Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Ripley's Believe It or Not - Enter If You Dare!

The newest edition (#7) of the Ripley's Believe It or Not annuals is out - Enter If You Dare!

I've had this book for about a month now, but have not been the only one picking it up and reading a page here an there at random. When my son was younger he adored this type of book. He's taller than me now, but still seems to enjoy perusing random facts, oddities, bizarre stories and tales from around the world.

Pictures, lots and lots of pictures! High gloss, heavy stock is used and the pictures are very detailed! Some pages I turned quicker than others - I'm not one for bugs or snakes!

New this year are Ripley's Revealed stories - an in depth look at certain topics - I found the sword swallowing story quite interesting. As well there are Ripley's Research boxes - snippets explaining the science behind some of the entries.

The centre fold out was extremely timely -vampires. The pictures of historical vampire killing kits were fascinating. Another was a retrospective of Coney Island and it's sideshow attractions. Yet another fold out was a picture of a 16 year old teen from India. It's life size - 23 1/2 inches! Or the strongman from England who performs one armed, one fingered (!) pushups on the head of a nail.



It's an addicting book as you can pick it up and read one or two pages anytime. At almost 250 pages, it will take you awhile to digest everything.  Some of the chapter headings include Weird World, Extreme Sports, Body Oddity, Bizarre Mysteries - you get the idea. One of my favourite sections was the Artistic License section - I am amazed at people's creativity. The Invisible Man was astounding. He paints himself to blend so carefully into the background of any setting, you would never know he was there.

The creations made using matchsticks - wow - three years to build an exact replica of the Hogwarts School. The fellow who paints using his tear ducts was extreme... But that's what Ripleys is all about - the strange, the odd, the bizarre, the grotesque, the Believe it or Nots!

This book will appeal to trivia lovers, both young and old and is fun to just leave lying around!

You know you want to - peek inside at the first 16 pages!

Can't get enough? You can find Ripley's on Facebook and Ripleys' on Twitter.

1 comment:

bermudaonion said...

I haven't looked at one of these books in years, but I used to love them as a kid. Great review!