The Big, Bad Book of Beasts: The World's Most Curious Creatures

I was particularly excited for this one after glimpsing the illustrations showcased on the cover but unfortunately that’s the best you get. This book is full of those exact same antique naturalist etchings you’ve seen thousands of times already. There’s somewhere around 10 original illustrations of monsters from myth and legend (along with some prehistoric creatures as well)but they’re few and far between. They are well executed,hence the two stars,but even those often have parts that are copy and pasted from the others in order to save time and effort. The Descriptions are fairly brief and limited in scope. Ahuitzotl was easily the best thing about this book and takes the form of a ferocious possum-like creature as opposed to the usual canine interpretation. The Aspidochelone was also quite interesting.

I would befriend it immediately. I would be inside of a Barnes store and completely ignore my other actual human-friend's conversation (true story) and let my eye linger on it. Remember it for a few weeks. Mouth to in something like "Shhh. I'll be back for you".In fact, I wouldnt even care the gender of this book, I'd just be so into it. Ask it all sorts of questions; fitting as to its many sorts of creatures it has to tell you about.Neat. Beyond neat. Glorious images too. I had a dream also of the elephant brain sketched in there. Thats how fantastic it is.Glorious. If you get lost in the splendor of biology and plain 'ol life-bein's this book can be your twenty min discovery channel* fix and a little bit of entertainment news humor too**Mind you this is Discovery before 2005 when they actual filmed something the pooped outside for once.Cool reads

I've rarely encountered a printed book that is so poorly proofread. I'm not a nitpicker by nature, but it's distracting to have sentences that simply make no sense show up on a regular basis. The general idea of the book - a medieval bestiary made modern - has charm, but the execution is wobbly. Much of the detail on real animals feels pitched to a child's level of understanding, but there's more sexual and scatological detail (i.e., the flaming explosive farts of a mythical beast) than some parents might be looking for. It never quite seems to find its niche; it's too basic for adults but rather bawdy for the elementary-school kids the science seems aimed at.

I enjoyed this book about monsters, beasts and animals. I like the fact that it is an A-Z format and you can use this book to look up the monster or animal you want to know about in a quick way. Michael Largo is a great author.

Good read. The author has better books. Final exits was so unusual it made me a fan of his style of writing. His best books are genius and heroen and portable obituary (my Fav.) so for something different, can't go wrong with Largo.

I thought the book was going to be colorful just like the cover was. But the inside is just paper and black ink. Still a good book to read about all the big, bad beast.

Overall a good book but some info was lacking. It seemed like it had been posted directly from wikipedia

my wife and I take turns reading sections of this book. its a fun easy read before bed, and has some fun history about the natural world.

Wanted this as a reference for a project I had in hand. It did the job, and has some interesting info in it's pages. Illustrations could be better.

Found it a very entertaining and interesting