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Summary: Motel of the Mysteries
Review: Macauley's other books, such as CASTLE, show our archeologists recreations of times past. But what if it's ALL WRONG???In MOTEL OF THE MYSTERIES, we get a marvelous story of a future archeologist finding, and completely misunderstanding, an ordinary motel room. Great fun, and you'll never watch a Discover Channel special with quite that credulity again.
Rating: 
Summary: Laugh out loud funny spoof of archeology
Review: Macauley's other books, such as CASTLE, show our archeologists recreations of times past. But what if it's ALL WRONG??? In MOTEL OF THE MYSTERIES, we get a marvelous story of a future archeologist finding, and completely misunderstanding, an ordinary motel room. Great fun, and you'll never watch a Discover Channel special with quite that credulity again.
Rating:
Summary: Motel of the Mysteries
Review: Motel of the Mysteries is an about-face for David Macaulay, whose previous books educated readers about fascinating architectural achievements. Motel is a totally different story-line. What remains the same are his illustrations - pen and ink demonstrations of meticulous obsession. Works like Cathedral and Pyramid display the intricacies of history's architectural marvels in astonishing detail. The cover of Cathedral alone is a spectacle. Motel achieves the same level of elaborateness but throws in a monkey wrench with an outrageous story of our civilization's abrupt demise and its discovery thousands of years later.
The illustrations add a witty visual flair to the laugh-out-loud storyline. The language, intended for upper elementary to adult ages, will probably leave younger readers confused, because the humor is above them, and often too advanced. This can make the story funnier in some places, such as an ice bucket being dubbed the Internal Component Enclosure.
The book is as fictional as books can get. The story takes place in 4022 and only in Motel of the Mysteries could a woman possibly believe a toilet seat is a ceremonial headdress worn by the ancient people of Usa.
In the distant future, America has been dead and gone for thousands of years, and historians and paleontologists search frantically for remnants of the ancient civilization Usa (get it?). Howard Carson, an amateur at best, and associate Harriet Burton discover a 'burial tomb' of the Usa people. What they really discovered was a late 1900s motel. No suspense, nothing that really defines a story, just the hilarious commentary of stumbling upon this motel.
The "Treasures" section explains in full detail the ceremonial items used in Usa burials. The wacky, absolutely outrageous functions given to each item (such as the toilet seat passed off as a headdress) keep the reader glued until the last page.
Macaulay's style is totally unique. Not only is he far more amusing than most authors, he uses his illustrations to weave his knowledge of architecture into the story. The entire book is something of a spoof on historians today. Maybe the pharoahs of Egypt were really just street peddlers!
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Summary: Loads of fun for adults too.
Review: Motel of the Mysteries is one of those books that makes you rethink your acceptance of things. I loved the blundering assumptions of what things were and why they were in the "tomb". Most importantly the book did make me step back and question the assumptions that may have been made about other things. If they could be this wrong about the purpose of a toilet seat, have we also been wrong in our assumptions.
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Summary: Hilarious And Thought-Provoking
Review: Motel of the Mysteries is simply one of the funniest books I have ever seen. And "seen" is the word, as the joy is in the illustrations. A parody of archaeologists' tendency to declare what we "know" about past civilizations based on their artifacts, the book presents the unearthing of a nondescript motel two thousand years after the sudden collapse of Western civilization. The fun is in the labeling of the various elements discovered: a showercap becomes a ceremonial death cap, a dinner tray an offering to the gods, a toilet seat a piece of sacred religious neckwear. Macaulay makes his point and has fun doing it. I pick up this book again and again whenever I'm in the mood for an intelligent chuckle.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious And Thought-Provoking
Review: Motel of the Mysteries is simply one of the funniest books I have ever seen. And "seen" is the word, as the joy is in the illustrations. A parody of archaeologists' tendency to declare what we "know" about past civilizations based on their artifacts, the book presents the unearthing of a nondescript motel two thousand years after the sudden collapse of Western civilization. The fun is in the labeling of the various elements discovered: a showercap becomes a ceremonial death cap, a dinner tray an offering to the gods, a toilet seat a piece of sacred religious neckwear. Macaulay makes his point and has fun doing it. I pick up this book again and again whenever I'm in the mood for an intelligent chuckle.
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Summary: "Entertaining Look At Archeology"
Review: Quite a fun book. Loved how these archeologists from the future interpreted our everyday objects like they were part of some burial chamber. Toilets, toilet paper and faucets all took on some rather imaginative uses. Every other page made me snicker and think, "No, moron. That's not what we used them for." Nice drawings to accompany the story. Score one for creativity.
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Summary: Funny Book Easy To Read Good For All Ages
Review: Recently, I have come across one of the books that I had a whille back and I was really excited to read it. The book is called Motel of the Mysteries and is written by David MacAulay. In this book the story starts in the present where the whole intire Northern American Continent is covered with an avalance of junk mail. Instantly killing everyone, there is not much known about the 'Yanks' from then on. That is untill the year 4022 where an amateur archeologist finds himself at the entrance of an ancient 'Usa' burial site. This book is interesting to read because the reader is left to wonder how much do the 'experts' of today really understand about the ancient civilizations. It is a very cute book and isn't that hard to read so a young reader could enjoy it as well as an older one. Overall I think Motel of the Mysteries is a funny book and should be read by anyone interested in history and humor. - Cole
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Summary: wonderful spoof of archaeology
Review: The more you know about archaeology, the more you'll laugh at the subtle jokes. The parallels with Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankamen's tomb are hilarious, as is the reference to Schlieman's discovery of Trojan Gold. If you have any friends who are archaeologists, give them this book!
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Summary: I love this book!!!!!
Review: This book is hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing and it inspired me to write a story of my own. You have to read it, it will be the funniest thing you ever read!!!!!!!
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