Alien Hand Syndrome

Alien Hand Syndrome
by Alan Bellows

Alien Hand Syndrome
List Price: $12.95
Our Price: $3.60
You Save: $9.35 (72%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.99 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Alan Bellows
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2009-07-10
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company

Book Reviews of Alien Hand Syndrome

Book Review: Interesting Stuff
Summary: 4 Stars

Here's a bunch of short articles "based on truth" from history, science and medicine. Other reviewers have described this book adequately, but I have a few impressions of my own to add.

First of all - even though I bought the book, I still wonder at the sense of paying for a print version of stories one could read for free online. Readers will have to gauge for themselves the value of a hard copy.

Secondly - the writing style here is intended to entertain as much as to inform, perhaps more so. The stories are interesting, amazing, exciting, and bizarrely funny (I got a lot of uncomfortable laughs out of them) but I get the sense that factual accuracy has taken a back seat to jaw-dropping hyperbole. Some of these articles are written with a two-fisted enthusiasm which makes my Urban Legend senses tingle. But it is fun reading, and true to the website's name it's Damn Interesting.

Summary of Alien Hand Syndrome

Welcome to the five stages of reading Alien Hand Syndrome: Astonishment: This is amazing! Insecurity: I?m a smart person? how could I never have heard of this before? Panic: Please, don't let it end. Gratitude: Great!?and look, there are over 90 more essays where that one came from. And Zeal: You won't believe what I just read.

Collected and curated by Alan Bellows and his team at DamnInteresting.com, with over 400,000 unique visitors a month, this is the stuff nightmares are made of, and no one will be able to stop reading: Giant Carnivorous Centipedes; Mike, the Headless Chicken; The Exploding Lakes of Cameroon; The Swirling Vortex of Doom; Secret Agent Cyborg Cats; Fiery Balls of Naga; The Deepest Hole; The Terrifying Toothpick Fish; and, of course, Alien Hand Syndrome?a disorder wherein a person's hand develops a "will of its own," unbuttoning shirts, grabbing at the steering wheel, tossing away cigarettes, and in some cases actually attacking its host.

Most entries are full-blown narratives, complete with illustrations?for example, pointing out step-by-step how "The Halifax Disaster" unfolded. Other entries examine short-take anomalies?such as unusual drug side effects, including the antidepressant Clomipramine (spontaneous orgasm upon yawning), the hormone Oxytocin (increases one's generosity), the medicine for Parkinson's disease, Ropinirole (compulsive gambling), and Viagra (priapus syndrome, with a remote chance of gangrene curable only through penectomy?say no more).


