About book Too Good To Be True: The Colossal Book Of Urban Legends (1999)
My introduction to urban legends came early, and at the hands of my auntie. When I was a kid, my brother and I would spend the latter half of the week at our grandparents and, while they did their weekly food shop, we’d be left under the charge of Auntie Lisa, who’d soon have us squealing and our hair standing on end as she told us about The Dead Roommate, the Maniac on the Car Roof, The Call From INSIDE The House, and The Licked Hand (these are the first I remember hearing, along with one about an old woman who comes to the door and you notice she has a missing finger….I can’t remember the rest of the story, but I can remember nearly hitting the ceiling whenever Lisa would get to the end and screech “YOU DID IT!” and lunge for us. Got us Every.Damn.Time.) I’m now looking forward to my own niece and nephew becoming old enough for me to scare the bejeesus out of, and this book should be a good source for me to mine.A compilation of all of the urban legends you’ve heard (plus many more) ranging from the comic to the horrifying, from the old to the new (including all those warnings about gang initiations, petrol stations and checking the back-seat of your car that people are always sharing on Facebook), Brunvand’s writing style is a little irritating at times, especially whenever referring you to the ten thousand other books he’s apparently written on urban legends, but not enough to detract from the legends themselves.
Una completísima recopilación, extraídas de cartas recibidas por el autor a través de una columna de periódico, de las más famosas leyendas urbanas como el jinete sin cabeza, la planta con bichos carnívoros, el asesino que está en el asiento de atrás del coche, la autoestopista fantasma..etc y sus diferentes variaciones dependiendo del país de origen.Un buen libro, sin duda, para refrescar aquellas fantásticas a la par que terribles historias que hemos escuchado, y para conocer nuevas.Entre mis favoritas:El cerebro desparramadoLa mascota mexicanaLa mano lamidaEl testamentoEl garfioConductores decapitadosEl asesino del asiento de atrásLa muerte del novioEl cerdo de la carreteraMary sida y harry sidaEl autoestopista desaparecidoPor citar algunas. Todas las historias están separadas por temática como por ejemplo: cuentos clásicos caninos, automanía ( uno de los mejores), aventuras sexuales y su merecido, entre otras.Lo recomiendo a todo el mundo que quiera pasar un rato entretenido y quien sabe, pasar un poco de miedo leyendo unas muy imaginativas historias..reales??
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This is perhaps the most comprehensive of Brunvand's work. Although, I wish it were as analytical as some of his others. He writes interesting books about those stories we are all "sure" are "true" and exposing them as legends. He also does a fantastic job of expaling what makes an Urban Legend an Urban Legend as opposed to just a rumor or a piece of gossip. Brunvand is also careful to explain and explore situations where the legends have truth to and in them (for example, the idea that people posion halloween candy was around long before there was a case invoving tainted candy - and even then the murderer knew the victims and did not act randomly, relying on the legend to cover his tracks). Buy this one as a handy refrence, but read the others (he also rarely doubles back on legends in the others without a reason to do so or without acknowleding that he's done this before and providing refrence points).
—Pj
