Kelly O.
This is the fifth book I have read as part of challenge no. 21 of my 52 things in 52 weeks challenge.
Bet you haven’t ever really thought about what goes into marshmallows, have you?
I’ve only just started to get into chemistry as part of my uni, and a few of our experiments involved the modification of a colour of an item using various other chemicals. Reading this introduction from Dan literally made me stop for a bit, and wonder why blue 1 would be needed. Seriously…anyone know? Did anyone else ever actually stop and look at ingredients for any food item in particular, only to wonder why a particular ingredient was actually necessary?
The rest of the book is a collection of stories ranging from the ponderings of other everyday occurrences that we never stop to really think about, or the bizarre moments in life (being certain you were in a specific place at a particular time, and someone else who was there at that exact same time not ever seeing you). There’s a lot in there that you’ll find that you think “oh yeah – why is that?”
This was the first time I’ve used an e-book in my 52 in 52 challenge, but when an offer was made for me to receive the book for free in exchange for my honest opinion, I definitely wasn’t going to turn that down! Reading an e-book was quite a different experience to be honest. I used my iPhone, and I definitely struggled as it came in a PDF format (on the iPhone you can’t change PDF font sizes using iBooks). However, if you had a dedicated e-book reader with a larger screen (iPad, kindle etc) you wouldn’t have the same problem. In addition, if it came in a format that was a bit more friendly to the iBooks app so that I could change the font size then it would be a lot better. There’s a kindle version so I would expect this problem would be resolved using the Kindle app.
Overall the book was quite enjoyable to read, and I found with the portability of the iPhone I was able to read little bits here and there. It’s not a book that will keep you gripped to your phone until you’ve finished it, but it’s still great for those moments when you want something light-hearted that will give you a laugh here and there. There was also one moment in the book where I finished the chapter, sat back and realised how lucky I am. I won’t give it all away, but the writer, Dan, lived his life in a wheelchair and shared a story of one of those moments where he completely relies on others for assistance. It truly made me feel blessed that I have every limb in my body, and my own problems seem greatly insignificant. Sometimes we all need a bit of a wakeup call so we can reevaluate our lives, and realise that most of our problems really are quite small in the grand scheme of things.
Buy Weirder Than Marshamallows
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