Rating: 
Summary: Darwin Wins in THE END...
Review: Having read this book from cover to cover, it's perfect for both leaving on a coffee table or just in the "reading" room. Mine is located somewhere between the bathroom and the computer room as I keep re-reading it for inspiration.The book has hundreds of humorous accounts about creative people that have met their most demise in some of the most idiotic approaches. Being one who almost earned an award myself (308), I find that it is far better to laugh and learn about how not to do something creative than to boldly go forth and learn nothing from the errors of others. Thus, for all other creative nuts out there besides me, I recommend this book, for it gives insight as to how a small spark of genius can backfire (or just plain explode), and take you with it.
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Summary: Stories, stories, stories. And some weird insights.
Review: More than you might expect, this book is stuffed with stuff! It collates all the Darwin Awards emails you've ever gotten and more, labels 'em truth or fiction, and puts them right where you need them most -- on the toilet, on the train, in bed. I learned why farts are NOT deadly, why a polar bear swim IS, and what to do when you're being constricted by a snake (spew high-proof alcohol all over its maw.) Plus each chapter has a weird insight into what we might be evolving into, whether testosterone causes Darwins, and so on. One down side is that a few stories don't have references, and some are more macabre than funny. But still a must-have for anyone who thinks humans have a long way to evolve. This book proves it.
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Summary: if you laugh at others misfoteunes this is the book for you
Review: The concept of honoring those who are stupid enough to accidentally kill themselves and in turn make the world a better place by insuring that their heredity won't be past on is phenomenal. If you like to laugh at the pain of others this is the book for you. This is the type of book that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time because it's funny how people kill themselves and you want to cry because you know your surrounded by others either at work or school who are just like the idiots you read about
Rating:
Summary: So hilarious I laughed till my sides hurt.
Review: I bought this book for my teenage son for his birthday -- he is a big fan of the related http://www.darwinawards.com website. Before I wrapped it, I read the inside flap and was completely drawn in by the concept: namely, how fatally dumb people can be. Once I started reading the book I couldn't put it down. It is THAT funny. There are some cautionary tales, of a rather gruesome nature, that impulsive types (such as my son!) should take heed of. Perfect for teenagers, and the teenager in all of us!
Rating:
Summary: Man's Stupidity At It's Best
Review: I look to the quote by Mark Twain which states "Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed", in this book's case it should say "Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not laugh so hard". This book gives numerous accounts of stupidity of our fellow men. While reading this book you find yourself debating whether to laugh at their stupidity or to ask yourself "Are there people really this stupid?" Being of the mere age of 18 I found this book to be hilarious, yet those of older age might say this book is nothing but toilet humor. Well, if this is simply toilet humor, it's toilet humor at it's best! If you want a good laugh I highly suggest you buy this book, some of the accounts are unbelievably funny.
Rating: 
Summary: Stupid deaths or stupid reading???
Review: Let me start by saying that I love black humor. If not, I would not had purchase this book. So it is not a matter of being "tenderheart" or "without sense of humor". The thing is that this book is simply not funny. I used to read the Darwin Awards e-mails until I noticed the abundance of urban legends and that once an award "honored" an eight years child that died in an accident. Browsing the book in a bookstore, I found that these two flaws were attended: 1) Urban legends were identified as such 2) Children are no longer elegible, as "stupidity" and "ignorance" are two complete different attributes. Well, I purchased the book, and now I am sorry. Here are some of the weak points: 1) Many of the stories does not qualify as "Darwin Awards", but just stories of plain stupidity (like a burglar that selected a team of olimpics runner as victim) 2) In some stories innocent people die, and still that is supposed to be funny. It will be like laughing of somebody who died while drunk-driving, even if he killed innocent people. 3) Too many stories are "urban legends", dubious "personnel accounts" and "honorable mentions" (just tales of stupidity and close calls with death). By example, of the first 60 stories, 26 fall into these categories. 4) The stories are funny when there is some poetic justice, as in the case of macho behaviors (like the guy who opposed to treat a cobra bite because he can take it "like a man") or people who think that they are smarter than the rest (the guy who electrocuted the fishes in the river, and then proceeded to collect the fishes without removing the electrical cables). These stories are the exception. Most of them are simply momentary bad judgement. However, I enjoyed the author's description of the evolution theory, the educative notes added to some of the stories, and information regarding the controversies arised by some of the stories. If you have read the other reviews, you will notice readers are strongly divided regarding this book. This is obviously a matter of tastes. I suggest you visit their official site before you make a decision.
