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Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends
Have you heard the one about the new computer owner who mistook the CD-ROM player for a cup holder? Or the woman who thought her brains were oozing out of a gunshot wound, when the "truth" was that when her Pillsbury Poppin' Fresh can exploded, striking her on the head with the lid, the goo she felt was biscuit dough? Jan Harold Brunvand, professor emeritus at the University of Utah and author of numerous urban-legend collections, including The Vanishing Hitchhiker, The Choking Doberman, Curses! Broiled Again, and American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, has been studying urban legends for some 20 years, and his new book, Too Good to Be True, relates more than 200 of these indestructible tales.
There are relatively recent stories based on modern technology, such as the classic microwaved pet, and yarns that have been making the urban-legend circuit for decades, such as the solid-cement-Cadillac story, which can be traced back to the 1940s, at least, involving a cement-truck driver who spies a new Cadillac convertible in his driveway and his wife talking to some strange man. He dumps his load of concrete on the Cadillac, but later discovers the stranger was a car dealer and the car was to be a gift from his wife, one she'd spent years saving her pennies for.
The stories are grouped by subject, including "Dog Tales" and "Just Desserts," "Sexcapades" and "Losing Face." There are baby stories and work stories, criminal tales and college anecdotes, plus stories of mistaken identity, human nature, and technology. Brunvand achieves more, however, than a mere compendium of highly entertaining stories. He discusses the nature of urban legends--those almost believable, addictively retellable tales that always happened to a friend of a friend (FOAF, in folklorist parlance)--and for each individual story, Brunvand includes as much of its history as he has been able to trace, including newspaper accounts, alternative versions, and the story's natural cycle, that is, how many years, typically, between resurfacings. The result is an exceptionally engaging book and a great resource for debunking that next story, as heard from a friend by that unnamed acquaintance of unassailable honesty, that sounds just a little too perfect to swallow whole. --Stephanie Gold
Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
Jan Harold Brunvand
43books66followersJan Harold Brunvand (born 1933) is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah in the United States, best known for spreading the concept of the urban legend, or modern folklore. Before his work, folk tales were associated with ancient times or rural cultures; Brunvand's breakthrough was to take concepts developed in the academic study of traditional folktales and apply them to stories circulating in the modern world.
Brunvand is the author of several well-known books on the topic of urban legends, starting with The Vanishing Hitchhiker in 1981. This book brought urban legends to popular attention in the United States. Follow-up works include The Choking Doberman (1984), The Mexican Pet (1988), Curses! Broiled Again! (1990), The Baby Train (1993), and others. He also edited the one-volume American Folklore: An Encyclopedia (1996), as well as several textbooks.
Born in Cadillac, Michigan, Brunvand received a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University in 1961. He taught at several U.S. universities before joining the University of Utah in 1966. He retired in 1996, but remains a popular speaker and writer; he gave the keynote address at the 2003 meeting of the Missouri Folklore Society, of which he is a longtime member.
Brunvand is the author of several well-known books on the topic of urban legends, starting with The Vanishing Hitchhiker in 1981. This book brought urban legends to popular attention in the United States. Follow-up works include The Choking Doberman (1984), The Mexican Pet (1988), Curses! Broiled Again! (1990), The Baby Train (1993), and others. He also edited the one-volume American Folklore: An Encyclopedia (1996), as well as several textbooks.
Born in Cadillac, Michigan, Brunvand received a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University in 1961. He taught at several U.S. universities before joining the University of Utah in 1966. He retired in 1996, but remains a popular speaker and writer; he gave the keynote address at the 2003 meeting of the Missouri Folklore Society, of which he is a longtime member.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
February 3, 2022
I can sort of understand why readers who ONLY want to peruse, to be entertained and perhaps also end up being a bit creeped and freaked out by a large and exhaustive collection urban legends might well prefer Jan Harold Brunvand's 1999 Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends to his much more academically oriented and with a large amount of secondary notes and folkloric analysis 1981 The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings. And yes, Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends was definitely a fun, entertaining and also quite a diverting way to spend about an hour of reading time, with the fact that Brunvand usually presents multiple versions of his featured urban legends and also an ethnically diverse smorgasbord definitely putting a bit of an appreciative smile on my face.
