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Fortean Books: Suggestions & Recommendations

I recommend the Harry Potter Books Series of Books, it about this boy, see, and he only discovers... he's a wizard! And then, he goes to a school, but, one for wizards! The books are totally mental, how can someone imagine something like this? Mark my words, these books are going to take off, I would love to see them as a film! And then some more films that are vaguely related many years afterwards. And play too, definitely a play. A theme park wouldn't go amiss either.
A Dungeons and Dragons wizard boy book these days? .. and a film of it? .. you do realise Pink Floyd aren't still together?
 
Ghosts of the Air by Martin Caidin and Natural or Supernatural by the same author. I can't say enough good things about these books. There are 3 or so tales in each one that seriously keep me up at night.

Joseph Citro has a few, though they're New-England-specific, there are some great tales there.

Lauren Coleman's Mysterious America

American Monsters by Linda Godfrey (she has several more but they tend to be Wisconsin-specific). There one other one she did whose name escapes me, but it's another general overview.
 
Ghosts of the Air by Martin Caidin and Natural or Supernatural by the same author. I can't say enough good things about these books. There are 3 or so tales in each one that seriously keep me up at night.

Joseph Citro has a few, though they're New-England-specific, there are some great tales there.

Lauren Coleman's Mysterious America

American Monsters by Linda Godfrey (she has several more but they tend to be Wisconsin-specific). There one other one she did whose name escapes me, but it's another general overview.


Aye, Monsters Among Us I think is the Linda Godfrey I have. It's very good. I like her style and there's some severely weird shiz going on in there.
 
A few core items for any Fortean's library:

On the Track of Unknown Animals by Bernard Heuvelmans.

In the Wake of the Sea Serpents by the same author.

Cults of Unreason by Dr. Christopher Evans.

Fortean Studies, several volumes, edited by Steve Moore. Duh!

Supernature by Lyall Watson.

The New Apocrypha: a guide to strange science and occult beliefs by John Sladek

The Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Philip Sugden.

Mysteries by Colin Wilson.

Stranger than Science, by Frank Edwards. (The pulp end of Forteanism!)

Mysterious Britain - Ancient Secrets of the United Kingdom and Ireland by Janet & Colin Bord.

In Search of Lake Monsters, by Peter Costello.

The Beasts That Hide from Man: Seeking the World's Last Undiscovered Animals, by FT's own excellent Dr. Karl Shuker.

All but one of these books reside on my shelves (if anyone has a copy of Heuvelmans' Sea Serpents that they'd like to move on, please PM me...)

All highly recommended.

maximus otter
 
For Crypto creatures, I've enjoyed the following books by Bigfoot enthusiast Lyle Blackburn:
The Beast of Boggy Creek: The True Story of the Fouke Monster
Beyond Boggy Creek: In Search of the Southern Sasquatch
and
Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster




 
Some excellent suggestions above, I would add some of my personal favourites which I can highly recommend:

The Goblin Universe by Ted Holiday (1986) Plus, The Dragon and the Disc: An Investigation Into the Totally Fantastic (1973)

Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui by Affleck Gray (1970)

Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind by Graham Hancock (2005)
 
I enjoyed the Big Grey Man book much more than I expected - not sure why, but I thought it was going to be a throwaway read-in-an-afternoon book, but it is much more thoughtful that I thought it would be. I second FrKadash's recommendation.
 
A few books that have given me pause for thought and/or just diverted me over the last ten years:

Will Storr vs The Supernatural by Will Storr.

https://www.fishpond.co.uk/q/will+storr+vs+the+supernatural

I'm not a natural ghost enthusiast, but Storr has to be one of Britain's best journalists at the moment and this account of how he tangled with a bunch of ghost hunters and spirit fanciers had me gripped from the outset. Plus there sre one or two incidents described in it that really do make you wonder.

Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brown.

https://www.fishpond.co.uk/Books/Tricks-Of-Mind-Derren-Brown/9781905026357

I was a bit ill disposed to this author but he won me over with the self-deprecating confessional approach he takes here, as well as some genuinely funny anecdotes. Naturally, being himself a trickster, he is sceptical of paranormal claims and did cause me to question some of my own beliefs and assumptions.

J. Allen Danelelk: UFOs: The Great Debate.

https://www.fishpond.co.uk/Books/UFOs-J-Allan-Danelek/9780738713830

A modest UFO primer which, nevertheless contained enough well argued and original points to make me reconsider my earlier rejection of the ETH as an explanation for the phenomena.

