Books Too Dangerous to Read

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Fiction is full of deadly, cursed tomes, but what about real life? Can a book ever actually hurt you?

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• Talebot — The Talent
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• Benjamin Cook — Writer, Director, & Voice Actor
• Rebecca Moss Ghusn — Researcher & Writer

[Gamer]

2 ways a book can kill you:
1) the knowledge in it being a cogito hazard
2) by moving fast enough.

[inkchariot]

What do you call an evil book that tries to eat you?

A Necro-nomnomnom-icon.

[arjunsajith]

Any book can kill you if you're unlucky enough

[LaussseTheCat]

The Necromicon just sounds like the Terraria Wiki, "Contains knowledge of Eldritch Entities, How to beat them and how to summon them".

[placeholderdoe]

The turner diary ban and the anarchist cookbook lack of ban in Canada makes for an interesting statement. “Telling someone how to build a bomb is less dangerous than giving someone a reason to.”

[Daemonworks]

There's also the case of books made with arsenic, either to produce brilliantly coloured covers or, in one case, to drive home how dangerous arsenic-based dyes in wallpaper, clothing, etc were. The latter was sold with a "do not let children touch this" warning. And arsenic never degrades, so they're exactly as toxic as they day they were made.

[FranBunnyFFXII]

NGL The quality of these videos legit reminds me of broadcast educational television like on PBS. I'm genuinely very impressed at how high quality the animations and illustrations are for these videos. I've learned a lot from this channel but I am never not amazed by how quality everything is in these videos.

[MySerpentine]

I think the most dangerous thing about the Anarchist's Cookbook might well be the bits that are *almost* right but will probably get you killed.

[marandadavis]

"Shadows of the Walls of Death" can literally kill you if you don't handle it with gloves because it contains samples of various arsenic containing wallpaper. There are also some emerald green books that used arsenic to color their book covers.

[BaldAndCurious]

Well, John Wick did kill that big Russian dude in the library by smashing a book between his jaws.

[MrocnyZbik]

"This Book Will Kill You"
And that is why kids the Librarian is an Orangutan.

[Benjanuva]

Banning books honestly just makes me want to read them more.

[Liambic]

The line, "Ideas are slippery, they can happen in unexpected places whether intended or not" really hit me. Well done, TF.

[TheSunshineBlak]

A friend of mine that went to an all girls highschool had some english lessons examining the writings of charles manson. The goal of these lessons was to teach critical thinking and how to identify the ways the author would manipulate young women. A worrying number of girls in that class walk away thinking that charles manson was charming and had a good point.

[bigfishymushy]

Thank you for this one, as slippery and delicate as this topic is. So many people who approach it with the message of trying to tell others "what to think". Rather, this is very refreshing and heart warming that in the end, what you ask is for people "to think"

[Alyrael]

I'm surprised Nami no Tou wasn't brought up briefly, as much like the effect The Sorrows had, this novel may have supposedly been what further pushed people to see the lonely Aokigahara forest as a place to die, eventually creating its own popular folklore.

[Audrey-zfmn]

The King in Yellow being 'too moving' really resonated with me. I have extreme anxiety, so if I read a book that's especially thought-provoking, I sometimes physically hurt with the intensity of the whirlwind in my head. I still read them, though. I understand why The King in Yellow would still be so sought-after despite the ban on it.

[bingerz]

The Necronomicon is the kind of book that opens you more than you open it.

[tjbonnes]

Immediately reminded of one of my favorite "South Park" episodes: "The Tale of Scroty McBoogerballs"
"The Catcher in the Rye" is taken off South Park Elementary ban list and while reading it, our main cast of four find the book lackluster. They then write a book so juvenile and crass most people can't read it without an intense visceral reaction.
The rest of the episode deals with things like how one gets a book banned and the will of the artist vs. The interpretation of the audience.

[colterbrown]

A very delicate subject handled gently and impartially. I am genuinely impressed, and quite relieved that you were able to tackle this subject as well as you were. VERY good video.