However, as soon as I noticed that in Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends Jan Harold Brunvand has included no detailed folkloric analysis and no secondary sources, I do admit very quickly and very much losing a lot of my reading interest and most definitely therefore finding Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends absolutely and very majorly lacking on an intellectual and academic level and to also thus consider The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and their Meanings a for and to me and in my humble opinion vastly superior book to Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends (and yes, even with with my issues regarding the slightly misleading book title for The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings and the general set-up of the notes). Because definitely, I do not ever read (or want to read) urban legends only for reading entertainment purposes but also for academics, for folkloric studies. And well, the latter (academics, folklore, supplemental notes and analyses), this is simply not really at all present in Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends, which while it certainly shows a nicely penned and retold collection of urban legends, that Jan Harold Brunvand has obviously not included in particular supplemental notes and a bibliography, for me, and for what I expect in a book highlighting urban legends, two stars is indeed all that I will be wanting to consider for Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends
However, as soon as I noticed that in Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends Jan Harold Brunvand has included no detailed folkloric analysis and no secondary sources, I do admit very quickly and very much losing a lot of my reading interest and most definitely therefore finding Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends absolutely and very majorly lacking on an intellectual and academic level and to also thus consider The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and their Meanings a for and to me and in my humble opinion vastly superior book to Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends (and yes, even with with my issues regarding the slightly misleading book title for The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings and the general set-up of the notes). Because definitely, I do not ever read (or want to read) urban legends only for reading entertainment purposes but also for academics, for folkloric studies. And well, the latter (academics, folklore, supplemental notes and analyses), this is simply not really at all present in Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends, which while it certainly shows a nicely penned and retold collection of urban legends, that Jan Harold Brunvand has obviously not included in particular supplemental notes and a bibliography, for me, and for what I expect in a book highlighting urban legends, two stars is indeed all that I will be wanting to consider for Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends
February 4, 2015
We have all heard one in our day, but this book is packed to the brim with some outrageous stories. Are they true, a dream perhaps or just a delusion of a madman. Loved reading these and duscovering many new ones.
March 23, 2021
Sanāca vilties, jo biju gaidījusi pilsētas leģendas à la Bloody Mary stilā. Šeit vairāk tādi īsi pastāstiņi, ko parasti publicē dzeltenajā presē. Galvenie varoņi - pārsvarā cilvēki, kuri varētu būt Darvina balvas potenciālie ieguvēji, vai arī tādi, kuri ļauni un nežēlīgi. Gadās arī kāds smieklīgs pastāsts, bet kopumā meh!
January 2, 2014
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.
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.
May 18, 2016
Although this book is more of an intellectual study rather than simply a volume of tall tales, Brunvand’s compilation still makes for an interesting read. These urban legends are tall tales which could have occurred easily within our society. Often, Brunvand tries to get to the bottom of the story by tracing it to its source; although often with little success. It’s obvious that many of the stories have had their facts changed too many times for the entertainment value; and there are some things that you simply wouldn’t do. For instance; if it was your birthday would you really abandon you’re your car to walk several miles home? At the end of the volume; Brunvand also fails to reach a conclusion at the end of the volume, instead decides to list parodies of some of the urban legends that he’s just investigated; illustrating how gullible some people can be. It just goes to show that the truth does not stand in the way of a good story, which makes it too good to be true!
December 3, 2022
This is a pretty amazing collection of urban legends, some of which were presented to me in various ways as being absolutely true -- by everyone from my fourth grade pals at a sleepover to a trusted grad school professor. While the majority of the tales I had heard previously were obviously fake, there were a few that surprised me. The whole way in which these tales are spread is fascinating. People telling them will swear that they heard it from a FOAF (friend of a friend) to whom it actually happened. Brunvand has followed several of these stories exhaustively, only to find new versions from different places and never a person who will swear it happened to him or her. Some of the tales that were circulating in the 1980s and 90s actually had their roots in European folk stories.
It was an OK read, just somewhat slow at times, and the author did a lot of boasting about how he uncovered the tales to be fictitious, but it was somewhat interesting. The thing is, after I finished the book, I went out to my car to go and get some groceries, and there was a bloody hook hanging from the car door handle!!!
It was an OK read, just somewhat slow at times, and the author did a lot of boasting about how he uncovered the tales to be fictitious, but it was somewhat interesting. The thing is, after I finished the book, I went out to my car to go and get some groceries, and there was a bloody hook hanging from the car door handle!!!
October 30, 2021
Un libro genial, divertido, muy ameno y entretenido.
Lleno de relatos cortos que se leen muy rápido.
Lleno de relatos cortos que se leen muy rápido.
October 25, 2013
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 desparramado
La mascota mexicana
La mano lamida
El testamento
El garfio
Conductores decapitados
El asesino del asiento de atrás
La muerte del novio
El cerdo de la carretera
Mary sida y harry sida
El autoestopista desaparecido
Por 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??
