Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide To World Mythology (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
This book is better known as the "angry mythology book" among my friends, since, well, it is about mythology and it comes off as kinda angry. Althought angry is of course no the correct word: aggresssive and intense, the way internet speech usually is.And it IS written in internet speech: the book is very narrow, like physically, because there are so many paragraph breaks making it a wide book would have been a waste of paper. At first it bothered me, but then I realized you're supposed to read it like you are chatting with the author and he is telling you about all these cool myths he knows.While it is funny, I think it would be even better to read the entire thing out loud. I have read some myths from the blog out loud with friends, and basically ended up in tears from laughing so hard. While I did definitely laugh a lot reading this, I wasn't crying from laughing, the way you do reading something out loud.Anyway, great read for anyone interested in mythology. I especially liked the norse mythology part, but that isn't surprising given I am really into norse mythology. The USA chapter was pretty weird though, apart from the last part dealing with scientology. The other "myths" in that chapter didn't really seem like myths to me. This book was absolutely HILARIOUS. I physically could not stop laughing almost every minute I was reading it. Actually, I'm pretty sure I annoyed the hell out of all my friends by Snapchatting them funny quotes every 2 seconds. Definitely a fun read, INCREDIBLY easy (you could finish it in a day, two tops - but I like that because it's good to read something light every once in a while), but also informational. My only complaint is that sometimes it seemed like O'Brien made stuff up just to make the myths funnier/more ridiculous, but I'm not sure I can really complain since the purpose of the book is entertainment. Still, it was a problem for me because it wasn't always clear where the REAL myth ended and O'Brien's additions began. Still, I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a laugh, especially if you like history and/or myths and legends!
What do You think about Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide To World Mythology (2013)?
it was interesting, but really exhausting to read. it was fun, but I'm glad it's over.
—coreylaw
A hilariously funny and wonderfully accurate retelling of a number of myths.
—Vale
Technically, I'm currently having it read to me. And it's fantastic.
—tory
