Review: 147 Things: My User's Guide to the Universe, from Black Holes to Bellybuttons

147 Things: My User's Guide to the Universe, from Black Holes to Bellybuttons by Jim Chapman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Back to dusting off this blog with a recent review. Here goes.

'147 Things: My User's Guide to the Universe, from Black Holes to Bellybuttons.' Sounds pretty wacky and out there, right? Pick up some interesting facts in a very easy read style book, or at the very least get some random and interesting trivia. Right? Right??

Well, I'm sorry, Jim, but your book just didn't do it for me. The balance of seriousness with sheer stupidity (the amount of times your penis was mentioned just wasn't funny, particularly when juxtaposed beside the story of how a major father figure in your life died) doesn't gel. And as for the amazing facts and stuff? Well... meh. There wasn't even anything that new there. I mean: there were a few things that I didn't know specifically, but nothing to make me get too excited about. Apart from that, they were facts that, well, everyone knows. Apparently not Chapman because he presents them as though he's the bringer of some amazing new piece of science that will really shock you. But it's mostly GCSE level type stuff, it's not ground-breaking.

I only finished this book, to be honest, because I wanted to give it a fair review. And I have. Unfortunately, slogging through every single one of the 147 facts didn't change my mind.

Two stars, purely for the fact that I did go and watch about half of one of Chapman's YouTube videos (I switched it off because it was boring), so I must have been a little more intrigued than I realised. Now, I'm even more confused. Why do people find him so interesting on YouTube? I could walk around with a camera all day too, y'know...

Nothing personal about Jim Chapman; he seems like a really nice bloke. I imagine if you follow his YouTube channel, you'll enjoy this book because it appears to be along the same style. Not one for me, but (this sounds weird) I wouldn't mind meeting Jim Chapman. I think he'd be an interesting conversationalist.

Just - unfortunately for us - not an author.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC copy to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

(If anyone's interested - after my, er half-hearted, endorsement - below is the video I checked out. I didn't manage to watch the whole thing.)

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