This is the first of Panati's series of six origins book and the most encyclopedic in scope. Newsday called it "The last word on the first of everything," and The New Yorker said "Panati is fearless, far-reaching, formidable, and, when it pleases him, frivolous." The Boston Globe states "The thing is fun...a weapon for stumping supercilious experts." These six origins books will soon be the basis for a TV series, "In The Beginning..." Panati will write the series and may serve as on-camera host.

An excellent compendium of scientific research into the paranormal powers of Isreali-born psychic Uri Geller. There are papers by respected scientists as well as magicians who describe many of Geller's feats, such as deforming and breaking spoons and forks without using magic tricks, permanently deforming several pieces of nitinol wire, telepathy, and producing apports. If the only thing that you've ever read if Geller has been James Randi's overly-biased books, check this one out and find out the truth; you'll be convinced!

Oscar Wilde's last words? What caused the extinction of the Dodo bird? Author Charles Panati has compiled a most fascinating look at the end of practically everything and everybody. Last words of famous folk. Final resting places of the rich and famous. Bequests of dying Presidents. There are all here, in this witty (and highly readable) compendium of all things dead and dying. Think of it as the beginning of the end and you'll finish first. Or is it last? As for the answers to our questions . . .

Panati reviews all forms of endings, and writes well and frankly---there is much good historical information here, and he touches on little discussed topics!!!

It is truly wonderful to see Charles Panati's work back in print. There was a decade-long spell where all of his lively, meticulous and engrossing work was unavailable. This collection is his best, and is finally back in print. I'm already mailing copies to my friends. The sheer variety and scope of this (long but never dull) book is a brilliant display. It's not just the 'last words' of celebrities, war heros, presidents and kings. Or the sobering list of incredible but extinct creatures - the Steller Sea Cow, the Passenger Pigeon, the comical/doomed Dodo, the 7-foot New Zealand Moa bird - it's all here. Even abandoned burial practices (Zoroastrians leaving corpses on 15-foot platforms to be exposed to the elements/birds, or the French placing millions of skeletons in the catacombs of Paris). But there's so much more - catastrophic yet now forgotten plagues, U.S. Presidential wills (what DID Abe Lincoln leave behind?...), and fascinating stories of bizarre and ineffective medical practices that have passed into history, curing no one. If you've read this far, you want this book. I want you to have it too. Buy it, it's great.

it's an interesting book filled with little known details about death and other endings. i was at a loss as to what rating to give the book. he wasted time on the extinctions, though he picked the largest extinctions, they are also some of the dullest. Too many pages were spent on wills and other mundane thing. but, when he discussed the deaths and last words of famous people throughout history, the book really picked up. but i can see how much research he put into the book, so i gave him four stars instead of three.

Like I have said before, I love Charles Panati's books! This, in my opinion, is one of his best ones. Very informative, as are all of his books. Great information in the right amount on every subject you could possibly want to know about death including how different forms of death were created such as the electric chair and guillotine, last will and testament of such historical figures as Hitler and Shakespeare and all the American presidents, list of the leading killing diseases and their origin, extinct animals, examining life span and the deterioration of the senses, thanatographies and much more! Anybody interested in this kind of stuff should deffinately buy this book.

I am amazed at how often I have to return to this book for information. It's unbelievable how often you'll need to look up information about plagues, wills, cemetaries, etc. Contains info about death, sex practices, extinctions, capital punishment, etc. Everything you ever wanted to know about death and dying!

If you enjoy trivia and unusual
facts, then Charles Panati's
Extraordinary Origins of
Everyday Things, is the perfect
book. I have read other trivia books and I can say without
hesitation that Mr. Panati produces the best of the genre.
Many trivia books list a dry and uninspired fact sheet.
Panati, however, avoids this common pitfall and instead
entertains us with unusual and well researched trivia about
the history or origin of many everyday items and customs.
His books are formatted into logical chapter groupings
that easily flow from one topic to another. The book
is a pleasure to read and it teaches you in a pain free
style, answering questions that until now you couldn't find
answers for! Panati's words will both enlighten and
enchant you.

