(Part 2) Best trivia & fun facts books according to redditors
We found 328 Reddit comments discussing the best trivia & fun facts books. We ranked the 158 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
35. The Book of the Damned: The Collected Works of Charles Fort
2 mentions
Used Book in Good Condition
It is. Apparently the book is being released in two weeks or so - http://www.amazon.com/Did-You-Read-That-Review-ebook/dp/B00O7XEOJY It didn't come with a note though, so I had no idea why I was getting a free book until I saw the reviews of the unicorn mask.
The first waves of coulrophobia that we have records of comprise what were initially labelled "phantom clown" scares. The earliest of these actually dates to 1981 – five years before Stephen King published It – and was reported on by Loren Coleman in a seminal article which appeared in the US magazine Fate (1982), and which was elaborated on shortly afterwards by Bob Tarte and Bill Holms in piece for the British magazine Fortean Times (autumn 1982) titled "A Circle of Clowns". Coleman's original article was later republished as a chapter of his book Mysterious America (1983), a compilation that has run through numerous editions since it was first published. It's very interesting to note, in this respect, that the relevant chapter was actually omitted from the 1989 edition, because, Coleman has said, it was considered "too scary" by the book's publisher.
The scare that Coleman reported on began in Boston, and involved the spread of accounts of men dressed in colourful clothes attempting to lure children into vans. The scare spread within the state, to Brookline, and then from Massachusetts to Pittsburgh and on to Kansas City, Denver, Omaha and St Louis, where newspapers reported on "killer clowns" that were supposedly menacing children at bus stops. In every case, the police investigated, but were unable to apprehend any perpetrators, and in fact concluded that no adults had seen any of the mysterious figures – every report they had originated with children, though they were actually phoned in by concerned parents: "We've had calls saying there was a clown at a certain intersection and we happened to have police cars sitting there, and the officers saw nothing. We've had over 20 calls on 911. When the officers get there, no one tells them anything."
In fact, all these tales conformed to a basic common pattern, as Coleman explained:
>I have always strictly defined a "Phantom Clown" episode as one involving a clown-costumed individual attempting to entice or lure a child into a van, the woods, or other isolated situations. But then when the police or parents get involved, no clown can be found or captured.
Tracing the spread of stories of this sort was not easy in the pre-internet age unless they became front-page sensations, which the great majority of "phantom clown" stories did not. Coleman was only able to do so by utilising the contemporary networks that then existed of amateur newspaper clippers who supplied Fortean Times, its US equivalent INFO Journal, and an organisation known as COUD-I ("Collectors of Unusual Data – International") which was run for several years in the 1980s by an American researcher called Ray Nelke. [Full disclosure: beginning in 1981, I was one of those clipsters, and I joined the Fortean Times team in 1982 and have worked either for or with the magazine ever since.]
Compiling the information that he was able to retrieve in this way, Coleman observed that, although "the national newspapers and wire services were totally unaware of the widespread nature of such accounts, the stories were remarkably alike." One key characteristic was that the perpetrators were never caught, and indeed very likely never existed – that is, the "scares" appeared to be a type of urban legend.
Coleman's work was picked up and followed up on by the folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand, who in August 1991 published an account titled "Take away kidnapping clowns" in the Syracuse Post Standard. Brunvand's article gives a listing of clown panics that begins with the 1981 "flap", and no earlier accounts have been traced so far, although similar reports have recurred as recently as 2016.
Several writers have attempted to investigate the factors that caused the initial wave of panic back in 1981. Two that were very heavily publicised at the time, and are frequently cited as possible inspirations, are the Atlanta child murders of 1979-81, later attributed to the serial killer Wayne Williams, which involved the widely-reported disappearance of at least 19 children and adolescents aged from 7 up, and – as you mention – the trial of John Wayne Gacy, which began in February 1980. Gacy, who was found guilty of murdering 33 children, adolescents and young men, had worked as a children's entertainer known as "Pogo the Clown".
Later inspirations certainly included It (1986) and the move Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988). But I'd suggest that some elements of the trope probably go back a lot further than that – very arguably at least as far as the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamlin.
Sources
Loren Coleman, Mysterious America (1983)
Robert E. Bartholomew and Benjamin Radford, The Martians Have Landed!: A History of Media-Driven Panics and Hoaxes (2011)
Hello, Brother!
Okay, so if it's non-fiction you want, then I know just what you need.
