Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1047274 in Books
• Published on: 1993-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Customer Reviews

Like shelling pub peanuts
Appearing in 1993, ten years after BIG SECRETS and seven after BIGGER SECRETS, William Poundstone's BIGGEST SECRETS is evidence that the author needs to get on with life. Perhaps he too realizes that fact, since "biggest" is the superlative form of the adjective. Poundstone has nowhere to go from here.

Unshelled peanuts aren't the most convenient pub snack, but it's hard to shell and eat only several. Likewise, BIGGEST SECRETS doesn't represent fine literature, but it's difficult to put down. Poundstone has several (favorite) recurring topics in his books: the secret ingredients of famous junk foods, secret initiation rites, magicians' secrets revealed, reverse messages on popular music tracks, and subliminal pictures in movies. The last two seem almost obsessions. But, he also throws in others. For example, in BIGGEST, there are exposed: the formula for Play-Doh, security coding of lottery tickets, the meaning of gang graffiti, how to get that ship in a bottle, and celebs' real ages.

As with BIG, so many varied subjects are covered that the individual reader is certain to find some that intrigue, and some that bore to tears. So, I enjoyed learning about the Mrs. Field's chocolate chip cookie recipe, the method behind the rabbit-out-of-the-hat illusion, fake towns on maps, the ingredients of Spam and head cheese, Christmas gift return codes, the evolution of Kelloggs Frosted Flakes, and the location of Century House in London (MI-6 HQ). On the other hand, I couldn't care less about a stylometry evaluation of the Beale Cipher, a 19th-century treasure map in code, or the real ages of the likes of Joan Collins, the Gabor sisters, Don Rickles, Imogene Coca, Charo and Joan Rivers, or fire-lighting tricks of the Boy Scouts. Indeed, I skipped entirely the sections on hidden messages and pictures in music and films respectively. Thus, as with BIG, BIGGEST is an erratic entertainment vehicle. (I haven't read BIGGER SECRETS, nor do I intend to. Even unshelled peanuts lose their charm.)

Perhaps my favorite revelation was the means for creating a chocolate-covered cherry. Specifically, how do they get the liquid surrounding the fruit? Well, the manufacturer coats the cherry with a paste of sugar and the enzyme invertase, the latter a natural digestive enzyme, then dips it in chocolate. During storage, the invertase breaks down the sugar into a syrup. The author leaves us with a pleasing image:

"It's almost as if the candy makers were thoughtful enough to spit in the candy to give you a head start on digestion."

IT WAS GREAT!
iam a magician and if theres magicians who wants to know how the big stuff is done in the illusions sections then this is it the creame of the cream of top notch magic and illusions from all three books it is a knock out!especally in bigger secrets. it tells the secret to the STATUE OF LIBERTY MY THORIES TO IT WAS CLOSE BUT I WAS WORKING TO HARD I WAS USING THE BLACK ART IDEA WITH A SCREME NETTING IT WOULD WORK BUT COPPERFIELDS METHOD IS MUTCH MUTCH BETTER.ENJOY. YOUUR FRIEND IN CHRIST AND MAGICALLY YOURS BILLPAGE THE MAGICIAN.

Biggest Secrets was a disappointment
I had to read this book for a class I was taking and I found it to be boring, dull and insignificant. I believe it is a waste of paper.