The Paranoid's Pocket Guide

Eccentrically organized, Cameron Tuttle's The Paranoid's Pocket Guide is a cautionary guidebook to take you into the millennium or, at the very least, put your worst fears in perspective. "Fright Bites!" ("In 1996, the Centers for Disease Control reported that it does not have a large enough budget to research all of the emerging pathogens") burst in on thematically arranged sections such as "Militias," "At Home," "Hypochondriac's Alert," and "At The Gym." Do you know that "every year, close to 200 exercisers fall victim to metal seat posts when the seats on their stationary bikes collapse?" More pointedly, do you need to? Lightning, in Tuttle's total scheme, glitters through the book as a significant leitmotif. It's entertaining, but probably not the best book to read on a long airplane ride.