Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends PDF full book. Access full book title Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends by Jan Harold Brunvand. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393104168
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 485
Get Book Here
Book Description
"If you enjoy these too-good-to-be-true tales, Brunvand's new book will give you hours of pleasure."—Chicago Tribune A fabulously entertaining book from the ultimate authority on those almost believable tales that always happen to a "friend of a friend." Alligators in the sewers? A pet in the microwave? A tragic misunderstanding of the function of cruise control? No, it didn't really happen to your friend's sister's neighbor: it's an urban legend. And no matter how savvy you think you are, you are sure to find in this collection of over 200 tales at least one story you would have sworn was true. Jan Harold Brunvand has been collecting and studying this modern folklore for over twenty years. In Too Good to Be True he captures the best stories in their best retellings, along with their latest variations and examples of how the stories have changed as they move from person to person and place to place. To help you find your favorite, Brunvand has arranged the tales thematically. "Bringing Up Baby" is full of episodes of child-rearing gone wrong, including the grisly tale of the drugged out baby-sitter who mistakes the kid for a turkey. "Funny Business" showcases stories of infamous lapses in customer service, such as the story of the shockingly expensive chocolate chip cookie recipe. And "The Criminal Mind" features both brilliant --if they were real --scams, as well as the purported antics of the less mentally gifted. Whether you want to become an expert debunker or just have plenty of laughs, this book will surprise and entertain you. Illustrated throughout. "Informative and entertaining.... Brunvand has collected more than 200 of the most-repeated and best-known examples of modern folk-myth."—Tampa Tribune "[N]ot only an entertaining anthology, but an excellent introduction to the study of folklore itself."—Publishers Weekly "A fun read... . All the classics are here from the killer upstairs to the Kentucky Fried Rat."—New City "Resonant stories that express our hidden anxieties ... make us laugh, [or] arouse our fascinated horror."—San Francisco Chronicle Book Review "Informative and entertaining... . Brunvand has collected more than 200 of the most-repeated and best-known examples of modern folk-myth."—Tampa Tribune "[N]ot only an entertaining anthology, but an excellent introduction to the study of folklore itself."—Publishers Weekly
Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393104168
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 485
Get Book Here
Book Description
"If you enjoy these too-good-to-be-true tales, Brunvand's new book will give you hours of pleasure."—Chicago Tribune A fabulously entertaining book from the ultimate authority on those almost believable tales that always happen to a "friend of a friend." Alligators in the sewers? A pet in the microwave? A tragic misunderstanding of the function of cruise control? No, it didn't really happen to your friend's sister's neighbor: it's an urban legend. And no matter how savvy you think you are, you are sure to find in this collection of over 200 tales at least one story you would have sworn was true. Jan Harold Brunvand has been collecting and studying this modern folklore for over twenty years. In Too Good to Be True he captures the best stories in their best retellings, along with their latest variations and examples of how the stories have changed as they move from person to person and place to place. To help you find your favorite, Brunvand has arranged the tales thematically. "Bringing Up Baby" is full of episodes of child-rearing gone wrong, including the grisly tale of the drugged out baby-sitter who mistakes the kid for a turkey. "Funny Business" showcases stories of infamous lapses in customer service, such as the story of the shockingly expensive chocolate chip cookie recipe. And "The Criminal Mind" features both brilliant --if they were real --scams, as well as the purported antics of the less mentally gifted. Whether you want to become an expert debunker or just have plenty of laughs, this book will surprise and entertain you. Illustrated throughout. "Informative and entertaining.... Brunvand has collected more than 200 of the most-repeated and best-known examples of modern folk-myth."—Tampa Tribune "[N]ot only an entertaining anthology, but an excellent introduction to the study of folklore itself."—Publishers Weekly "A fun read... . All the classics are here from the killer upstairs to the Kentucky Fried Rat."—New City "Resonant stories that express our hidden anxieties ... make us laugh, [or] arouse our fascinated horror."—San Francisco Chronicle Book Review "Informative and entertaining... . Brunvand has collected more than 200 of the most-repeated and best-known examples of modern folk-myth."—Tampa Tribune "[N]ot only an entertaining anthology, but an excellent introduction to the study of folklore itself."—Publishers Weekly
Author: Thomas J. Craughwell
Publisher: Hachette+ORM
ISBN: 1603762639
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 619
Get Book Here
Book Description
A fascinating, creepy, frightening, disgusting, and hilarious collection of some of the world's most popular and enduring tall tales. With themes that run the gamut from funny to sick, risqué to informative, and frightening to disgusting, Urban Legends features fantastic yarns that are remarkable for their uncanny ability to travel the world by word of mouth. We've all heard the one about the alligators that roam New York City's sewers, or how "Mikey" of Life Cereal fame died from eating Pop Rocks mixed with Coke. And what about the flustered parents who left their baby on the car roof, or the scuba diver who was found in the middle of a forest after a fire? These classic tall tales are featured here in all of their creepy glory along with hundreds of others, and they're guaranteed to amuse, enlighten, and intrigue, but be careful: they may stick in your mind forever.
Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393346730
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Get Book Here
Book Description
From the master folklorist and sly wit, Jan Brunvand, comes a collection of all-new urban legends. Did your cousin's wife's dentist's daughter go to the tanning parlor once too often and had her insides cooked? Has your husband's brother's nephew teacher try to make a dead rabbit look alive? If so, you've heard—or you yourself may have told—two of the seventy-plus legends in this collection. Urban legends are "those bizarre but believable stories about batter-fried rats, spiders in hairdos, Cabbage Patch dolls that get funerals, and the like that pass by word of mouth as being the gospel truth." But of course, though often told as having happened to a FOAF (friend of a friend), they aren't true. Included in this collection are legends about sex, horror, cars, business, and academia. Among them are "The Bible Student's Exam," "The Pregnant Shoplifter," "The Ice Cream Cone Caper," "Don't Mess with Texas," and "Mrs. Fields' Cookie Recipe."
Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393323580
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 566
Get Book Here
Book Description
Presents descriptions of hundreds of urban legends and their variations, themes, and scholarly approaches to the genre, including such tales as disappearing hitchhikers and hypodermic needles left in the coin slots of pay telephones.
Author: Harold Jan Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393326130
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Get Book Here
Book Description
A collection of over ninety frightening urban legends, arranged by theme.
Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252070044
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Get Book Here
Book Description
"Here he [the author] looks in detail at a dozen rampant and long-lived examples of this vigorous category of contemporary folklore, tracing their historyies, variations, sources, and meanings."--Jacket.
Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393303217
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Get Book Here
Book Description
Discusses over forty stories of improbable events told as true and embelished with local details which the author calls urban legends.
Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393346536
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Get Book Here
Book Description
The groundbreaking book that launched America's urban legend obsession! Folklore scholar Jan Harold Brunvand assembles the best-known urban legends—including "The Hook," "The Spider in the Hairdo," and "The Baby-Sitter and the Man Upstairs"—and provides an enlightening and entertaining analysis of their variants and evolution. The Vanishing Hitchhiker was Professor Brunvand's first popular book on urban legends, and it remains a classic. The culmination of twenty years of collection and research, this book is a must-have for urban legend lovers.
Author: Francine Pascal
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ISBN: 1250030579
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 153
Get Book Here
Book Description
A devil in disguise... When glamorous, sophisticated Suzanne Devlin visits Sweet Valley from New York City, the Wakefield twins couldn't be more excited. For two weeks, Elizabeth will show Suzanne around town while Jessica will have the time of her life in New York. Suzanne is perfect: beautiful, friend, and not the least bit stuck up. But when Suzanne accuses their teacher, Mr. Collins, of trying to seduce her, Elizabeth knows there's more to Suzanne than meets the eye. Can she stop Suzanne before it's too late? From bestselling author Francine Pascal.
Author: David Kushner
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0812972155
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Get Book Here
Book Description
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart. Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative. “To my taste, the greatest American myth of cosmogenesis features the maladjusted, antisocial, genius teenage boy who, in the insular laboratory of his own bedroom, invents the universe from scratch. Masters of Doom is a particularly inspired rendition. Dave Kushner chronicles the saga of video game virtuosi Carmack and Romero with terrific brio. This is a page-turning, mythopoeic cyber-soap opera about two glamorous geek geniuses—and it should be read while scarfing down pepperoni pizza and swilling Diet Coke, with Queens of the Stone Age cranked up all the way.”—Mark Leyner, author of I Smell Esther Williams
