Review: Coffee Gives Me Superpowers: An Illustrated Book about the Most Awesome Beverage on Earth by Ryoko Iwata

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

For coffee lovers and those who love them, Coffee Gives Me Superpowers is a fun, graphic design-centered book focused on one of the world's most addictive and beloved substances--coffee.
If coffee is the foundation of your food pyramid, then this is your book. Inspired by Ryoko Iwata's popular Web site, I Love Coffee (en.ilovecoffee.jp), Coffee Gives Me Superpowers is overflowing with infographics and fun, interesting facts about the most awesome beverage on earth written by Ryoko, a Japanese coffee-lover living in Seattle.  The book includes the most popular pieces on the site, such as "Your Brain on Beer vs. Coffee," "10 Coffee Myths," "The 15 Most Caffeinated Cities in the U.S.," "The Best Time of Day to Drink Coffee (According to Science)," and "10 Things You Probably Didn't Know about Caffeine," plus 25 percent new, original material that is available only in this book.

MY TAKE:
The moment I saw the cover of this book, I thought "Sold!"

Coffee Gives Me Superpowers: An Illustrated Book about the Most Awesome Beverage on Earth is chocful of infographics, trivia and fun illustrated lists about coffee.

The book summary says that this book is for coffee lovers and those who love them. Usually, books that have phrases like that ("for fans of..., etc."), the book isn't a perfect fit for that demographic. Here, it's true. If you're a coffee lover, there's a very, very good chance that you will love this book.

I loved the font and colors used, and the illustrations were cute and funny. The style of some of the infographics was very much like ones I've seen on The Oatmeal, whom the author collaborated with for this book in the comic at the end.

There were plenty of cool and interesting information contained in the book. Some of the most interesting infographics for me were: beer versus coffee; best time to drink coffee; basic espresso drinks, coffee personality test, and the Starbucks coffee calorie count comparison. The Starbucks calorie count thing was a little frightening, but it was nice to know that my preferred drinks didn't contain a lot of calories and the equivalent food wasn't a terrifying amount of junk food.

I learned a lot of things from this book, which is great since I felt that reading this book was an excellent use of my time. The most interesting thing I learned today? That saucers weren't originally there just for you to place the cup or spoon in. It's there for you to drink the coffee from!

Thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the e-ARC.

THE GOOD:

1. The infographics are colorful and fascinating.
2. You'll learn a lot of new things.
3. There's plenty of information here that you can use in your everyday life, especially if you love coffee.

THE BAD:

1. It feels like the book was a little too short.

READ IT IF:

1. You love coffee.
2. You need coffee to function.
3. You know someone who is a fan of coffee. 

RATING:


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