevant things!
Review: I enjoyed other, more recent, books by William Poundstone and I decided to try this. I was very disappointed. I am sure the fact that the book was written twenty years ago contributes to my disappointment: many subjects present only nostalgic value for some people and mostly outdated. Don't look for revelations - the author is mostly speculating on the subject (secrets mostly will stay secrets). In our time much more and better information could be found on the Internet. I gave it two stars just for some historical data that I found sometimes interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Under Par
Review: I really didn't like these books. Some of the information is obviously wrong. As a magician I know that only 2 of the explanations of magic effects are correct(the "revelation" of the Statue of Liberty is completely incorrect).

These are interesting for speculation, but otherwise, completely worthless.

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting and entertaining.
Review: Out of the three "Big Secrets" books, this one is the best. "Bigger Secrets" and "Biggest Secrets" have some great stuff in them as well, but there is also a lot of "so what?" information in them. Perhaps a little "padding". The first book, though, has some great stuff. Especially entertaining are the items about things you find on money and the info on Disneyland. Defenitely worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: The Real "Big Secret"? You Probably Paid Too Much.
Review: This book should have been subtitled "Uncensored Speculation About All Sorts of Stuff You Are Never Supposed to Know". I'm all for books that blow the whistle on supposedly secret things that should be public knowledge. I enjoy reading fun facts, esoteric trivia and "How do they do that?" kinds of books.

"Big Secrets" however, was pretty much a letdown. The section on foodstuffs was pure speculation. Poundstone had various samples of foods like KFC's coating, Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper sent to labs for analysis and lists their "probable" ingredients. While this is interesting, it is not necessarily a revelation of a big secret. I can make wild guesses based on bad science, too. Maybe I'm just bitter because I didn't think of compiling my guesses into a book and selling it to rubes for ten bucks.

But I digress.

Poundstone provides a section titled "Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain", which gives explanations for various magic tricks, most of which have become common knowledge since Fox's Masked Magician blew the whistle a couple of years ago, but we have to give the author credit for doing it first. Most people don't know that there are magician's trade magazines (just as there are carpenter's and car enthusiast's trade magazines) that you can buy at any well-stocked bookstore. Within the pages of these magazines you will find much of the same information included here, as well as advertisements for catalogs that will sell you any of the same tricks and kits for building many of the setups. No big secret, really, for anyone who takes the time to find it.

In a chapter called "Alice, Let's Cheat", Poundstone tells us how to master an eyechart, the Rorschach Inkblot Test and a Lie Detector. Now, while I can imagine information on the lie detector test being useful if I am ever charged with murder, I cannot even speculate on why someone would want to go to an optometrist's office and walk out with the wrong precription because they chose to use the secret knowledge gained from this book. Nor do I understand why someone would pay a psychiatrist big bucks to give them misleading information on the inkblot test. If you are the type of person to lie on a test of this kind during an employment interview, then all I can say is "good luck to you."

So. These are the "Big Secrets" William Poundstone reveals to us. While I cannot confess to being even slightly edified or better off for having read this book, I will say that it makes the time pass on an airplane very quickly, so it is of some use. The writing is entertaining, if snide, and people who are not inclined to open their eyes and observe the world around them will be educated and amused.