The Art of Shen Ku

The Art of Shen Ku is a compendium of semi-useful knowledge by Zeek (Paperback ISBN: 0399527257). It includes lots of information that would be helpful to a traveler and explorer like navigation and first aid, a lot of basic martial arts, and a lot of pseudo-scientific nonsense. Unfortunately, there is nothing to explains which part is helpful and which part is junk.

Overall, while the book has plenty of useful information, I would not recommend this book because without a lot of extra research, there is no simple way to know when the information is right, partially right, or dangerously wrong.

Review

Good

• The book is fully illustrated with line art.
• A lot of the information tables are especially useful.

Bad

• To give the book an informal feeling, the author uses Comic Sans for the entire book. GAH!

Ugly

• The book contains a lot of information that is so wrong it can be dangerous. For example, it contains herbal remedies for diseases like HIV. It tells you not to wear glasses to see better. It also has tricks to know when a woman is ovulating (possibly so you won't need to use protection?).