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Book Review of Extreme Encounters: How It Feels to Be Drowned in Quicksand, Shredded by Piranhas, Swept Up in a Tornado, and Dozens of Other Unpleasant Experiences...



Just OK. This is a book which works fine in short bursts of reading (recommend for the porcelain home office). The author does a nice job of describing medically what the encounter does to your system to kill you. Attacked by sharks, you will bleed to death. And he goes on in detail to describe why and how soon bleeding to death kills a human. It's just that there's a sameness to each disaster, as if written from a formula. And there's a certain arch humor which reminds me of a tv adventure reality show script. The tornado description was a high point for me because there is more variety in the telling. All in all, just a pleasant little book with some interesting details, but not a gripping read by any means. However - how many of us want to spend two hours immersed in gory death & disaster? With very few survivors!