This was like a 400 page history term paper from a couple of stoned teenagers, bristling with information accurate and otherwise, and told in a breathless, non-stop fashion that sucked all the air out of the room. Funny here and there, but a lot of history really doesn't lend itself to humor, or for that matter, quick summarization. The mind numbing repetitiveness of human aggression doesn't help either. ( )

Audiobook version, read by Johnny Heller. I suspect this book would have been much better in a regular book format, rather than on audio. The boring and repetitive lists of events at each chapter (?) start are probably laid out visually in such a way as to allow you to refer back during the meat of each section. Aside from that, it was still a light and entertaining overview of historical events, presented in a way that I wish my dusty old history teachers could have taught it. I was even mightily impressed with the narrator's ability to make coherent sounding sentences using the tongue-twisting names of ancient civilizations and foreign languages. Until the book hit the 1940's and I had to endure hearing "nucular" spoken over and over again. I subtracted a star for that alone, and I'm afraid I had to abandon the audiobook while it was in the home stretch. ( )

The authors bill this book as an irreverent romp through civilization's best bits. For the most part the irrevencey does make for an entertaining look through history. On the other hand, the history of the world has often been down right horrifying , and on occasion, that irrevencey is perhaps a tad bit inappropriate. ( )

Í þessari bók er saga heimsins frá upphafi til 21. aldar sögð í knöppu formi og reynt er að hafa húmorinn og orðaleiki með til að létta upplýsingamagnið og til að gera bæði söguna áhugaverðari og léttmeltari.
Ritið fær plús fyrir mikla yfirferð og hve miklu magni upplýsinga Sass kemur að í knöppu formi. Hann leitast við að segja pólitíska, efnahagslega, matar, samfélagslega, tæknilega sögu heimsins auk alls hins. Þarna er óneitanlega margt sem kemur manni á óvart og er bæði forvitnilegt og skemmtilegt að læra.
Því miður verður Sass að hlaupa á hundavaði yfir alla heimssöguna og stundum gætir ónákvæmni og þá er óneitanlega ekki að finna þarna þætti sem mér finnst að væru ómissandi í svona söguyfirliti. Þá fundust mér orðaleikirnir og grínið mega missa sín stundum þegar það var orðið frekar leiðinlegt en fyndið. ( )

I'd never heard of mental_floss before stumbling upon this book at a B&N in August. We were there so my husband could stock up on holiday reading, but since it's fundamentally impossible for me to walk out of a bookstore without a book in my hand, I added this to the pile thinking it would be perfect for those moments at night when I couldn't focus on more than a small bit of reading at a time.

History/geography are unarguably my two weakest areas on a trivial pursuit board. I can look back at all my schooling and say I've never had a geography lesson in my life - not even memorising the state capitals (or the states, for that matter). I remember every history class I took starting with the American Revolution and ending with the Civil War. This is embarrassing, although more for what it says about the educational system I was in than anything else. When I got to Uni and took a proper history class, it was a revelation - history could be interesting! But it can still be dry, boring and stultifying.

Not The Mental Floss History of the World! This is an entertaining romp through world history - the very highest level of overview - and I found myself driving the husband crazy between saying "you have to read this book!" and then reading stuff to him (let's face it, he probably won't read it anyway). Lots of stuff. This is a great read for those of us who want to know more about history but accept our limited attention spans because we don't find it that interesting. Broken up into eras (not official ones) it gives readers an overview of what happened, a timeline for that era, anecdotes/details about the major players and finally a list of big-number statistics. It's the kind of book where you can read a few pages, then put it down again without feeling like you've left off in the middle of something.

I wouldn't recommend this book for readers looking for anything academic, reverent or in-depth, but I'd highly recommend it for those out there who might be like myself: undereducated about history and wanting to know more, but preferring a breezy, slightly irreverent delivery. I'll definitely investigate their other titles, and be visiting their website regularly. ( )