Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 25
 Lively and Entertaining December 2, 2009
C. S. Fuerstneau (Plymouth, MN United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Absinthe and Flamethrowers builds a pretty good case for why adding a bit of dangerous living is a good thing that actually makes people happier than if they eschewed risk. It's probably not going to appeal to the meek, risk-avoiding side of the personality spectrum. Still, I'm not really that much of a risk taker and it sure made me at least start thinking about doing some of the semi risky stuff he advocates.
The author has written other books with lots of projects to try and they are all fun reads.
Some readers probably won't get the author's message, but I think they're the exception, not the rule. Decide for yourself!
 Guess I'm more boring than I realized November 29, 2009
Kate (Illinois)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
What drew me to this book was the title. It is catchy. What got me reading was the philosophy on adding a little more risk to my life. I have been fairly bored with my hobbies and non-work activities for sometime and thought that maybe I'd get some ideas for adding some more excitement to my life. However, after reading this, I'm not really interested in adding this type of excitement to my life.
I have zero interest in chemistry. Maybe I'm paranoid, but in this day and age, I really don't want to be ordering the equipment and ingredients to make pyrotechnics in my basement on the internet. For all I know, I'll end up on some homeland security list and be treated to a very thorough search at the airport next time I travel. No thank you.
Other "projects" designed to help us feel more adventurous include smoking a cigarette. Really? I think I did that when I was 16 to feel like a risky, edgy kid giving a middle finger to the world. I understand what the author wants us to do - to not make decisions on our behaviors based on societal norms, but come on. Smoking a cigarette is not going to change your character one way or another, and it is just silly to assume otherwise.
So if living dangerously includes making explosives in my basement, or smoking, I guess I will remain perfectly happy, if a little bored, in my non-chemistry experiment lifestyle.
 Dissapointing, October 9, 2009
Daniel Smith
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
There is entirely too much rumination, and not enough projects.
The author repeats himself constantly, fills the already slim volume with "saftey notes".
Nothing in here I couldn't have easily (TERRIBLY EASILY) just hit the internet for.
How to make black powder, rockets, smoke bomb - and the rest is just a collection of rambles and pop culture references. The flamethrower isn't even portable, just a standard pyrotechnic propane tank. Pales in comparison to my fathers Diesel fueled modified spray pack. So there.
Couldn't be more disappointed.
Too much Absinthe, not enough Flamethrower September 14, 2009
Dylan Martin (Seattle)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
You might think this is a book about cool dangerous projects. It isn't. It's the author's mediocre philosophy of risk with a few project tidbits thrown in. It's galling to read all his pretentious outpourings about how we need to take more risk and not coddle ourselves followed instantly by coddling safely instructions. Really, if you're going to write a book denouncing the safely culture, don't repeat the same safety instructions over .. and over .. and over... it damages your credibility.
Anyway, possibly the worst part of this book is his instructions for the dangerous project of ... smoking a cigarette! Even if you accept that there is a place in this world for a chapter on how/when/why to light up, there is absolutely no excuse for calling it 'non-verbal communication'. He means 'trying to look cool and get laid'. Just in case I didn't make that totally clear, he has a chapter about using a cigarette to help you get laid and he doesn't even have the guts to come out and say that's what the chapter is about.
And, spoiler here: There is no flamethrower. There's a thingy to blow big fireballs into the air,(which is pretty cool) but it ain't no flamethrower. He even admits as much.
Having said that, this book isn't all bad. The introduction has some interesting stuff about the science of measuring one's attraction to risk. The bibliography is pretty cool. It lead me to Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics : The History of the Explosive That Changed the World and it was awesome. The projects are pretty good. If you cut out the philosophical drivel and rendered the safety instructions down to the necessary minimum, this book would be pretty good. In fact, it would be a collection of this author's Make magazine articles.
This author has written several books of projects (Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices etc..) and I got the feeling he was trying to branch out from projects into philosophy. Oops.
In short, if you're a 15 year old accounting-club nerd, this book might just blow your doors off. Otherwise, you probably don't need his advice. Buy Make magazine or one of this authors other books.
 Seductively titled and conceived, but ultimately disappointing September 14, 2009
Josey Baker (San Francisco, CA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was very excited when I saw this book suggested by Amazon. I read the first few pages online, and was very intrigued. Gurstelle has done his research, for sure. The opening pages discuss psychological theory about thrill seeking individuals, and is very well-written. His explanation about the manufacturing of gun powder seems as informative and cautionary as it should be. But when I got to the chapter about smoking cigarettes, I immediately thought, "Aw man - this is a hoax. I don't need advice about how and when to smoke. This is all about image. It's superficial." And truth be told, it turned me off so much, I haven't bothered to pick it up since I made it a few pages into this chapter. I skimmed the rest of the book, but found nothing that really grabbed me. Learning how and when to appear cool and rebellious is not what attracted me to this book, but if this is what you're looking for, this one might have some good leads.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 25
|
