I've always loved a good conspiracy theory so this book of the top 10 "greatest" was a fun read.

The funniest one was the story of John Wilkes Booth's traveling mummy. The coolest one was the marked trees as Bob Brewer has studied some right here in Arkansas! The most believable one was DB Cooper--that one seems pretty obvious! The not-so-interesting one was about Da Vinci. Not a whole lot of new info there...in fact, I'm not really sure what the conspiracy was. But, it was interesting to see a self-portrait I'd not seen. Regarding aliens---I've always wondered if they are the Bible's Nephilim. All in all, it was a good read. I set it down and literally immediately picked up Meltzer's, The House of Secrets! ( )

A written version of Meltzer's History Channel show Brad Meltzer's Decoded. So, the subtitle should be "the greatest conspiracies we could make a decent one-hour infotainment show out of," NOT "The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time." Looking for the cornerstone of the White House is a decent History Channel show for U.S. audience in the years after Nick Cage's National Treasure, not one of the "10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time." Still, these are nifty recaps of the show (one of the last on the "History Channel" that actually had some "history"). Like many books, it contains what the old 1980s computer games used to call "feelies": reproductions of historical documents, etc. A nifty gift for a teen, I'd say, who likes such things. ( )

Picking up a copy of "History Decoded" was a mistake for me. I initially thought that the book might cover some unknown world-wide historical conspiracies which I was not aware of. I found out after picking up the book that Meltzer covered things I was mostly familiar with, e.g., the Kennedy Assassination (again); UFO's and Roswell, NM (again); the question of gold in Fort Knox; DaVinci's predictions; the Roman soldier's spear used on Jesus on the cross; the White House missing cornerstone; the Georgia Guidestones; missing Confederate Gold; and whether or not John Wilkes Booth was really killed shortly after Lincoln's assassination.

It's probably a fine book for people interested in conspiracy theories. I'm just not one of those people. I didn't do any better in trying to get through Jesse Ventura's "American Conspiracies" either. Both Meltzer's and Ventura's books are probably just fine, and may be fun if you like your conspiracies, but this genre doesn't capture my interest.
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Some of the conspiracies felt like they were really grasping straws and seemed biased. I have to admit though that I was not expecting to enjoy the JFK assassination part but found that one the most enjoyable because it actually did more to disprove the conspiracies than to prove them. ( )

Yeah, okay, I love conspiracy theories and I quite like Decoded in general. They don't always get things right, but they do always amuse. I love the discussion it generates, wild speculation, hare-brained schemes and subversive history. It's good fun, and a good study in logic if you want to be cynical about. Would it make more sense of things to go this way, or that? What more could you want from entertainment?

This book was given as a Christmas present to my parents, and they both enjoyed it thoroughly. They gave it to me after, and yes, I gobbled it right up, too. The gimmick of the book is fun: each chapter is a different conspiracy theory with a small envelope at the front containing facsimiles of parts of the cases. For instance, D.B. Cooper's plane tickets, JFK's autopsy report, a poster for the Our American Cousin the night Lincoln was killed... It's fun stuff, and decent quality. Not as fun as, say, [b:Griffin Sabine|381102|Griffin and Sabine (Griffin & Sabine Trilogy #1)|Nick Bantock|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356716196s/381102.jpg|981140] but what is, when it comes to the gimmick?

The book won't give you much more than the show did, with perhaps two exceptions. I felt the book went into more depth in regards to the Rosicrucians (who they are, what they do) and the Confederate Gold. Other than that, it was the same old thing. But that same old is fun, and the book was, too. ( )