If you want a good overview, Mysterious America by Loren Coleman, who's more or less the godfather of cryptozoology, is a superb first entry for anybody interested in cryptozoology. I especially liked the sections on "Panthera Atrox." There are sections on phantom ships and other more mystical elements of the Fortean, and some might find its focus on North America a bit limited, but I'd still recommend it.
Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation's Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures
I'd also recommend Coleman's "field guides." These don't go into quite as much detail as Mysterious America, but they do provide a rather intriguing look at the diversity in sightings of animals that do not belong. The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates and The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep are useful, as is the similar, if somewhat dated, Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature.
The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates
The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep
Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature
Coleman's written some other books as well, focused on individual cryptids. Bigfoot: The True Story of Apes in America and Mothman and Other Curious Encounters are among the most notable.
Bigfoot: The True Story of Apes in America
Mothman and Other Curious Encounters
Moving on, I found another book that functions as a good overview of cryptozoology is Jerome Clark's Unexplained!: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena. Clark gets into a bit more Fortean elements than Coleman does, but his book also includes some cryptids that Coleman rarely pays attention to--including living dinosaurs.
Unexplained!: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena
If you have a particular taste for feline cryptids--surviving Panthera Artox, surviving saber-toothed cats, whatever the heck the ones is--then I must recommend the writings of Karl Shuker. Shuker is a prolific writer, and to list his books would take up a lot more space, but if I had to choose one, I'd recommend Extraordinary Animals.
Extraordinary Animals: Revisited
You didn't mention whether you were an American, but Stackpole Books has a "Monsters Of" series that has the folklore of individual states in the United States.
Following up on that, if you live in California, or if you have a fondness for sea monsters, then you may also like the book Mysterious Sea Monsters of California's Central Coast.
Mysterious Sea Monsters of California's Central Coast
Now, I know you said you weren't looking for novels, but if you have kids of your own, or you have younger relatives who might like the material, there's always the works of Roland Smith. Sasquatch and the "Cryptid Quartet" which includes Cryptid Hunters, Tentacles, Chupacabra, and Mutation are all great reads for middle readers, or for the young at heart.
Sasquatch
Cryptid Hunters
Tentacles
Chupacabra
Mutation
You could try this book: Big Questions From Little People and Simple Answers From Great Minds. I bought it for my son but he’s 4 and I haven’t needed it yet. Some of the reviewers stated that it helped them with their 5-yr-olds. Good luck!
I would like to say i'm sorry here to /r/badhistory and anyone in my Early medieval History class tutorial. we were discussing this interesting document (sorry its in latin the copy I have is in english)and i said that number 3 "of the swine feats of February" may be related to valentines day, because valentines day is based on the Roman festival "Lupercalia". This is in fact totally wrong and a little research would easily tell you that. I'm sorry I was going based off this book which I received several years ago and has since been removed from my library and has undermined the legitamancy of any national geographic books that have been gifted to me over the years.
This is one of the disappearances detailed in a 1972 book by Brad Steiger, called 'Strange Disappearances'. I have had a copy of this book since I was a teenager, and there are many interesting stories told within its pages for which there is virtually no information available about online.. drives me bonkers, because I would love to know more about many of them!
https://www.amazon.com/Strange-disappearances-Brad-Steiger/dp/B0006XWCRK
Great questions! (from both you and your kiddo!). I came across this article - http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/01/08/the-philosophical-child-a-book-for-when-your-child-asks-why-are-we-here/ - which recommends a book for parents, but that doesn't sound like exactly what you're looking for.
In terms of philosophical picture books, the closest thing I can think of would be I Wonder by Annaka Harris. You might also check out the Zen Shorts series, though I don't think any of them really address "nature of reality" type questions directly. Also, while not exactly a picture book, the book Is Nothing Something? might give you some good starting points for discussion. Big Questions for Little People is similar but aimed at slightly older kids. You're Here For A Reason could also be relevant, although maybe not philosophical in quite the way you're looking for.
You could also take "How am I alive?" in a more scientific direction - you might enjoy You Are Stardust and Older Than the Stars, or a simple introduction to evolution such as Our Family Tree. You could also explore simple books about the human body and discuss how her heart, lungs, brain, etc allow her to walk and talk and stay alive - something like See Inside Your Body or Outside-In - or even go into a bit more detail about how she got "in mom's tummy" with a book like Who Am I? Where Did I Come From? or Before You Were Born - or talk about past generations (i.e. mom came from HER mom's tummy!) with a book like Me and My Family Tree
Hope some of that is helpful - of course this is a discussion you can continue as she gets older, and there are lots of great books for older kids that more directly tackle different beliefs and ideas about why we are here.