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 desparramado
La mascota mexicana
La mano lamida
El testamento
El garfio
Conductores decapitados
El asesino del asiento de atrás
La muerte del novio
El cerdo de la carretera
Mary sida y harry sida
El autoestopista desaparecido
Por 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??
June 26, 2020
This was intermittently a fun read. Some great memories of scary stories told by my oldest sister, when she visited from college. However, there was too much repetition, and so much self-aggrandizement by the author - “I wrote about this in my book, blah, blah, blah.� I’m not really interested in where you wrote about it before, you could save that for numbered references at the end of the book. That way, I wouldn’t have to wade through it to get to more interesting content. I appreciated the histories of some of the legends, but so much of this book was unnecessary filler, it became a dud of a read.
July 28, 2012
A great collection of stories that we all heard happened "to a friend of someone we know" (funny how none of these accounts are ever first-hand)! Multiple topics are covered, and I was astonished at how many I had once heard being told as being true (for example, a teacher once told the "vacationer who takes in what she thinks is a stray Chihuahua" story).
The only caveat is that Brunvand's writing style can be a little dry at time, but still, the compelling source material makes this a fun read!
The only caveat is that Brunvand's writing style can be a little dry at time, but still, the compelling source material makes this a fun read!
July 31, 2021
Estupendo libro en el que se cuentan las leyendas urbanas más populares y se desgranan sus orígenes y sus formas de propagación. En algunos casos, también se investiga sobre la veracidad de muchas de estas leyendas y la reacción de alarma social que generan.
Muy buen libro si te interesa el tema. Está muy bien escrito y no se hace nada pesado.
Muy buen libro si te interesa el tema. Está muy bien escrito y no se hace nada pesado.
June 7, 2019
Reading this book was like stepping back in time to the now ridiculous-sounding urban legends I often accepted as truth when told to me as a child. Worth the read for having a good chuckle at yourself and humanity for believing the most absurd things at times.
July 16, 2012
Fun and funny. Just what the title and subtitle say. Nearly 500 pages of oral tradition, about two pages per story. Some are quite hysterical -- people actually BELIEVE THIS STUFF?!
July 16, 2020
Para pasar el rato
December 29, 2017
Es un libro que tardé en leer y en el que tenía una idea en mente y me conseguí con algo completamente distinto.
Todos conocemos muchas historias que parecen demasiado buenas para ser verdad, otras que son tan absurdas que es raro que alguien las crea y otras que parecen sacadas del día a día. Todas ellas, son consideradas de alguna forma leyendas urbanas, esas que han contado tanto que hay muchas versiones o se remontan a muchísimo tiempo atrás.
En este libro, el autor se encargó de seleccionar y clasificar las muchísimas leyendas urbanas que por años ha investigado; teniendo una idea errónea de ellas debido a la película con el mismo título, me conseguí con un libro que es realmente interesante. Contiene una gran cantidad de información de cada leyenda, sus variaciones y que, al ser divididas por capítulos, poseen una genial introducción a cada clasificación dada por el autor.
Muchas son más hacia lo cómico que lo escalofriante y muchas muestran que la naturaleza humana influye muchísimo en los casos relatados.
Creo que lo que hizo que no disfrutara tanto del libro como quería, fue el hecho de que, al colocar las variantes de una misma leyenda, se volviera algo tedioso y más si le agregas el hecho de que luego se explica detalladamente la investigación, cómo llegaron a conseguirla, etc, etc.
Otro punto que fue arma de doble filo, es el estilo de la escritura, el autor al tratar de mantener el estilo de cada tipo de reproducción de las leyendas (e-mails, artículos, folletos, entre otros) y la falta de separación evidente entre las versiones, hace que la lectura sea un poco confusa y que la lectura sea más lenta de lo habitual.
Le doy un 3.5/5 y lo recomiendo para aquellos que quieran reír un rato o conocer algunas de las historias que tienen muchos años recorriendo el mundo. Quizá se consigan con que ya conocen alguna...
Todos conocemos muchas historias que parecen demasiado buenas para ser verdad, otras que son tan absurdas que es raro que alguien las crea y otras que parecen sacadas del día a día. Todas ellas, son consideradas de alguna forma leyendas urbanas, esas que han contado tanto que hay muchas versiones o se remontan a muchísimo tiempo atrás.
