Immerse yourself in the mysteries of our world (The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena - John Michell, Bob Rickard)

Member Name: dmandrew

Product:	The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena - John Michell, Bob Rickard
Date:	12/05/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A fascinating introduction to things that are hard to fathom

Disadvantages: Poorish index

By definition, this is a hard book to categorize. For a start, you can't really have a guide to things that are unexplained.

However, what we have here is a catalogue of strange events, apparitions and beliefs, put together by Bob Richard and John Michell. Rickard was the founder of the Fortean Times, a magazine which deals with the paranormal, and John Michell has written many books on mysterious happenings. He is also a regular and interesting contributor to the Oldie magazine.

As there is not necessarily any strong connection between many of the phenomena described in the book, the compilers have done quite well to arrange them into twelve chapters, named as follows:

Teleportation
Strange rains (of things other than rain)
Wild talents (including a variety of things, such as fire-walking, stigmata and levitation)
The Madness of Crowds (e.g. shared anxiety attacks or visions)
The Good Folk (fairies)
Invisibles and other assailants (including alien encounters)
The Haunted Planet (natural phenomena, such as rotating ice circles, and others perhaps harder to explain, such as invisible barriers, also with a discussion of crop circles, a particular interest of John Michell)
Signs and Portents
Images
Monsters
Living wonders (including animals with apparent special powers)
Tail pieces (mainly unusual behaviour in the animal kingdom)

The declared purpose of the writers is "to introduce readers to the rich variety of anomalous, and often bizarre phenomena, that people have experienced throughout the centuries". In the main, they present events as reported, offering but not insisting on their own connections and tentative explanations. The main thing to get from the book is an enjoyment of the fascination of the mysteries of our world.

I find it is the sort of book that you don't read from beginning to the end. It's best just to let it open, and to find a bit you have not read before. The chapter headings and sub-headings give you some clue as to what to expect, but there are interesting and surprising accounts on almost every page, loosely connected. To read any part of the book is to go through an unusual and compelling journey of thoughts.

There is an index at the back, but it's not very comprehensive, which is a pity. There are so many different references in the text that they make you want to find out more, and with this book it's quite hard to do that without accidentally stumbling on something, or reading twenty or thirty pages to find what might be there.

That apart, it's very enjoyable and a book I find I can pick up and put down at any time. There are quite a few pictures, though many of these are printed in a curious purple colour, and some good black and white photographs

Retail price is £12.99, even from Amazon, though, as always, you can pick up second-hand copies for much less.

Summary: This is a book that will be well-thumbed!