If it comes up again, this is a great explanation that kids can understand.
Edit: Seriously though, she might not be ready for this yet, but I've heard good things about this book for helping kids at least gain a rudimentary understanding of some complex questions.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. The writing is so good you won't care about the squeamish content.
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum. A perfect blend of a historical retelling and science.
A Treasury of Deception by Michael Farguhar.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks. Short stories of the mentally abnormal patients of Sacks.
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Taylor. Very good insight on what it is like to live with, and recover from brain damage. Also talks science about parts of the brain as a nice intro to the subject.
Mutants: On Genetic Variety in the Human Body by Armand Leroi.
And of course,
Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
How big is the hamper? How about a copy of The Patter - it's the authoritative guide to the Glaswegian dialect, and it's very funny.
What about the treatment of his wife? What about his insistence upon faith healing and denying his sick wife penicillin? What about his lewd behavior towards young women? What about his comments, in his biography, that Jews ought to collectively commit suicide by offering themselves up in the spirit of 'civil disobedience'? What about his treatment of blacks? These things aren't simply 'imperfections' or 'blemishes' against someone who would otherwise be a saint. Gandhi has a cult-like following that is completely disillusioned from the violence he perpetrated elsewhere in his life, if not towards the British. What you read implies otherwise, but it doesn't portray the whole story. I'd recommend his autobiography, or a book titled 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know (vol. 2) by Russ Kick.
Moreover, I'd suggest the book Violence by Slavoj Zizek. Your understanding of violence focuses on individual acts (like hitting or stabbing, etc.) whilst ignoring systemic, objective, symbolic, linguistic, and a myriad of other manifestations of violence--i.e. you are vastly oversimplifying what constitutes 'violence'.
YES! I studied Irish mythology in University, so here a few of my favorite texts :)
The Tain is a lovely translation of the Tain Bo Cuailnge ^(sounds like "toy'n bo cool") which is the primary source of written mythology. It's dense.
Over Nine Waves is also, in my opinion, an imperative supplementary text on the myths and legends as well. It feels less academic.
The Lore of Ireland is just that - a book of Irish lore.
As for Samhain ^(I can't figure out how to properly give you a "sounds like" since I don't have little phoneme symbols - but basically like "sahwin") itself, I'm not sure whether holidays are out-right discussed in these texts. I will say, if you do find it - it'll be mostly in lore as opposed to myth or legend. Most Celtic holidays are focused on the changing of the seasons (like all holidays, really) and their connection to the Land of Eternal Youth (Tir na nOg - you can actually pronounce this one like you might expect it to be said) and the Tuatha De Danann ^(sub a "w" for the "th").
If you're looking specifically for myths dealing with faeries, they'll also be in lore. Myths/legends usually refer to the great heroes like Cuchulain ^("cuh-cul-lin") (there's a statue of him in the post office of downtown Dublin in honor of the Easter Uprising during the Irish revolution! Probably one of, if not the, most important myth/legend. In the war between gods and man, he almost single-handidly defeated Madb ^("mave") and her sons in a battle that last weeks/months/yeards depending the variation. He tied himself to a post as he was dying in order to look like he was still alive and held off attacks until crows landed on his shoulders and started eating his body. Basically. It's way better than my telling lol..) and gods and the cycles of power over the land itself.
Okay, fine, I'm done. Sorry for being so long-winded!
Oh! If you're looking for less heady material, I would also recommend Lady Gregory and Yeats. They were mythology nerds and wrote tons of plays/poems/retellings. L.Gregory's Grania is my favorite retelling of Grania and Diarmuid! I actually got a tattoo of one of the lines from the play in Ireland the first time I visited :)
Happy reading!
Oh man. There's a series of exactly this. They're fairly big tomes on cheap paper with about 3 pages at a time dedicated to some obscure and interesting fact or piece of history. They're like Cracked on paper, and slightly classier (very slightly).
Actually, Cracked has a few books. Like this and this. Buy, chain to the toilet and become the most loved man in your building.
Found it. The Bathroom Reader's Institute.
Amazon put out a book of funny reviews on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Did-You-Read-That-Review-ebook/dp/B00O7XEOJY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456857659&sr=1-1&keywords=funny+reviews+on+amazon
If you can get your hands on this, then I strongly recommend it. Albeit, it's worth noting that this deals with mythology (Gaelic, Celtic) from a distinctly Irish paradigm (most Celtic mythology is actually quite generic and can be seen repeating itself in different descended societies). Anyway, this was our bible whilst studying folklore here in Ireland. I'm not too sure about an online source, but I hope it helps nonetheless.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lore-Ireland-Encyclopaedia-Romance/dp/1843832151
Check amazon for reviews.
