Richard Horne (1)Recensioni

Richard Hornes Buch "A Wie Apokalypse" entspricht dem Untertitel "Das große Buch der Katastrophen... und wie Sie ihnen entkommen (oder auch nicht)" absolut. Denn auf 272 Seiten werden hier von 'Asteroidenkollision' bis 'Zusammenbruch der Kausalität' extrem viele Katastrophen aufgeführt, an denen man - oder die gesamte Menschheit - zugrunde gehen kann.

Dabei sind die Inhalte keineswegs Fiktion, werden doch aktuelle Probleme wie der Klimawandel, Müllstrudel im Meer oder die Globalisierung und der Terrorismus angesprochen.
Der Autor versteht es dabei wunderbar, alle erwähnten Unglücke auf maximal einer Doppelseite verständlich zu erläutern und teilweise mit immer lustigen und gleichzeitig drastischen Grafiken zu untermauern.

Generell ist die grafische Gestaltung dieses Buches hervorragend.
Zu jedem Thema wurde liebevoll ein Bild gemalt, das dieses veranschaulicht. Bis auf eines stammen diese Grafiken alle vom Autor selbst und wirken hochprofessionell.
Die Illustrationen sind zur Auflockerung allesamt im Comicstil gehalten.

Textlich und stilistisch ist dieses Buch ein wenig anspruchsvoller, da doch einige fachliche Fremdwörter verwendet werden. Mich haben diese jedoch zu keinem Zeitpunkt im Lesefluss gestört, zudem kennt man alle.

Es gibt jedoch ein kleines Manko. In "A Wie Apokalypse" werden extrem viele Fußnoten verwendet.
Teilweise gibt es auf einer Buchseite fünf Fußnotenverweise, die lediglich witzige Erklärungen oder aber Hinweise auf andere Seiten im Buch sind. Man kann diese allerdings bedenkenlos überlesen, da sie für die Inhalte nicht relevant sind.

Davon abgesehen bietet "A Wie Apokalypse" ein durchweg amüsantes Lesevergnügen, bei dem man noch etwas lernen kann. Sowohl an einem Stück als auch in kleinen Häppchen ist das Buch lesbar, da die jeweilig angeführten Katastrophen in sich abgeschlossen sind.

Erwähnenswert ist noch das Inhaltsverzeichnis, welches wie das Periodensystem der Elemente aufgebaut ist. Trotz dieses innovativen Umstandes leidet die Übersichtlichkeit nicht darunter.

"A Wie Apokalypse" eignet sich als amüsante Lektüre genauso gut wie als Buch mit Lerneffekt und bietet auf jeden Fall kurzweiligen Lesespaß. Aufgrund der wirklich hochqualitativen Aufmachung und des guten Umfangs ist der veranschlagte Preis absolut gerechtfertigt.

Ich hatte auf jeden Fall meinen Spaß und habe abgesehen von den vielen Fußnoten keine Kritikpunkte gefunden. Daher gebe ich diesem Buch neun Punkte und empfehle es gerne weiter.

Quelle: www.Necroweb.de

"101 Things You Wish You'd Invented...and Some You Wish No One Had" written by Richard Horne and Tracy Turner was an informational book about the history of the things in our everyday lives and things that are yet to be invented like jeans or time machines.

Through this book, I learned a lot about things that were already invented and things that are going to be invented. For example, the earliest evidence of make up was found in ancient Egyptian tombs dating from around 5,000 years ago. The information that is presented to the reader is usually quite boring and vague because it is all squeezed onto one page and therefore not alot of detail is put into the text but, the activities in the book tend to make it a little less banal.

At first the book appealed me because the cover and inside was really colorful and caught my attention but, if I actually read the book carefully instead of quickly scanning through it before buying it, I would have realized that “101 Things You Wished You’d Invented” wasn’t very interesting book. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone as it was-in my experience-quite boring.½

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

If you're looking for a way to simultaneously increase your knowledge and wow your friends with your infinite brainiac abilities, than this is definitely the book for you!

101 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW...AND SOME YOU DON'T! includes just that -- 101 sometimes interesting, sometimes obscure, sometimes downright gross facts about everything from science, nature, and animals to the universe, history, and the human body.