I found this to be one of the most fascinating and interesting books I have ever read. Flip the book open to any page and learn the history of everyday things we take for granted.

How were Band-Aids invented? Why was toilet paper such a hard sell at first? Who invented the razor blade, or ready-mixed paint? When were toilets invented? How were false teeth made during the civil war?

Ever wonder where the expression "to give the cold shoulder" came from? The custom of shaking hands? All of these mysteries and hundreds more are masterfully revealed by Panati.

I love to read a few passages before bed -- that's the beauty of this book. You can pick it up and put it down over and over again.

Well written, thoroughly researched, and told with wit and economy, this book is a great read for anyone with a curiousity about life and culture.

This was a gift to me from my parents well over ten years ago and is a book I still read occasionally. Believe it or not, it represents the single most important positive influence in my education. I realize that most first time readers will not be impressionable elementary-school children like I was, but I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't be able to find this book an enjoyable read.

This book is fairly comprehensive and far-reaching for its topic and contains the expected multitude of interesting details, as I've come to expect from my previous experiences with Panati's books.

However, be forewarned that this particular book is not all-new, as Panati has indeed borrowed some portions of his previous books, though not enough to be glaring. More glaring, I think, is that this book contains the occasional turn of phrase or casting of fact that would make any "sexually liberated" woman (and perhaps man) flinch. The book is best when it presents facts instead of trying to explain for them a gendered context.

In addition, the book contains a stunning amount of typos and incorrect words (repeatedly substituting "women" for "woman", etc.). I noted on the average one error for every ten pages. This deficiency is of course not necessarily the fault of the author, but I have to wonder at the publishing house (or at least, the copy editor) for letting this slip.

These are not fatal flaws, however, and I do believe that anyone who's enjoyed Panati's previous efforts and has an interest in the subject would probably find plenty of interest in this one.

This book is not only well researched, but an enjoyable read. It is one of the most intriguing books I've read in a while. A must-have for scholars as well as trivia lovers.

Answers everything you ever wanted to know about sex..and then some!! For instance, did you know that the word "testify" is derived from the latin for testicle? Yes, it's true..before there were bibles to swear on, men swore on their testicles. Did you know that Frenchmen wore the first high heels? Women didn't wear them until the 18th century, but men liked the way they made their legs look! Ever wonder why men have nipples? Read this book...it's fun, flaky and fascinating.

This book is purportedly based upon an actual, unpublicized experiment into an altered state of conciousness. Written by a former science editor for Newsweek, it is a taut and suspenseful thriller. Ben West, a psychologist, is conducting an experiment on mutual hypnosis in which the subjects have their conciousness linked together in a sort of state of temporary death. His subjects are his fiancee, Alison Kilmore, and his friend, Stan Fredricks who, through these experiments in hypnosis, seem to be sharing a quasi after death experience. As the experiments continue, Alison, in her waking state, seems to be undergoing a change, both physical and mental, becoming detached and disoriented from her everyday reality. Stan also seems to be undergoing a change. He suddenly wants to divorce his wife, Nina. He is also disregarding Ben's instructions during the experiments, and Stan seems to be exerting mind control over Alison, even when not under hypnosis. It appears that the experiments have caused their minds to become linked in some way, as if Alison and Stan were one and having a sort of telepathic affair. It seems that both Ben and Stan want Alison. Only one can have her. Only one wants her alive. Who will ultimately be the victor, and at what cost? Read the book to discover the chilling answer.

This book was a real nail biter! Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. At just under 200 pages this book is a short thrill ride that leaves you holding your breath at the end.