Rating: 
Summary: I really enjoyed this book!
Review: Wendy Northcutt has done a great job of cutting the urban legends out and providing the reader with a nuts and bolts, "this really happened, so be afraid" kind of book! Please don't buy this book thinking it has anything to do with Darwinism. . . I hesitate to add that, but according to a friend at a book store, there have actually been people that held this belief. This book is about the odd, humorous and often bizarre ways that people, which should likely have been taken out of the gene pool anyway, have offed themselves (or come close to it). You will wonder if what you are reading is true, but Northcutt is careful to be VERY specific in the details, should you decide to check them out yourself! In the case of urban legends (stories of things that happened to your brother's girlfriend's Uncle's third cousin) Northcutt has included some that you've probably heard, and some that are regionally specific. (Yes, the man that tied balloons to a lawn chair and drifted thousands of feet in the air is true. . . The guy that strapped a rocket to his car-wheelchair-bike is not) Buy this book for humor value, if nothing else. I recommend this book.
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Summary: People are stupid. I don't need a book to tell me
Review: OK, hearing about one of the Darwin Award winners can be funny.
But there's only so much stupidity I can take at once.
My biggest problem with the book was that the WRITING wasn't funny. Too "just the facts" oriented to be entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: One of those books you want to loan to friends...
Review: This is one of those books that you want to loan to friends (or buy as a gift -- perhaps using the money in the "stupid tax" jar in the kitchen). I'd been reading the annual awards on the Net for years, and mailing the funniest ones to friends; the tale of the man who welded cargo plane takeoff-assist jets to his car is so outlandish as to not be believed -- and apparently, shouldn't be, so take some of these stories with a grain of salt, even when they're purported to be true. We all love to read about people from the "shallow end of the gene pool"; it makes us feel that perhaps we're not as dumb as we worry we might be. If you've ever thought about doing just about anything listed in this book...well, um...maybe we'll see you in the next edition. The Darwin folks have been doing fine, fine work for years, and it's good to see a payoff for them, especially when it's as funny as this. I think it could have been longer (or denser), but it's certainly a good value.
Rating: 
Summary: Darwin's Theories in Practice
Review: Human beings are mostly advanced and intelligent creatures when compared to other living things. But the actions of some are so incredibly mindless that they boggle the imagination. With some people, the supreme acts of stupidity they have committed has either led to their demise or to the inability to spread their tainted cells to future generations via reproduction. Those who have succumbed to stupidity in this manner are proud recipients of a Darwin Award, named after Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution and natural selection.
This book divides it winning entries into those that have been confirmed, those that are honorable mentions, and those that have been proven to be urban legends. Confirmed entries have been verified as true. Honorable mentions are given to individuals who committed gross acts of stupidity but didn't actually die or lose the ability to reproduce. .And urban legends are those stories which are known to be false but have been included in this book anyway because so many people believe them to be true.
The humor used in this guide is a little bit on the morbid side, and this fact could turn some readers off. The book talks about these people and the things they did and, in many cases, it seems to be making fun of the incident, even when people died as a result. It is all meant in good fun, but it could be objectionable to more sensitive readers.
As far as the stories themselves go, I found that many of them are quite humorous, particularly those that involve a man's private parts. It's shocking to read some of the outrageous things than men will do in order to get off. Some can be chalked up as lapses in judgment, but others are so weird they defy any sense of rationalization. (...)
A book like this may not be to everyone's liking, both for its callous sense of humor and for the briefness of many of the entries. No story is more than two pages long and some are only a single paragraph. This isn't always enough to adequately describe an event thoroughly. Still, this book is a pretty good one, filled with plenty of funny incidents of natural selection taking place, adding proof to Darwin's theory that less intelligent members of society are gradually eliminated from the gene pool each and every day.
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