Rating: 
Summary: Not High Literature, just a lot of fun
Review: This book had me laughing and shaking my head at the utter stupidity of some award winners. One reviewer thought Wendy Northcutt's writing to be written in a condescending tone, as if she were 'talking to children' or something to that effect, but it was really quite tongue-in-cheek and fun to read. I took the author's advice in her intro and read it in small doses, a half or a full chapter coming home on the train, and it was perfect. Any longer than that, and your mind almost becomes numb to the tales of senseless stupidity. This book is a real load of fun, buy it and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, a caution to would be award winnners
Review: Amusing and frightning. "Urban Legends" should have been left out, because they aren't real. Someone should remind the author, who left cancer research to write comedy, that natural selection is about the only part of Darwinism that has any validity (and no power to create species at that!). I only say that so she can avoid further embarassment with more pseudoscientific allusions in future books. Stick to the funny stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: The gene pool needs some chlorine
Review: My God I have never laughed so hard in my life!! Wonderful examples of the existence of God, morons getting killed off before they have a chance to reproduce. My favorite is the one about the (how can I this?) the guy that "attempted" to rob the gun store (he didn't get very far).
Rating:
Summary: An utter hoot of a book!
Review: Wendy Northcutt had the imagination and good sense to start the Darwin Awards some years ago, and she's now compiled the best ones into a book. "The Darwin Awards" examines what Northcutt calls "the finest examples of evolution in action"--that is to say, just-plain-stupid folks who are killed (or sometimes just maimed) through direct result of their own stupidity. Northcutt's premise is based on the idea that these idiots have done the human race a favor by removing themselves from the gene pool. Northcutt not only details some hilarious stories herein, she tells you whether or not they were "confirmed by the Darwin Awards" (most were) and what newspapers or magazines the original accounts appear in when the unfortunate event first took place. She also examines a number of remarkably resilient urban legends (remember the one about the guys, the dynamite, the iced-over lake, the SUV that hadn't yet been fully paid for, and the faithful dog?) and gives you her take on possible origins of the stories and what clearly makes them urban legends instead of true, out-and-out Darwin Award contenders. This book is a laugh a minute. You will be astonished at some of the idiotic things people do without thinking--looking into a gas tank or a loaded gun with a lit match, trying to get fish by dropping live electrical wires into a lake (then wandering in to retrieve said fish without removing or turning off the wires), and so on and so on. What a guilty pleasure this book is!
Rating: 
Summary: the problem w/ Amazon
Review: quoting another reviewer:
"Funny book, except the author is obviously biased against men. It doesn't take much research to turn up the fact that women are much stupider (in general) when it comes to basic common sense stuff." The problem w/ Amazon.com reviews (and the rest of the internet for that matter) is that it gives a voice to anyone that can write, even people who are completley ignorant.
Rating:
Summary: Low Forms Of Intelligence
Review: We've all received e-mails containing a few of these awards, haven't we? And here's a whole book of them that had me rolling around the office floor in laughter safe in the knowledge that at least I'm not on the lowest rung of human intelligence. Although, thanks to these geniuses, I'm moving steadily towards those dreaded depths. These stories, whether they're urban myths or incontrovertible truths, provide laugh after laugh as well as many head-shaking moments as you just wonder, what on earth were they thinking? From a purely entertaining viewpoint, this is well worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing acts of stupidity recorded for all
Review: There's not much I can say...it's a great book full of incredibly foolish people who remove themselves from the gene pool in idiotic ways. Of course, all of the stories are available on their website for free (with a little effort), so buying the book is for people without internet access.
Rating:
Summary: stupid ppl make me laugh
Review: this is the best book i have ever read. if your some1 that laughs when ppl fall while rollerblading or fall off of curbs, this is the book for you. not only does it have stupid ppl in it, it has stupid ppl killing themselves, and the stories are true. think about the guy who went up 5 miles by attaching some weather balloons 2 his lawn chair or the man that was belching fire balls that godzilla would be proud off. i seriously recommend that you buy this book
Rating: 
Summary: questionable accuracy
Review: Entertaining, but the accuracy can't be trusted. Ms Nothcutt claims that all stories are confirmed, but I know of at least one case first hand where nothing of the kind was done. Ms Nothcutt reports that the Kansas City school district did away with the teaching of evolution in high school biology classes. A bare minimum of confirmation would have showed her that Kansas City is in Missouri, not Kansas. In fact the city of Kansas City was so named more than 30 years before the state of Kansas existed. It is the education board of the state of Kansas which voted to de-emphasize evolution, a decision which remained in force for somewhat less than a year. The school district of Kansas City, Missouri is the jurisdiction which lost their accreditation with the Missouri state accrediting board, due to the corruption and inefficiency resulting from court ordered tax levies. If Ms Nothcutt had bothered to check with the Kansas City Star, the local TV or radio stations, or indeed, even TV networks or international news services, all of whom carried both stories, they would have been able to set her straight. Actually, just glancing in any atlas would have shown her that Kansas City is in Missouri, not Kansas. Three or four other anecdotes also involved situations known to me personally, and while none of them involved the incredible level of inaccuracy that this one did, all of them involved some level of failure to check on the facts. It is therefore impossible to trust the book's prostestations of historicity. As a work of fiction, the book is adequate.
Rating:
Summary: stupid is as stupid does
Review: Some of these stories are very interesting and amazing how some people can be so... stupid. In many ways in makes me laugh and in many other ways in makes me mad. I just can't understand what brings people to do the stupid acts mentioned in this book... it's entertaining but it doesn't build up any suspense for any of the stories, it just kind of tells you.
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