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Name That Book

A

Ali_Strachan

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Jul 30, 2001
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In about 1989 I read a pulp SF short story about disaster prediction that I’ve never been able to find since. It was in a collection of stories by different authors and was set in a huge future Megatropolis so overcrowded that even the build-up of a curious crowd could lead to disaster.

The story followed the city’s trouble-shooter, who predicted accidents by observing human behaviour and then acted to prevent them. The story revolves around his bad feelings over an underground/underwater area or the city where he senses the potential for disaster. Has anyone any ideas?

Alex Cowan Leighton Buzzard
[email protected]
 
From the brief description, I *think* it might be one of Larry Niven's, maybe called something like 'Flash Crowd' or similar.
Joe McNally
 
Daniel Cohen book

Hi. I'm trying to find a Daniel Cohen book I liked when I was younger. It features an account of a van full of clowns who would show up at playgrounds and attempt to abduct children. The clowns had a picture of a devil on their shirts. I had thought the book was "Monsters You Never Heard Of," but it turns out not to be. This ring a bell with anyone?

Not like clowns need to be any creepier.
 
You are trying find this in order to put your nightmares into sharper focus? Yikes.
 
LOOSH....

This is a plea for help from you erudite bunch....

Can anyone remember reading a book (I read it in the mid-eighties) that told of "Loosh"?

The book was written by a bloke who set up a center in the USA to study Out-of the-body-experiences.
He described lots of "journeys" to other worlds/planets, including one that was a sort of World-of-out-of-control-with-lust, full of writhing bodies (one of the more memorable ones!).

The information that sticks (disturbingly) in my mind, is the concept that the human race is being "farmed" for emotions.
That a race of beings are "feeding" off us, and even creating conflict, to create more food...
The "Loosh" was a form of energy that they used, and was akin to our emotion of Love...(?)

Me and some mates (even my mother-in-law!!) have been racking our brains to remember the name of the book,or the author, but to no avail...........
Any info much appreciated!:)
 
Is it Far Journeys by Robert Monroe? Or his first book, Journeys out of the Body?

Far Journeys definitely discusses LOOSH. Look it up on Amazon.com, or try here for a quick excerpt.
 
help..

Trying to track down the name of a book I read about 5 years ago, which scared me so much I gave it away..it was supposedly a true story concerning an English woman who was haunted by the ghost of a man that had murdered her in a previous life.

He told her that she would have a child that would be his reincarnation, she did give birth (to a son called Nigel - see I remember the important bits!) and the haunting did stop.

It was a lot more spooky than I've managed to make it sound, and I feel like scaring the crap out of myself by reading it again.

Has anyone read it or heard of this story before?
 
OOh that sounds famililar. Did they get reincarnated over and over? I can't remember what it's called either!
 
I believe the book is called The Search for Grace: The True of Murder and Reincarnation, by Bruce Goldberg,
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications, 1997. ISBN:1567183182.

"I was a reference librarian in a previous life."
 
thanks

hi, thanks for the suggestion, but I'm afraid that's not it.

The story I'm thinking of occured in the UK in the 70's (or maybe early 80's). If I remember correctly it was written by the husband of the woman who was being haunted, he had a few run ins with the ghost himself.

I remember the thing that spooked me the most was the fact that the ghost told her that she would give birth to his reincarnation in her 30th year. When she did have a baby she was 33 and thought she had broken the prophecy, but infact it turns out the hauntings had started when she was in hospital at the age of 3, and so she did give birth in the 30th year of the haunting!

God knows why I want to read it again, as soon as I finished it I gave it away for fear that if I kept it in the house I'd be tempted to re-read it and spend another fortnight sleeping with the light on!
 
Maybe This'll help...

I don't know of that one by Daniel Cohen, although I too loved his books when I was younger. You might check out this book by Loren Coleman, called Mysterious America. It has a similar story about a wave of clown sightings all over America during a specific time frame. If I remember right, there is even mention of the devils on some of their shirts. VERY CREEPY. The rest of the book is really good too, it covers the Mad Gasser of Matoon and his kin, etc. Definately check it out, just not after dark.
 
When I was in primary school near Glasgow we were told about such an occurance as a fact, think it was about 1990 or 1991 and they supposidly went about in a blue transit van attempting to abduct kids by dressing up as clowns..... of course the school had to tell us to stop throwing stuff at any blue vans that went by during lunch/break but still.... creepy
 
It was indeed Mysterious America. It all comes back to me now, as it also talks about UFO and bigfoot sightings in Massachusetts. As I lived near the woods, I kept hoping I'd run into something good on my nature walks. Instead, all I got was drunken teenagers.
 
Some "phantom clown" stuff here....

http://home.earthlink.net/~cyclonepub/clowns.html


News story from Wisconsin:
(June 20, 2000) Wisconsin State Journal (Madison)
"Children Report a Clown Tried to Lure Them to Woods."

A man dressed in a complete clown costume and holding three helium balloons tried to lure children into woods near the King James Court Apartments at about 12:30 p.m. Monday, Fitchburg police said.