Some of my favorites include "What is the worse smell ever?" Answer: a toss-up between a skunk, a corpse flower, and durian fruit, which smells like raw sewage. Or "Are you only ever a few feet from a rat in a big city?" Answer: pretty much, yes. Which, when you think about it, is quite disgusting. "How much does the earth weigh?" Answer: a little over 13 million billion billion pounds. And you thought you needed to go on a diet!

The book also includes handy-dandy stickers, which you can use to mark your progress when you've learned a new fact, additional facts and data that (mostly) have something to do with the fact you've just mastered, and extras such as a checklist, extra paper, and a list where you can mark down things you'd like to know that weren't covered in the book.

So, although this is a book that can most assuredly make you look smart(er) in front of your friends, results aren't guaranteed to last forever -- unless you put a little brain power into it!

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

As soon as I read the title of this book, I wanted a copy. Then when I got a copy, I started worrying that I was one of those old and boring people. After all, I'm thirty-one, which isn't as old as, say, Methuselah, but isn't as young as any of those cuties on Dawson's Creek, either. But then I decided I'll probably always be young at heart (which basically means I'll be wrinkled and totally gray, and yet still want to learn to skydive), so this book could be a great guide to see what I've accomplished.

According to Mr. Horne and Ms. Szirtes, there are one-hundred-and-one things everyone should do to keep their life fun and interesting--and to keep you from being old and boring.

What's great about 101 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU'RE OLD AND BORING is that it doesn't just list what you should do; it gives you helpful hints and tips on how to accomplish the goal. It also provides Achievement Stars to mark that you've completed the task, when and where you accomplished it, and, in some cases, a place to rate your fear factor about doing it.

A great book, for teens and adults alike. Order your copy today!

If you’ve ever wondered about how Braille was created, when the skateboard first appeared, or why the time machine has yet to be invented, then you’ll want to check out this book! 101 inventions are given two page histories/factoids, accompanied by a worksheet for readers to complete. For example, the entry for Roller Coaster gives a history of the invention, including steep icy hills built in Russia during the 1700s, where people would ride down on seats made of wood or ice. The accompanying worksheet asks readers to list their favorite roller coaster, how many times they’ve ridden it, the types and amounts of loops, and the consequences of riding. Readers will find recommendations with each entry for other inventions they may enjoy. The book includes items that have yet to be invented (a teleporter, terraforming, anti-aging pills, etc.) and “If Only” items, such as a Know-It-All Hat, a Language Decoder, and a Weather Machine. This is a great book for tweens and teens, and is fun for just browsing. A concern for libraries may be that the book encourages readers to write in it, cut pages out, and use stickers to mark inventions that have been fully researched.

This is a fun "bucket" list of things you can aspire to. None of them are technically impossible, just very hard although there are a few that are easy. The only one that I believe to be personally impossible is "Throw a party when your parents are out" and that's only impossible because I no longer live with my parents. Luckily, this book has a section where you can add your own thing to do and use it to replace one of the others. I was amazed at how many I had already personally accomplished at the age of 27. This is a fun little "thinking of you" gift for any adventurous person in your life.

Interestingly I gave it 3*s because you can't just read it. You have to do stuff and I'm kinda lazy. But would make a good bathroom reader. Received as a Christmas gift from Robert at work in 2007. It will definitely keep me busy.

A fun list of things to do before you die. It includes taskts like visiting every country or every continent, write a best seller, catch a fish with your bare hands, drive a car at top speed, get married unusually and get backstage and get off with a rock god. You get stars to add to the ones you have done and bits to fill in. At the time of this review I have done 17 of the things on the list. There is one I won't be doing (have a threesome) as I am happily married (unless we can find a loophole that involves sleeping next to someone or with a cat sleeping on the end of the bed or something). I wonder how many I will be able to cross off by the time I die...

I flipped through this book for a few seconds and decided on buying it. Unlike other books that are similar to it, it’s filled with things that are actually kinda hard to do, rather than impossible or crazy easy. Though I’ve only managed to fulfill a few things in the book and put a gold star on the page (which brings a very rewarding feeling), there are somethings I really don’t want to do, and never plan on doing. Like dining and ditching. Though I’m not someone playing on the cops’ side of the team, I wouldn’t take pleasure in leaving a meal unpaid for and end up getting some innocent waiter into trouble.
But other than a few things like that, it’s a great book to flip through and interact with.½