Trivia Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Trivia Books
The Pro Football Trivia Bowl ImageThe Pro Football Trivia Bowl
by Steve Greenberg
Avon; Published: 1998-12-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.25
Price in other shops: $5.99
True Adventures for Boys (Wide World Magazine) ImageTrue Adventures for Boys (Wide World Magazine)
by Paul Safont
Macmillan UK; Published: 2007-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.77
Price in other shops: $22.95
The ABC of Cat Trivia: A Compendium of Cat Superstitions, Proverbs, Literature, Words, Phrases, Games, Objects, Plants, Biology, Behavior, Movies, Gods, Cartoons, Heroes ImageThe ABC of Cat Trivia: A Compendium of Cat Superstitions, Proverbs, Literature, Words, Phrases, Games, Objects, Plants, Biology, Behavior, Movies, Gods, Cartoons, Heroes
by Rod L. Evans, Irwin M. Berent
St Martins Pr; Published: 1996-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops: $19.95
A Book of Legal Lists: The Best and Worst in American Law, with 150 Court and Judge Trivia Questions ImageA Book of Legal Lists: The Best and Worst in American Law, with 150 Court and Judge Trivia Questions
by the late Bernard Schwartz
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1997-04-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $55.00
Everything You Pretend to Know And Are Afraid Someone Will Ask ImageEverything You Pretend to Know And Are Afraid Someone Will Ask
by Lynette Padwa
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1996-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops: $12.00
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sports History and Trivia ImageThe Complete Idiot's Guide to Sports History and Trivia
by Mike McGovern
Alpha; Published: 2001-09-14; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $36.28
We're British, Innit: An Irreverent A to Z of All Things British ImageWe're British, Innit: An Irreverent A to Z of All Things British
by Iain Aitch
HarperCollins UK; Published: 2010-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.39
Price in other shops: $13.95
Shortlist Top Tens (Shortlist Magazine) ImageShortlist Top Tens (Shortlist Magazine)
by Shortlist Magazine
Collins; Published: 2009-09-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.02
Geekspeak: How Life + Mathematics = Happiness ImageGeekspeak: How Life + Mathematics = Happiness
by Graham Tattersall
Harper; Published: 2008-09-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $19.95
Do Penguins Have Knees? An Imponderables Book ImageDo Penguins Have Knees? An Imponderables Book
by David Feldman
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $12.99
Similar Books and other products
mental floss presents Instant Knowledge (Collins Gem) Imagemental floss presents Instant Knowledge (Collins Gem)
by Editors of Mental Floss
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2005-10-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.98
Price in other shops: $7.99
You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself ImageYou Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself
by David McRaney
Gotham; Published: 2011-10-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.92
Price in other shops: $22.50
You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News: Shocking but Utterly True Facts ImageYou Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News: Shocking but Utterly True Facts
by Cracked.com
Plume; Published: 2010-12-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.92
Price in other shops: $14.00
Mental Floss presents In the Beginning: From Big Hair to the Big Bang, mental_floss presents a Mouthwatering Guide to the Origins of Everything ImageMental Floss presents In the Beginning: From Big Hair to the Big Bang, mental_floss presents a Mouthwatering Guide to the Origins of Everything
by Editors Of Mental Floss
Collins; Published: 2007-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.56
Price in other shops: $15.95
Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments (Harvest Original) ImageElephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments (Harvest Original)
by Alex Boese
Mariner Books; Published: 2007-11-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.96
Price in other shops: $14.95
Mental Floss Presents Condensed Knowledge: A Deliciously Irreverent Guide to Feeling Smart Again ImageMental Floss Presents Condensed Knowledge: A Deliciously Irreverent Guide to Feeling Smart Again
HarperResource; Published: 2004-04-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops: $14.99
Mental Floss Presents Be Amazing: Glow in the Dark, Control the Weather, Perform Your Own Surgery, Get Out of Jury Duty, Identify a Witch, Colonize a ... Girl, Make a Zombie, Start Your Own Religion ImageMental Floss Presents Be Amazing: Glow in the Dark, Control the Weather, Perform Your Own Surgery, Get Out of Jury Duty, Identify a Witch, Colonize a ... Girl, Make a Zombie, Start Your Own Religion
by Maggie Koerth-Baker, Will Pearson, Mangesh Hattikudur
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2009-03-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.48
Price in other shops: $16.99
mental floss presents Forbidden Knowledge: A Wickedly Smart Guide to History's Naughtiest Bits Imagemental floss presents Forbidden Knowledge: A Wickedly Smart Guide to History's Naughtiest Bits
by Editors of Mental Floss
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2005-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops: $16.99
Why Fish Fart and Other Useless Or Gross Information About the World ImageWhy Fish Fart and Other Useless Or Gross Information About the World
by Francesca Gould
Tarcher; Published: 2009-09-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $12.95
An Underground Education : The Unauthorized and Outrageous Supplement to Everything You Thought You Knew About Art, Sex, Business, Crime, Science, Medicine, and Other Fields of Human ImageAn Underground Education : The Unauthorized and Outrageous Supplement to Everything You Thought You Knew About Art, Sex, Business, Crime, Science, Medicine, and Other Fields of Human
by Richard Zacks
Anchor; Published: 1999-04-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.97
Price in other shops: $17.95