The Mensa Genius Quiz book got us to wreck our minds with each riddle. The ones about liars and truthtellers town were even challenging when one had to explain the solution. My friends and I once spent hours because a friend of mine still couldn't figure out how the solution worked. It allowed you to think about the answers to riddles in an entirely different way looking at things all twisted, backwards, and upsidedown with no possibilities excluded

This publication is virtually unique for Mensa (the international high I.Q. society.) Instead of measuing I.Q., it is a measure of C.Q. (culture quotient.) You see, this book measures how much you know and not simply how intelligent you are. As a member of the society, I can personally attest that there are many people out there that may be very intelligent, unfortunately, they are also profoundly ignorant....
As the introduction points out, this book will not teach anyone to be a cultured person- culture cannot be taught, it can only be learned.
The book covers mythology, literature, and legend; art; etiquette and manners; music, theater, dance, and film; math and science; etc.
Of course I may be personally biased here, after all, I scored a 289 C.Q. (anything over 150 ranks as a "cultural genius.")

I recall years ago being what I thought was a smart person, but was treated in school like a dummy or just average intelligence.
However I always thought someday I'll show em what I can do. As it turned out I wasn't gifted, at least not IQ 140 or more, but fairly close to Mensa level. I have taken quite a few of the IQ tests on the web and scored 138 on one, but 119 on another. So why not pump up my mind as I would muscles? That's why I brought the Mensa Genius book. I rather suspect however that true genus may be IQ 180 and up with creative talents. In any event this book will help you discipline your mind to solve problems, some of which are tedious.
The one element I dislike about this book is its chapters on culture. I mean for pity sake what 20 year old IQ 160 is going to know a damn thing about Teapot Domb, Richard Nixon or what an Italian opera house is called ? Talk about cultural bias!
However the more straight forward and reasonable numeric and verbal puzzles I think do test intelligence, although I suppose one needs have read to do vocabulary items.
The book is fun, but I am sad to say too culturally or should I say cultishly biased for true measures of intellect. None the less good minds will knid the book challenging and perhaps warm them up for the Mensa exam, which I understand costs about 300 dollars, and you must score 132 to be considered in the high IQ club.
I bet Micheal Jordon would not pass any of these tests, but his gifts speak for themselves as being outside what Mensa is looking for.

Am I Mensa material? Maybe not with all those strange culturally biased questions Mensa loves so much, but the book was a fun read and did sharpen my problem solving skills. I recommend it if for nothing else than recreation.

This is an enjoyable book. It provides the reader with several hours of stimulating entertainment.

My only complaint is that the set of questions in the CULTURE section of the book has very little to do with intelligence. Instead, these questions favor those who are "well schooled". For example, what chance would a young boy from the ghetto have of correctly answering the question regarding the proper etiquette in declining an invitation to a White House dinner?

There seem to be several different categories of people who purchase books such as this: Those with superior intelligence who use these exercises as a kind of intellectual aerobics inorder to "stay in shape", those with above-average intelligence who are curious to know how well they can "do", and those with lesser intelligence who think that purchasing the book and completing the exercises will somehow make them brighter. (Perhaps there is another group whose members purchase the book and display it prominently but complete no exercises.) In recent years, I have purchased a number of these books and consider this one to be among the best. (Yes, thanks for asking, I completed the exercises but how well I did is not relevant to this review.) For whom do I recommend this specific book? Anyone who is curious to know what the exercises involve, how well she or he does when completing them, and (of greatest interest to me) learning WHY her or his responses are correct or incorrect. Completing exercises in several different books also reveals certain patterns of thought which stimulate the mind to approach a given problem or question from different perspectives. For example, what do the answer choices share in common? What is missing among the options offered? Over time, we develop certain mindsets. For example, we tend to see only what we expect to see. So-called "brain teasers" force us to perceive a given problem or question differently. The brain is a muscle which, like all other muscles, needs regular exercise. Books such as this provide that.

The book is indeed a resplendent make of a hard and thoughtfulwork.The way Grisham amkes his plots move,hmm......that's simply incredible.The down to earth and utilitarian characters make the novel sound even more intresting.Kudos to John Grisham

ok, i went through the whole book...i never really tested my iq...this was a total let-down...most of the questions are just childish forms of trick questions (how far does a dog run into the woods? halfway. from there the dog is running out of the woods...whaaaaaaat?).
there is one gem and if you can't get this one, maybe you should buy the book: a horse merchant goes to a fair to sell his horses. he sells half of his horses to his first client and adds half a horse as a bonus. then he sells half of the horses he has left to the second client and, you got it, adds another half a horse for good measure. to the last client, he sells half of the horses he has left and then adds half a horse. all clients got full horses (nobody had to drag half a carcass away). how many horses did the horse merchant sell that day?
my god, it seems soooooo simple now but it did take me ten whole minutes to get this one.
but honestly, this is probably the only gem in this book so unless if you are totally bored and like asking trick questions to little kids...buy yourself a good meal instead!

This book has a lot of brain teasers and a few trivia questions. Though, if you are a trivia buff, you are bound to be disappointed. You'd be much better off buying a book like "Quizzing" which I found had some amazing trivia questions.

I brought this Mensa book with me when my family went sailing, and it was a big hit with all. It is great even for children, if they have adults helping them along with the questions. Being a kid myself, I found the a-b-c quizzes hte easiest and most fun, because it wasn't pure over-stuffed-brain-knowledge and way-above-my-head common sense. Even with those questions, though, I found the book very enjoyable and would recommend it to any and all people who are looking for a good challenge.

_The Art of Growing a Beard_ is a good primer for beginners. The illustrations and overall tone are dreadfully out of date, although the humorous effects of these mid 70s artifacts might well be worth the book's price. In any case, if you're really intent on growing your beard in an idiosyncratic way, you might find equal inspiration just by looking through magazines of the period.

I especially like the section on beard-lovin'.

A fascinating and rather bizarre beard manual, in that the author and illustrator both look like BBC commentators or other serious bearded folk, yet to book is totally dedicated and funny. Excellent sections on neglected topics: bearded lovemaking, "Your Beard on the Prowl," and "Dealing with Objections." Also a good practical guide to care and feeding of the beard, moustache and sideburns, and a catalog of beard styles which are, surprisingly, not that dated once you look past the veneer of 70s line-drawing illustration and ignore the tunics that the subjects are portrayed wearing. It has revived my futile desire to grow facial hair.

This book is quite silly. The authors crack the book up enormously, and then fail to deliver. Particularly the chapter called Demystifying Math was a huge letdown. There are no general, structured ways to think presented that will enhance your problem-solving skills, just a few hardly interesting probabilities. It's kind of annoying given how the authors praise their own book all the time. For example, they talk about some brilliant people like John von Neumann, and go on to say "each of them knew how to think smart mathematically without having read this book. Just how this was possible we are not certain...". Alright, they are not dead serious, but it's annoying given how ridiculous the Math chapter in fact is. And the book is packed with "like a Mensan would", "Mensans love this", Mensans love that", "a real Mensan would" etc etc. I don't consider this book a total waste of money, because it doesn't cost much and there's the occasional interesting fact.

the surprise part is surprisingly not one.

This book is one for all you mega mind wizards. This will get you thinking and working.