Dmitry Bayanov: America's Bigfoot: Fact Not Fiction.

https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Bigfoot-Russia-Anniversary-Patterson/dp/590022922X

This is so much more than the polemic that the title suggests. It is an account of how the Russian Almasty hunters met up with their American counterparts in the 1990s - with the Patterson-Gimlin film as the conduit. It is full of insights into (unofficial) East West relations at that time as well as the real day-to-day lives of the Russian man-like ape entusiasts. That said, the analysis of the Patterson-Gimlin film which they undertook - not all of which is commonly known about in the West even today - does seem to provide a case to answer.

Don Donderri: UFOs ETs and Alien Abductions.

https://www.amazon.com/UFOs-ETs-Ali...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1571746951

Donderri is the most credible living advocate of UFO- as-ET-craft -but you don't have to give that full credence to be able to appreciate this psychologist's calm and concise writing style. His no-nonsense approach is refreshing and you do tend to believe him while you are reading him.
 
This morning's BBC Radio Five early phone-in has been all about ghosts and general Forteana.

There was an interview with author Gareth E Rees, whose latest book "Unofficial Britain: Journeys Through Unexpected Places" sounds utterly compelling.
It explores such Forteana as the Catman of Greenock, Old Stinker the werewolf, the White Tree of Bristol, liminal spaces including the shrines and alleged portals under Birmingham's Spaghetti Junction and assorted crossroads and roundabout legends and folklore.

That's my copy ordered.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unofficial-Britain-Journeys-Through-Unexpected/dp/1783965142
 
I'm around halfway through Gareth E Rees' "Unofficial Britain: Journeys Through Unexpected Places" and it's an absolutely essential read for all devotees of Forteana!

On a sort of quirky travelogue through Britain, the author unearths mysteries and wonders in urban spaces, landscapes, motorways, roundabouts and even electricity pylons and explains why ghosts are just as likely to frequent new-build houses as ancient ruined abbeys.

Ley lines, cryptozoology, cults, modern mythology, ghosts, possession, underground weirdness, striking synchronicities and coincidences and plenty more within.
I'm trying to make it last as my bedtime reading, but it'll be finished in a few more nights. Very highly recommended.

Here's a link to the author's website, full of deliciously Fortean stories:


http://www.unofficialbritain.com/
 
If you like tales of the seldom trod paths of Forteana I would highly recommend any books by Jan Bondeson (especially Queen Victoria's Stalker) and The Air Loom Gang by Mike Jay
 
Over the last couple of months, my bedtime reading has been The Spectral Arctic.

A deliciously chilly collection of apparently supernatural events experienced by early Arctic explorers.
Some of the language feels a bit dated and the author's speculation at times could be regarded as embellishment but, to transport you from your cosy armchair (or bed) to the mysterious frozen wastes, this book serves its purpose admirably.
On Kindle, the download will set you back only 99p!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectral-A...spectral+arctic&qid=1622101878&s=books&sr=1-1
 
For what it's worth some of my personal favourites are:

The Roots of Coincidence - Arthur Koestler (if you can find a cheap copy that is):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roots_of_Coincidence

Haunting & Apparitions - Andrew Mackenzie

I'd also be tempted to look at early books of essays by The Anomalist such as The Universe Wants To Play and quite a few more.

And for fiction, although aimed at children, I'm sure that few on here would recommend the novels by Alan Garner:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Garner
 
I would recommend Where The Footprints End, vols I and II by Joshua Cutchin and Timothy Renner (high strangeness and bigfoot), and The Ghosts of Blue Bell Hill by Sean Tudor.
 
I guess M.C. Escher's mind and dimension-bending illustrations could count as Fortean and a new book, featuring cut-out and assemble models of some of his work, has just been released in time for Christmas.

Kaleidocycles will set you back around £50.

escher2.JPG
escher.JPG
 
I have decided to include something Fortean to read in upcoming present giving. So far my criteria are

* fictional subjects. An exception is @lordmongrove 's In Search of Real Monsters which I have in mind for a couple of travelling adventuous types.

* physical books, and if they are small press, illustrated items then so much the better.

Can anyone suggest things? Also very happy to get non-fiction ideas! I have it in mind to keep a small stash on hand so that I can include something as and when.

Anyone bought from here, for example?

https://www.oldstyletales.com/victorian-ghost-story

The picture is from their Amelia B Edwards book

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Third criterion: if they come from denizens of this place, so much the better!
 
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