Reviews

Because I Said So! : The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids by Ken Jennings

sandylovesbooks's review against another edition

4.0

This book was written by Ken Jennings who won all those times on Jeopardy. Some of the myths and old wives tales he writes about were very interesting. Like does eating gum stay in your stomach for years. And feed a cold and starve a fever? Or the other way around? A fun read.

kitten_reads's review against another edition

challenging funny informative fast-paced

4.0

kaygray78's review against another edition

4.0

Ken Jennings is only a few years older than me, so many of the things he mentioned in this book remind me of my childhood, including mercurochrome, the Punky Brewster refrigerator episode, and my mother not letting us use the temporary tattoos out of the Cracker Jack boxes because they might be laced with LSD.

I think I was born a skeptic. I have snopes.com and urbanlegend.com bookmarked so that I can immediately disprove those annoying forwarded emails about chicken heads at KFC and baby seats on the side of the road having to do with gang initiation. I think my one aunt got the hint, because she finally quit including me on the forwards.

Anyhow, I chuckled through this book. Ken Jennings always struck me as being pretty square. But it turns out he's a pretty funny guy in addition to being smart. And I appreciated reading how all the things I was skeptical about are pretty much all untrue.

That said, I did tell my eight year old to stop running with a dumdum in his mouth the other day. Some habits die hard.

jenn_geeks_out's review against another edition

4.0

Perfectly enjoyable trivia read. There were some adages in here that I'd never heard before (I guess those bits skipped a generation or were maybe region-specific), but there was a ton of stuff in here that I didn't know. And plenty of revelations that have turned my world upside down. Case in point: we had birds make a nest in the wreath on our door while we were at work one day, and we didn't move it because we were afraid that the birds would abandon the eggs that they had lain. If only I had read this book before, I would have known that it's not true that birds will abandon their young in humans touch them.

I also called me dad after hearing that reading in low light doesn't cause damage to your vision. He and my grandma were always turning on the lights near me when I was reading in a dim room as a kid. I told him that I wanted to let him know in case he chose not to annoy my younger sisters with that particular habit. He said he'll do it anyway. Aah, parents...

auntblh's review against another edition

3.0

This was a quick read with some interesting sections. I was a little confused by the "truth" meters at the end of each section as the narrative didn't always jive with it. Overall, it was a pretty good.

babsie126's review against another edition

4.0

Interesting and worth a read(listen). You would not believe how much my mom was wrong about....

lizbusby's review against another edition

4.0

A fun little read, especially if you appreciate the nerdy humor of a Jeopardy champion. I knew some of these but definitely a few surprises as well.

kavinay's review against another edition

5.0

Jennings' book is like a mirror-universe version of John Hodgman's explanatory epics.

robinsbooks's review against another edition

3.0

I think I'll bag the audio version and get the print or e-book as it would be easier to skip sections that I don't necessarily care to read.

Meh. Much of it has been said before, and I didn't agree with his "can you get addicted to lip balm" response.

shayneh's review against another edition

4.0

Fun! Ken Jennings is a hoot, and this book tied in with my own childhood at several points.