Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously

This book is kind of a  The Dangerous Book for Boys  but for men. It covers a variety of subjects like eating dangerously, making a flame thrower and making gunpowder or your own Absinthe. There is some interesting stuff in it and an important thing to realize about this book is in the title "Projects and Ruminations" It isn't just projects it also talks about various pursuits that are a bit dangerous like eating dangerously or the hottest pepper in the world.Plenty of safety warnings and a real focus of the book is on the science/art of doing things in a way that makes dangerous less risky.This book is definitely not for boys, grownups only.What I like most about the book is the variety of resources it gives you on where to get supplies for your projects. And these suppliers and sources vary widely. The author calls this the art of Obtanium.

Not exactly what I expected. Mostly about living "a lifestyle" which is OK. Some interesting articles on making some things that may or may not go boom.

Knowledge and science!

Fun reading, it'll give you chuckle

Along with my beach and airport reading, I keep a handy pile of technical reference literature on my Kindle, which is invaluable when I am looking at an obstreperous machine out in the middle of nowhere. This is a quite unusual book, equally fitting in both categories. This is the visible part of the iceberg, with a handy pile of internet pointers to the rest of it, which would get it up to 5 stars (and a couple thousand more pages, going out of date as fast as printing and distribution can work). For one planning to undertake any of the projects, this is money well spent on the first requirement, obtainium, and may well enable you to preserve your body parts. Like they say, it's all great fun, then somebody puts their eye out....

One review likened this to “A Dangerous Book for Boys” but for men. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll be disappointed.This is more of an essay on the philosophy of ‘living dangerously’ than it is a how-to guide for cool projects. Over 200 pages there are maybe a dozen project ideas, and none are presented with enough depth to be particularly helpful. If you were looking for a large guide of cool projects, look elsewhere.

I bought this for my buddy who is a graduate student in mining engineering. He loved it. I have to admit I read through it quite a bit and it was intriguing. Some of the ideas and experiments were awesome.This is a great a great book for people who love to blow stuff up, and learn about risky things. The section on how to smoke cigarettes was comical and thought it was more of a joke than an actual guide. But if I do ever need to smoke a cigarette for the desired effects on the book (all aesthetic) I will take it's advice.Buy it, it's fun!

Great little informative book. The instructions and pictures are clear.

An ok read thought there would be more content though but cant complain at a few quid , chapter on the flamethrower is really informative.

Very good book and a good read

Nice and easy to read. Unfortunately, most of the experiments are not allowed in Germany due to legal restrictions (black powder production, etc.). Some "dangerous arts" are standard, like fast driving on "Autobahns".

pants