Comments on: The Dangerous Book for Non-Boys

Question: The Dangerous Book for Non-Boys

divabat — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 03:04:27 -0800

I've read "The Dangerous Book for Boys" and I generally love those kind of books (information about anything with guides on doing stuff). What other books are out there that are in a similar vein? I'm a 21-year-old girl but would rather not have a "girly" book.

By: evil holiday magic

evil holiday magic — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 03:24:46 -0800

The Poor Man's James Bond series is a collection of military manuals, crude drawings of improvised weapons and traps, crazy-dangerous bomb instructions, strange rhetoric, and step-by-step martial arts tactics.

Henley's Formulas is another interesting one. How to perform amazing feats like "eating" hot coals, making an ink you can ignite. It's from 1907, very strange and outdated.

I always liked the books Klutz makes. They come with their own props, like magic or science stuff, or juggling balls.

By: arruns

arruns — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 04:19:27 -0800

The Dangerous Book for Boys reminded me of How to Hold a Crocodile.

By: dbateman

dbateman — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 04:47:36 -0800

211 Things a Bright Boy Can Do might be worth a look too.

By: booth

booth — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 05:23:29 -0800

I grew up (back in the 70s) studying the Foxfire books. (There's a whole series.) Loads of stories and how-to's about back-woodsy stuff. For instance, the subtitle to the first book is "Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining."

I still remember the interview with Aunt Arie, who's pulling the eyeballs out of a pig head (part of it is excerpted at Amazon).

By: keijo

keijo — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 05:25:21 -0800

The Worst-Case Scenario Handbook series might be worth a look as well.

By: booth

booth — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 05:25:48 -0800

Here's all of the Foxfires that Amazon has listed. (I didn't realize there were 12 of them!)

By: visual mechanic

visual mechanic — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 05:27:51 -0800

How to survive on land and sea is an incredible classic in this vein. And then there are the Worst case scenario books, too.

By: waterlily

waterlily — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 05:38:21 -0800

The American Boy's Handy Book is similar. (a few excerpts here).

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 05:52:47 -0800

Anything from Loompanics (most of it will probably have to be second-hand now, so it's a bit of a treasure hunt).

The Gingery books teach you how build your own machine shop from 99% scrap metal, among other wonderful things.

By: fake

fake — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:01:11 -0800

I highly recommend "The Boy Mechanic" -- get the PDF from that page. I have all of them, they are full of hundreds of projects for young people, from building your own boat or camera to chemistry, etc.

By: long haired lover from liverpool

long haired lover from liverpool — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:01:15 -0800

If you're in the UK, TV survivalist (and countryside grazer) Ray Mears has produced a series of accessible books about outside matters.

By: rmd1023

rmd1023 — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:10:46 -0800

any and all books by William Gurstelle! (eg " Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices", "The Art of the Catapult: Build Greek Ballistae, Roman Onagers, English Trebuchets, and More Ancient Artillery", "Whoosh Boom Splat: The Garage Warrior's Guide to Building Projectile Shooters")

i'd second the recommendation for lindsay books' catalog -- they've got a bunch of new and old books of that sort.

By: goo

goo — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:27:46 -0800

I have The Boys and Girls Handbook: Full of amazing facts and figures given to me by my grandmother in 1985. I've seen it in second-hand bookshops in Brisbane. It has a lot of encyclopaedic information in sections such as the universe, the world and its people, the earth, the world of science, mythology, religion, history, arts and literature etc, and sections on hobbies and pastimes teaching macrame, knot-tying, philately, caving and spelunking, how to build a bivouac and light a fire, palm-reading, crochet, basic archaeology, and much, much more.

It's on amazon.co.uk and ebay.com.au.

By: aetg

aetg — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 07:12:30 -0800

Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales For Girls
by Danielle Wood looked interesting although not in the survivalist/how to vein you were asking for in your post.

By: The Deej

The Deej — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 07:33:34 -0800

The Daring Book for Girls, maybe?

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 07:35:15 -0800

Woohoo! I just found The Boy Electrician in the Lindsay catalog. I had this out of our local library on a more or less continuous basis as a kid. A true classic.

By: TheSecretDecoderRing

TheSecretDecoderRing — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 08:26:14 -0800

Have you browsed the miscellaneous section at Borders and Barnes & Noble? You can kill a few hours just looking at the stuff you'd find there, with titles like "How to Do Just About Anything," "Stuff Guys Need To Know" "How To: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know" "The Experts' Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do" "Pocket Ref" etc...
There's also the "Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things" series, but I think I've found that in another section I can't remember off the top of my head.

By: M.C. Lo-Carb!

M.C. Lo-Carb! — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 08:32:22 -0800

Make magagazine?

By: -harlequin-

-harlequin- — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 09:47:53 -0800

From the unregulated era of 1854 (when life was short anyway so what's the harm in playing with fire) comes The Young Man's Book of Amusement

By: annabellee

annabellee — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 10:25:05 -0800

Despite it's title, The Girl's Guide to Absolutely Everything isn't "girly."

By: divabat

divabat — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:35:30 -0800

Actually, I wasn't looking for survivalist - I'm not very outdoorsy! I do like the "everything in a book" concept - as I kid I used to have plenty of books that had sections on orienteering, wildlife, how to be a secret agent, cryptography, camping, cartooning, indoor games, etc - all in one book.

Some of those suggestions look interesting, I'll take a look!

By: logic vs love

logic vs love — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:13:40 -0800

You Can Do It! is a great book, with all sorts of fun, interesting things.