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Macgyver was one of my favorite shows growing up. As a kid, the Boy Scout/secret agent wowed me with his ability to take the most mundane item and create something spectacular - usually something that would save his butt from the bad guys.

When I got the opportunity to review Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously, I welcomed it like a rapid Supernatural fan who comes face-to-face with the Winchesters sans bodyguards.

It wasn’t exactly what I expected. There were too few projects and too much philosophy. It offered a good start to topics I find interesting, but I had to search for more detailed resources about creating cool, unusual projects.

In this book, author William Gurstelle - author of the bestseller Backyard Ballistics - teaches how to create things that explode and flame. He offers excellent tips on safety; the items are written without sounding like a legal disclaimer, but more like Joe chatting with you about how to not blow off your hair while creating a rocket.

The author says he wants to teach people how to live a little dangerously in their own backyards. It’s not about becoming a Hollywood stuntman, but learning what you can do yourself, with the items you have nearby, and feeling like a stuntman.

The author makes a pretty complicated flamethrower - one that could finally give me a use for that propane tank with the old valve system. (They changed regulations so now this tank cannot be refilled again until I replace the valve.) Me, personally, I’d follow the hairspray and lighter example I see in movies all the time. Those are two items I have readily available. Of course, it might be good to read the safety rules in case the hairspray can gets overheated and explodes, making mincemeat of my fingers.

If you think creating gunpowder, flamethrowers and rockets on paper is a better idea for your safety-challenged self than actually doing it, Gurstelle provides some interesting “dangerous” activities that will make you look cool on a lower danger ratio. The book teaches some cool tricks with lighters, and how to eat blowfish, crack a whip and throw knives.

Gurstelle talks about how to find items at rummage sales to use in experiments and also provides a list of small companies where you can order key ingredients in small quantities. My father finds stuff at sales all the time and creates oddball projects that leave grease, grime and burn marks throughout the house, much to my mothers displeasure. (Note to future Gurstelle fans: Do this stuff outside or in a garage, not inside the house. Then, your wives will let you live.)

What I appreciated about the book was its focus on history. Gurstelle talks about the history of gunpowder and the Bartitsu staff - a big stick used for self defense - as well as the historical aspects of other projects. I think knowing how these items were developed and what they were used for adds a deeper sense of adventure to creating them.

What I wanted was, quite simply, more. Add about 10 more projects - more kaboom! projects, not “safe” ones - and I would have been wading through danger bliss.

The book felt like it was only halfway finished. A few folks have criticized the book for all the safety warnings, but hey, Gurstelle would be sued immediately if he didn’t have enough in the book. Besides, some people need to see this repeatedly before it sinks in; sadly for others, it never sinks in until the second before they are blown away.

The chapter about how to smoke a cigarette should be axed completely. I don’t need to know what brands to buy, but I did appreciate the cool lighter tricks within that chapter. The entire first section, “Why Live Dangerously?” should be cut. It goes over personality types and who is more likely to live dangerously, along with a survey to see where you fit in. Perhaps I’ve been exposed to too many personality surveys this year to care for it in this book. Others might find it fun.

Sometimes it felt like the lead up to a project took longer than the instructions themselves, which made an impatient person like me quite, well, impatient.

Obviously, this book will likely appeal more to men. They like danger - sometimes need it to feel the testosterone move. However, I think chicks could dig some of the coolness. I would love to form a Saturday group of women who want to test out some of Gurstelle’s projects, followed by chocolate, wine and chick flicks afterward. As a fiction author, I really enjoyed reading this book and plan to keep it as a reference tool for future stories.

Absinthe & Flamethrowers is the perfect read for the new backyard adventurer in your family, but probably won’t be all that thrilling to someone with some experience with danger. The bibliography offers excellent resources for more books on living dangerously - some of which will be a better fit for the adventurer looking to spice up life. The book is also an excellent reference tool for authors who want to spice up their stories with some Macgyver-like thinking.

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