"Officers who responded received consistent accounts" from several children, ranging in age from 6 to 10, who were playing at the apartment playground, police said.

The children reported that the man was standing in the wooded area, holding the balloons, and asking children to come talk to him.

They refused and ran to their apartments and told their parents, police said. An adult also reported seeing balloons floating away in the sky.
The clown was not found, although a tracking dog was brought in. His hair or wig was white. He had a bulbous red nose, black face paint, enormous red shoes and yellow overalls, police said. He was between 5 feet, 6 inches and 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with a medium build.


sureshot
 
He had a bulbous red nose, black face paint, enormous red shoes and yellow overalls, police said. He was between 5 feet, 6 inches and 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with a medium build.

It's Ronald McDonald just fattenening the kids up for death by burger.:eek!!!!:
 
I'm pretty sure I owned this book, although Daniel Cohen has written an estimated 18 billion books on the supernatural for young readers.

Did this book have a drawing of a green hairy monster with yellow eyes on the front?
 
looking for a book...

Hello,

I've been trying to find for a client the name of a book that I read about in Fortean Times last year. At least, I think it was in Fortean Times. I don't think it was actually in a review; rather, it was mentioned at the end of an article. (?) The book was about American wars, and the premise was that America somehow has a collective psychological need for periodic and bloody sacrifices of its young men in war in order to sustain and promote itself, sort of a modern version of religious-based human sacrifices done in the past to ensure the prosperity of communities. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I've gone through my FTs page by page, but can't find it.

Thanks!
 
Thanks for the info: I was starting to think I had imagined the whole entry! I seem to recall it being in red, too, or near something red...I will go back and look through my November issue again.
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

That was quite the research you did: even going through all the letters! I'm impressed, grateful, relieved to know that I was not delusional, and very happy to finally learn the name of the book.

I owe you big. Being in Detroit, though, I don't have 5 pounds to send you (don't know how to make that "pound" sign: my keyboard only has $). Let me know if there's some other way I can repay your valiant efforts.

Thanks again!
 
Yeah, I know how it sounded...what can I say? I guess the thrill of finding a long-sought book makes me kinda horny...
 
The ISBN is ISBN:0521626099. And my adress is... :D
 
I've already ordered a copy, and will definitely let you know how it is.

Amazon.com has the contents and index listed and lengthy excerpts available to read (amazon.co.uk does not: I checked, plus it appears to be back-ordered there); also the full title, which is: "Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag."

I was thinking about the premise of this book in light of Bush's recent egging on of the Iraqi people ("Bring em' on!" he said, in response to the attacks on American soldiers that have been occurring.) Maybe he's read this book, and is consequently trying to fulfill this Higher Ritualistic and Sacrificial Purpose in encouraging more killing. But I'm not sure he CAN read, so I suppose that's rather unlikely....yeah, I 'm pretty convinced he's just tactless and stupid. Sigh.
 
Ahhh...well, you never know: such a reward could still happen. Perhaps I may have to flee the States soon, pursued by Homeland Security Officers for the Unpatriotic Comments I made above about the President...then I'd be an already grateful girl now seeking shelter as well! :D
 
Steady on woman, you're giving all us people who work in/have worked in libraries a bad name ;)

(are libraries over there the hot-bed of vice they are over here??.......the stories i could tell you.......)
 
Well, come on, Blues old girl! Don't tantalise us like that, dish the dirt, eh?

Carole
 
Wellllllll, staff and readers often 'connected' (theres something about women that work in libraries that drive men mad). I found lots of 'dubious' materials hastily stuffed onto shelves or in the back of books , and there was one librarian who...... (but i can't tell you what he did because he might recognise himself.......)

None of the more exciting stuff involved myself unfortunately...............:(
 
Nothing gets the blood pumping like the smell of all those....uhhhh......books .....

:D
 
Well, I don't know that I'd exactly call American libraries "hotbeds of vice," (are yours really?! yet another reason to move to England!) but mine have often been beds of naughtiness, at least.

I too have found questionable items down dark aisles: men's underwear stuffed behind books in the paranormal section, for instance; used condoms in far corners; left-behind porn and Evidence of Male Arousal spattered on the bathroom walls, that sort of thing. Once, a man left me a note in the "Suggestions" box that said: "Miss Tracy, I want you to read me a Dr. Seuss book while sitting naked in my lap." For awhile after that, I suspiciously eyed every man who came into the library, wondering, "Does he look like the Dr. Seuss fetishist? Hmm...what does a Dr. Seuss fetishist look like, I wonder..."

For several years I was the head of my various libraries, which gave me keys and after-hours access, of which I took great advantage. It is strangely true that there are men who seem to be turned on by hearing, "I'm a librarian...wanna go fool around in the stacks?" It's like it's some kind of forbidden place that increases the excitement, I don't know...

Anyway, I got the book today, and it's quite good, for anyone still interested in the original point of this thread! :p
 
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