Don't forget that Urban Legends are the contemporary version of myth and folklore and there are some great books on the subject. Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. This is the one I own. It's pretty comprehensive.
This one! There are multiples, too.
https://www.amazon.com/Darwin-Awards-Evolution-Action-Plume/dp/0452283442
Maybe
https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/kentucky
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/location/ky/all
https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Kentucky-Kentuckys-Legends-Secrets/dp/1402754388
Anyone ever read any Charles Fort? A very early paranormal tabloid writer, he is super awesome!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1585426415/ref=mp_s_a_2?qid=1321767609&sr=8-2
Also, maybe less rare but super awesome: Francois Rabelais!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0679431373/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1321767690&sr=8-1
I'm interested in Middlesex but I'm not sure I have anything for you. I have a whole shelf of zombie books b/c I wrote my thesis on zombie apocalypse lit but I don't want to get rid of any of them :| I have the Darwin Awards
Ever read Charles Fort - The Book of the Damned ?
http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Endlessly-Engrossing-Bathroom-Reader/dp/1607100363
BAM! Leave that in your bathroom and never worry about being bored while shitting again.
Cracked is actually what started my rant about this...
I first read about the man from Taured in Brad Steiger's 1972 book "Strange Disappearances." Definitely worth the read and also predates the earliest source the guys in the video could find.
https://www.amazon.com/Strange-disappearances-Brad-Steiger/dp/B0006XWCRK
Big fan for a number of years. Even bought David Wongs book and You Might Be A Zombie
Who would you say Cracked's biggest competitors are?
How do you see the website developing, i.e. more videos, moving away from lists etc...?
I've always been a firm believe of "where there's a will (or a profound lack of common sense), there's a way." As soon as you say out loud that something isn't possible, someone, somewhere, will find a way (and it will likely be a young white male on drugs with more illegitimate children than teeth).
You should read the book The Darwin Awards
You'd probably like Unexplained! Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena...I read it years ago and enjoyed it.
This book. That's about it really.
this is one of the best collections i've come across. maybe it can help you find what you're looking for...
http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Urban-Legends-Harold-Brunvand/dp/0393323587/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1344007310&sr=8-3&keywords=urban+legends+jan+harold
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
Here's my item
Truthfully, the last thing I licked was my boyfriend.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Incomplete-Education-Things-Learned-Probably-ebook/dp/B000S1LE3I/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419629358&sr=1-1&keywords=an+incomplete+education
Sanderson wrote a lot of Things and even More Things.
Many accounts claim the two zoologists stopped supporting claims that it was legit years later.
There are a number of take downs of the story, including this one. Take it as it is.
What seems to be undisputed is that Sanderson and Heuvelmans only observed the supposed specimen through glass and encased in a block of ice.
There was the guy in New Zealand who picked up something with some strange writing on it off the beach and later got harassed by MIB's...I think that's in Ivan Sanderson's "Things and More Things" (Thank god they reissued those).
thanks ;) By the way, it's free today on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GQRGE6E
I also forgot to add in An Incomplete Education, which might also help you.
These books may do the trick.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader: Plunges into History
http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Johns-Bathroom-Reader-Plunges/dp/157145697X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319337966&sr=1-4
An Uncommon History of Common Things
http://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-History-Common-Things/dp/1426204205/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3V95L363UTBBZ&colid=1RKYNFL51DJ04
The Knowledge Book: Everything You Need to Know to Get by in the 21st Century
http://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Book-Everything-Need-Century/dp/142620518X/ref=pd_sim_b_1
And now out in a Kindle edition FTW!
The book Weird Kentucky is a good source for some of the more odd things around our state. There's an annoying sort of condescending air about the author when writing about a lot of the stuff which aggravated me, but it still has some pretty cool stuff in it with plenty of representation for Lexington.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Bedside-Baccalaureate-Knowledge-Intellectuals/dp/1402756321/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377476066&sr=8-1&keywords=bedside+baccalaureate
The Bedside Baccalaureate; a book with a bunch of completely historical knowledge, tidbits of knowledge, and random facts. Great for brushing up on interesting things when you've got nothing better to do. If she's a genius then she'll have fun reading through and seeing how many of the things she knows. There's a few books in the series.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Patter-Michael-Munro/dp/1841581283
Boom.