THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS

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By Conn and Hal Iggulden

 

 

 

So in 2007 this one won the Book of the Year at the Galaxy British Book Awards. In the same year it was outsold only by Harry Potter on Amazon. It is a pretty colossal book and rightly so. I enjoyed it immensely. Touts that it it for boys eight to eighty and covers around eighty topics. Ditch the idea that it is for boys...it's for everyone. 

 

Hal is a theatre director and Conn is an ex-head English teacher-now-writer. Their style is easy-read, direct, uncluttered and with a faint undertone of gentle sensibility. There are maps, tables, illustrations, photos and diagrams to compliment this decent laid-back encyclopedia of solid fun.

 

As an adult you forget things. Basic things that form part of our construction of the world. I would never have guessed that I would have enjoyed re-learning about longitude and latitude basics or breezing over star maps. I didn't even mind skimming over the grammar explanations that are slotted into a few spots. Anything that could potentially be dry is simply presented in bite-size portions so they become really digestible. Advice on lists of things you 'should' know are great. I'm definitely not a 'should' person but their choices on these topics are mighty fine.

 

Where to buy: Absolutely anywhere I am assuming. Buy it, it's old skool awesome.