The main character is Ben West, a university professor and psychotherapist. His fiancé Alison suffers terribly nightmares and in an effort to help release here from these nightmares he begins to hypnotize her. He was once fascinated by a paper he read involving 2 hypnosis participants actually hypnotizing each other - he enlists a student/friend Stan to become a participant in the hypnosis. Unknown to Ben a special bond forms between the two that occurs only during the hypnosis sessions. At some points during the sessions Stan refuses to follow directs thrusting Alison deeper and deeper into hypnotic trances that endanger her life. As Ben begins to unravel the puzzle of what's happening to his fiancé and her worsening mental status during her waking hours, a grim discovery occurs and a race against time begins as he tries to save Alison from certain disaster.

I can't tell you more than that as it would certainly destroy the mystery here. This was a fascinating and completely absorbing story. Excellent!

Unstructured, repetitive and monotonous, this book is simply an assemblage of quotations from different cultures on common themes (e.g., the Golden Rule) without any effort to enhance understanding. It is like a stamp collection sorted by color -- meaningless. The reader is better served by Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

Panati must be a wonderful conversationalist; yet again, he has created a wonderful work, amazing even the most learned and inquisitive minds with his fact-finding and sense of history, coupled together with engaging writting, allowing one access to the origins of our most common and erudite expressions.

A must get!

Panati has done it again! Produced a big book for browsing that is chuck full of surprises, insight and wisdom, all told with the author's dry wit and sophisitcated sense of humor. People were saying "no pain, no gain" back in the 17th century, and "the devil made me do it" many centuries earlier. Panati has ferretted out the fascinating stories behind hundreds of 'wisdom' expression and revealed how 'commonsense' got its start. This is surely one of his best books to date: both seriously informative and endlessly entertaining.

The title is somewhat inappropriate as it dedicates more time to explaining why Catholics believe the way they do, although on occasion the author does get past the traditional reasoning and apologetics.

It is easy to read and does cover a wide variety of topics within Christianity. There are a few references to Judaism and Islam, but almost nothing of the other world religions.

This book may be helpful for those who have read little or nothing regarding the history of religions, especially the Catholic faith. However, a superior book on the origins of Christian practices would be *Two Babylons or the Papal Worship* by Alexander Hislop.

In his introduction to "Sacred Origins of Things Profound" , Mr. Panati states that what he writes about is slightly slanted towards Catholicism. In fact, the entire book is devoted to Christianity and Judaism. There is scant mention of Islam or the other religions of the world. Even this could be overlooked by a Christian except that he really doesn't have anything good to say about that religion either. His tone is sceptical and focuses on failures of the Church rather than it's successes. There is much dissent in the Christian world today (I am also a Christian). That is true. But to say that there are American Catholics and the rest of the world is Roman is utterly preposterous and closed minded. It is sad for me to read as I too am an American. How easy it is to live in the richest country in the world with media surrounding us daily and to no so little of the world outside. East or West. Mr. Panati holds interest for those American armchair readers who want to know about what I'll call the trivia of religion. If you are a Catholic, The Catholic Encylopedia might be of more benefit. To conclude, Oscar Wilde once said that if we Americans had the choice to see heaven or go to a lecture about heaven, we'd choose the lecture. Excepting some glaring errors that I would gladly point out to the author regarding Buddhism and celibacy in the Orthodox Church, the book was, on the whole, inoffensive.

The author admits that this book is slanted towards Catholocism -- you have been warned. He spends most of his time analyzing the Catholic Church, then Protestants, then Jews, and -- if there's time -- any other religious group. Panati discusses all manner of religious practices, stories, and rituals without beating around the bushes. The text suggests as many questions as it answers, but it is a very thought provoking read. Although I wouldn't accept all of his discourse at face value, this book has motivated me to pursue further study of several of the topics that he covers.

this book was good at first it had a thick plot and a running story but during the third chapter the book took a turn for the worse this book.....just turned into a porno......there was really no story line other than a boy with psychic powers feeling up other girls.....this book was good for a while but turned into a very sick and disturbing image of society and the way that we live....i cannot recommend this book to anyone of my age or to anyone at all ........THIS CHARLES PANATI IS A MAN WHO USES HIS " SECOND BRAIN " TOOOOO....MUCH