Scared Sh*tless: 1,003 Facts That Will Scare the Sh*t Out of You by Cary McNeal is a mixed bag of tidbits that, while some are interesting, don’t do what the title says.
As I was reading Scared Sh*tless, my thoughts were that the book is a little awkward. On one hand you have a compendium of items that might come in handy while watching Jeopardy! one evening. On the other hand McNeal adds remarks that while humorous at times, I can see the humor getting lost in the ink and end up confusing readers as to what the facts are and what the added commentary is.
A good example of a confusing fact is Fact 428: “Roughly 37 million people visit New York City’s Times Square every year. All at the same time.”
On the flip side, my favorite fact in Scared Sh*tless is Fact 85.
“In 1973 British music magazine Melody Maker ran a spoof obituary for rocker Alice Cooper that sent fans into such a frenzy, Cooper made a public announcement to proclaim, ‘I’m alive, and drunk as usual.’”
Bottom line, if you’re looking for a new book to put in the bathroom rack and aren’t looking for a resource you can use as a reference for a college term paper, Scared Sh*tless is worth a look and a few good laughs.
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