I had so much fun with the last book that the kind folks at Ripley’s Publishing sent me (see my review, here) that I was thrilled when they sent me another. I know that sometimes the world can get a monster down. Everywhere you turn, people are trying to tell you cute stories about their four year old son and something about ice cream cones. Or worse yet, about kittens or puppies. At times like these I find myself wishing for a little dose of the grotesque or awful. For example, a man who paints dead insects, who has done a series inspired by Michael Jackson. Yeah!!!
Or maybe you’d like to read about vampires. The book comes with a special fold-out section about vampires, and a large spread detailing vampire hunting kits.
I always love how with a story about Vlad the Impaler, publishers always include a grisly woodcut showing people impaled on poles. Speaking of impaling things, I didn’t know this, but there is a caterpillar in Australia known as a “Hatterpiller” that, when if sheds its skin, it saves the old head, and impales it on a spike that grows out of the top of its head. It wears them like hats. It keeps doing this as it sheds heads until it is wearing a series of mummified head shells on its head. Each head is a little smaller as it goes up. It’s like a Dr. Suess fashion gone ridiculously wrong. Australians have the craziest insects! Giant spiders. Bulldog ants. But I digress.
Here’s a vampire hunting kit. Anyways, like I said in my last review, these books are low on the attention span and high on the fascinating weirdness. I also admire Ripley’s for knowing their audience and going all out. The book is hardbound, with a garish purple and silver holographic foil cover, and a lenticular insert of a door opening with an amazed face behind it. It’s completely filled with photos. There are a few fold-out sections, including a life-sized photo of a 23.5 inch tall teenager. So if you want to have your picture taken with her, there’s no need to travel anywhere, just open up the book, and bam! you’re ready for a portrait.
Here is a list of the chapters:
- Strange but True
- Weird World
- Animal Antics
- Extreme Sports
- Body Oddity
- Travel Tales
- Incredible Feats
- Bizarre Mysteries
- Fantastic Food
- Artistic License
- Amazing Science
- Beyond Belief
So once again, you’ve got everything from chocolate covered insects, to animals with multiple heads, to giant ovarian cysts, to mummified nuns in chapels, to giant hair sculptures, and more and more and more.
Creepy Factor: 4 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 0 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 0 out of 5 (it’s family friendly)
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 5 out of 5
Final result: My dentist refused to replace his dreadful Taschen book of modern architecture with the other Ripley’s book. I really wish that I could talk him into putting one of these in the waiting room. I would give him mine for some more gas now and again, although it would be painful for me to part with it. For me, Ripley’s is the perfect place to catch up on my reading about sword swallowers, fire eaters, and pears which grow in the shape of smiling Buddhas.
Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Seeing is Believing – Ripley Publishing – 2009
Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Enter If You Dare! on Amazon
Many thanks to Ripley Books for sending me this book to review. (See my disclosure policy.) Thanks for reading another one of my book reviews. See you next time!
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I love that Michael Jackson insect! Who looks at insects and gets a lightbulb moment like that? I think I actually NEED to own this book.