I’ve seen them advertised. I’m just wondering if there are any techniques in them that are neither crimes nor torts.
I’m not mad at anybody in particular at the moment, but it’s good to have weapons in your arsenal. 
Is he still writing these? I read a couple of them…geez…it’d have to be 20, 25 years ago. They’ve crossed my mind now and then over the years, and I keep thinking how dated a lot of in the ideas in there would have to be now.
Hmm…a quick googling shows that yep, he’s still putting them out there.
As to your question, I sem to recall there being very little in there that wouldn’t get you arrested or sued – at the very least, you’d get a foot up your ass if you were caught by your victim.
Living well is the best revenge. Can you make a whole book out of that?
Then again, revenge is a dish best served cold, so maybe you should live well in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota.
I’ve read most of them. The vast majority of suggestions in his books really have to be read as jokey, hypothetical ideas that can raise a smile and satisfy the urge we all sometimes feel to get sweet revenge. They are quite good for daydreaming and thinking, ‘Gee, just once, wouldn’t it be nice to pull a stunt like this on someone who deserved it’.
Very, very few of the ideas he offers are practical ways to get revenge on anyone. Some are just out of date, based on the way officialdom and organisations used to work. Some blithely require you to have information that is not that easy to obtain. Some are described in simple, easy terms, but would actually require a lot of time, hard work and resources. Some rely on your victim behaving or responding in a very specific way, which cannot be guaranteed. Some are at least borderline illegal, or could give rise to very serious writs for liability, reckless endangerment and so on, and hoping you don’t get caught is far from a guarantee you won’t be (ask everyone in prison). Some are just puerile and stupid.
Read the books for fun and for entertainment. Don’t think of them as actual textbooks for exacting revenge.
Have I read them? Hell, I’m quoted in one of them! (No joke–I wrote him a letter which he quoted in a later volume.) Ditto what ianzin said–they’re fun to read, and fantasize about, but mostly not practical even in 1980, and technology has changed since then.
I still like the one about naming someone in your will and leaving them a bunch of luxury stuff that you don’t own, just to get them excited over nothing. (As in, I leave Cousin Ned my yacht, antique cars, and all of my gold bullion.) I swear, if anybody pisses me off in my old age, I’m going to do it.
So, you’re Dick Smegma?
I’ve tried one or two as jokes, but yes, they are mostly for fantasizing. For some reason, I’ve always like the automobile chapters.
The lugnut in the hubcap worked great, but we were in the car with him so he took it as a joke when we told him what the noise was.