If you have always had the burning desire to know how you could win a sumo match, the entertaining and kooky “Don’t Try This at Home” by Hunter S. Fulghum can tell you.
With detailed instructions on how to borrow the Mona Lisa, rappel off the Eiffel Tower or diffuse a human bomb, I got a cheap laugh from the idea of making the impossible, possible.
Like a joke that has gone too far, the fact that someone spent so much time on something so crazy is kind of crazy.
The thorough research needed to write this book is the punch line. To swim the English Channel, for example, it is important to know that you need an approved, protective grease provided by a chemist in Dover. Who actually would plan to do this?
No normal people would actually compete in a joust, sink a submarine, smuggle top-secret documents, surface a nuclear sub or meet aliens in Nevada-but it’s humorous to know that you could if you wanted to.
With only four months preparation time and a list of necessary supplies, it seems anyone could break into Fort Knox.
In this time of increased national security, is it good for specific information, such as how to shut down a nuclear silo, to be out in print for anyone to find? I’m all for freedom of the press, but this novel’s publication couldn’t be more ill timed.
However, once you get over the possible misuse and if you are not a terrorist, this quick read is all in good fun.
I would never buy it, and I consider the book to be mostly a waste of paper. If it were at a friend’s house, I would enjoy my five-minute flip-through and put it back on the coffee table, where it belongs.