En este libro, el autor se encargó de seleccionar y clasificar las muchísimas leyendas urbanas que por años ha investigado; teniendo una idea errónea de ellas debido a la película con el mismo título, me conseguí con un libro que es realmente interesante. Contiene una gran cantidad de información de cada leyenda, sus variaciones y que, al ser divididas por capítulos, poseen una genial introducción a cada clasificación dada por el autor.
Muchas son más hacia lo cómico que lo escalofriante y muchas muestran que la naturaleza humana influye muchísimo en los casos relatados.
Creo que lo que hizo que no disfrutara tanto del libro como quería, fue el hecho de que, al colocar las variantes de una misma leyenda, se volviera algo tedioso y más si le agregas el hecho de que luego se explica detalladamente la investigación, cómo llegaron a conseguirla, etc, etc.
Otro punto que fue arma de doble filo, es el estilo de la escritura, el autor al tratar de mantener el estilo de cada tipo de reproducción de las leyendas (e-mails, artículos, folletos, entre otros) y la falta de separación evidente entre las versiones, hace que la lectura sea un poco confusa y que la lectura sea más lenta de lo habitual.
Le doy un 3.5/5 y lo recomiendo para aquellos que quieran reír un rato o conocer algunas de las historias que tienen muchos años recorriendo el mundo. Quizá se consigan con que ya conocen alguna...
December 24, 2020
Toto je kniha o poverach, ktore si ludia rozpravaju pri ohniku, pri vatre, mozno na internate, ked sa chcu vystrasit :)
Niektore som uz citala ci pocula predtym, niektore boli nove. Niektore boli zabavne, ale niektore boli az drasticke. Dosla som asi do 30% a potom sa mi to uz nechcelo citat dalej. Odkladala som to na neskor, ale stacilo.
Niektore som uz citala ci pocula predtym, niektore boli nove. Niektore boli zabavne, ale niektore boli az drasticke. Dosla som asi do 30% a potom sa mi to uz nechcelo citat dalej. Odkladala som to na neskor, ale stacilo.
December 14, 2017
This book was alright. Some of the urban legends were interesting and some were really eerie. Others seemed repetitive which I realize is an indicator that it’s an urban legend but nonetheless made it dull at times.
July 8, 2022
Great fun - I enjoyed it immensely - it covers most urban legends I could think of and, it was interesting to see how in Ireland were I grew up there were so many tales that drew on the same inspiration and fears. If you want a book on urban legends then this is one of the best.
July 21, 2024
Effectively, this book could be about 1/3 the size of it wasn’t the same story 3-4x each. Also, I had hoped it would have reflections on the roots of the stories, and a more academic/intelligent look vs just “entertaining� stories at the lowest available rung.
August 25, 2024
This was just fine. I think it was hard to read because, at least in my digital copy, the fonts were wildly inconsistent so it was hard to tell what was a story and what was discussion from the author.
October 24, 2024
Long, but always interesting.
Brunvand collects and works on these with a determination and sense of humor that makes the study of this peculiar human social tick , this branch of folk lore, fascinating and illuminating.
Brunvand collects and works on these with a determination and sense of humor that makes the study of this peculiar human social tick , this branch of folk lore, fascinating and illuminating.
March 11, 2025
I like the stories, but could have not used all the citing of where they come from or the debunking of them. It made the book too academic for me. When I selected thus book to read I thought it would just be the legends themselves, not the academic background on each story after it is presented.
May 29, 2019
It is what it is!
April 11, 2020
This is a “best-of� collection by the master collector of urban legends, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this subject.
July 30, 2022
Left off at page 264 of 480. Read on holiday from free book shelf. Too heavy to take home.
July 9, 2023
An interesting book mainly on the urban legends in the USA,with the odd one from the UK.surprised myself by knowing a few of them albeit in a different guise.
November 21, 2024
I found this book at a thrift store. It only cost me three dollars. The book made me laugh out loud.
Read
December 17, 2024""
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 7, 2025
A fun read. Also makes me realize that half the stories you read on Facebook have been around for a very long time.
September 19, 2017
Le leggende metropolitane sono sempre state una mia passione e ogni tanto mi fa piacere riaffrontare questa curiosa dimostrazione della "malata" creatività umana. :P
In questo volume, accanto ai grandi classici del genere, troviamo aneddoti meno conosciuti, ma non meno affascinanti. Le storie sono suddivise per argomento e corredate da presentazioni e tentativi di arrivare all'origine di ogni singola leggenda.
In questo volume, accanto ai grandi classici del genere, troviamo aneddoti meno conosciuti, ma non meno affascinanti. Le storie sono suddivise per argomento e corredate da presentazioni e tentativi di arrivare all'origine di ogni singola leggenda.
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