Your favourite books on the Paranormal

[Bokenobi]

So just wondering what everyones favourite Fortean books are as I want to increase my reading base and hate wasting time on awful books.

Two of my personal favourites are Chambers Dictionary of the Unxplained and The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel.

[Sweetpumper]

The Allagash Abductions

Hunt For The Skinwalker

Mysterious Valley

Those are three of the best I've read so far.

[Lady ma'at]

My favorite ones are the ones buried behind novels and how to books in charity stores...I have amassed a hug collection that way. :-)

[WARRIOR FOR THE LIGHT]

Emanual Swedenborg's "Heaven and its wonders and Hell" its very educational but very deep and written in old time terms and language style....

[Dalton O. M. Sihite~]

The Weird 100 - Steven Spignesi

Unexplained! - Jerome Clark

The Weird 100 is my favorite, I've read it multiple times

[CausticGnostic]

I recently picked up a hardback copy of the Reader's Digest "Mysteries of the Unexplained" (1990) for a mere 50 cents at the library book sale. I enjoyed the book immensely. It's divided into sections about different kinds of paranormal phenomena, from monsters to miracles, and cites the sources for its retellings of various stories, some of them old, some new. It's also got a lot of illustrations and photographs, which always liven up a "coffee-table book." Page 176 has an excellent little precis about "mind creatures": tulpas, yang-tuls, and nying-tuls--a subject in which I'm interested.

[supervike]

I recently picked up a hardback copy of the Reader's Digest "Mysteries of the Unexplained" (1990) for a mere 50 cents at the library book sale. I enjoyed the book immensely. It's divided into sections about different kinds of paranormal phenomena, from monsters to miracles, and cites the sources for its retellings of various stories, some of them old, some new. It's also got a lot of illustrations and photographs, which always liven up a "coffee-table book." Page 176 has an excellent little precis about "mind creatures": tulpas, yang-tuls, and nying-tuls--a subject in which I'm interested.

I agree...but my book is much older than that....They must have rereleased it at a later date.

We got it when I was just a kid (back in the 70's), and I can remember my siblings and I fighting over who would get to read it.

It's become kind of a family heirloom, as we pass it around from family to family....It probably started my interest in these types of topics.

Edited June 5, 2009 by supervike

[Rosewin]

Shadow World by Brad Steiger.

[Paranormalcy]

Anything from frontier times of spiritualism/psychical research (usually 1870's+): Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Prof. Sedgwick, F.W.H. Meyers, Harry Price, then the pioneer of lab psi experiments, J.B. Rhine, and then other somewhat more contemporary works such as William G. Roll's stuff on poltergeists.

[CausticGnostic]

I agree...but my book is much older than that....They must have rereleased it at a later date.

We got it when I was just a kid (back in the 70's), and I can remember my siblings and I fighting over who would get to read it.

It's become kind of a family heirloom, as we pass it around from family to family....It probably started my interest in these types of topics.

Yeah, the copy I got is the 9th printing, with the copyright date of the 1st printing given as 1982, but that itself as probably a new edition of an older version. Reader's Digest, like TIme-Life, constantly updates its bestsellers. IN fact, Time-Life came out with a whole series of books on paranormal subjects back in the 80s. The only one I got was the one on sacred places, though.

[MsKatsipoulis]

Ghosts among us - James Van Praagh

Read It and loved it, then passed it on to my father who has alot of experience with the paranormal and he said its a brilliant read- he can identify with most of what is said in the book. I was pleasantly surprised to hear this.

Warning- Its an addictive book, once you pick it up you wont want to put it down.

If you read, hope you enjoy and get as much out of it as i did

[Korbus]

Anything from frontier times of spiritualism/psychical research (usually 1870's+): Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Prof. Sedgwick, F.W.H. Meyers, Harry Price, then the pioneer of lab psi experiments, J.B. Rhine, and then other somewhat more contemporary works such as William G. Roll's stuff on poltergeists.

Yes, thank you!

I'm always trying to advocate that people read and learn from the people who created this field. Harry Price is one I'm always trying to get people to check out. Loyd Auerbach, too. Check out anything about Harry Houdini's investigations into spiritualism.

Thanks again!

[WGH]

Lore of the Land - a guide to englands legends. Its a good read and contains many (but sometimes breif) descriptions of legends in England, i found most of them fascinating! Its worth a look.

[cheo_vl]

cryptozoology A to Z by loren coleman and jerome clark is a must have, willy ley's exotic zoology is an under-rated book, it has a great amount of info on mythic animals/plants/islands, including their history and possible explanation, a very good read

[Saru]

cryptozoology A to Z by loren coleman and jerome clark is a must have

Agreed, for anyone with an interest in cryptozoology this book is a must-have. The Locals by Thom Powell is another good book for those with an interest in the Bigfoot phenomenon, as is Loren Coleman's Bigfoot! The true story of apes in America.

I've read quite an assortment of paranormal books and also reviewed a few for the site that can you find here.

[Set the Fallen]

Solemon had some good books.

And a book on dragons and mytology in general from Europ on about 600 pages is quite rich on info (don't remember the name).

[Diable Rouge]

The Allagash Abductions

Hunt For The Skinwalker

Mysterious Valley

Those are three of the best I've read so far.

I 2nd Hunt for the Skinwalker; it rocked my world. I couldn't put it down.

[Walter Sullivan]

The Weird 100 - Steven Spignesi

Unexplained! - Jerome Clark

The Weird 100 is my favorite, I've read it multiple times

I have the same books too. I really enjoyed them.

Here's mine:

On The Track of Bigfoot by Marian T. Place(an old book from the 70's, it really creep me out whenever I read it)

Historic Haunted America by Michael Norman & Beth Scott(I'm still not done with it, but it's very interesting)

Mysteries of the Unexplained by Richard & Amanda O'Neill

Weird Hauntings

I have more, but I haven't started reading them yet

[Dark Wolfie]

Alltime favorite has to be Edger Allen Poe's Poems

XD

[BleedingRomero]

I can't believe we're talkin books and no one said "Phantom of the Opera" its a classic!! My latest is "The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal". My brother bought it for me as a joke but it's actually a pretty solid read.

[dlv]

Two of my personal favourites are Chambers Dictionary of the Unxplained and The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel.

Nice, I have the Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. But as far as novels, Ghost Hunters really ruined my enthusiasm for reading ghost stories; however, The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits is still a good read, even for just a very short while.

[newbloodmoon]

Own quite a few of the aforementioned books and they are all really good. Here are some of the ones I own and very much enjoy reading as well as the above mentioned ones.

From Flying Toads to Snakes With Wings - Shukar

The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology - Robbins

Monsters: An Investigator's Guide to Magical Beings - John Michael Greer

Strange & Unexplained Phenomena - Jerome Clark and Nancy Pear

Encyclopedia of the Unexplained - Jenny Randles & Peter Hough

[UltraThunderMan]

Don't know if you want paranormal fiction or not but anything by H.P. Lovecraft is good. Also, try Algernon Blackwood who wrote my personal favorite "The Wendigo." The Exorcist is pretty good too as is "Everything's Eventual" by Stephen King. Now I'll show my age a little bit. For a trip down memory lane try the "Scary Stories" series by Alvin Schwartz.

[Katherineelvira]

I have worked in a book store for years so my list can go on and on.

-Ghosts: True Encounters With The World Beyond

by Hans Holzer

-Ghostly Adventures: Chilling True Stories from America’s Haunted Hot Spots

byChristopher Balzano

-Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: More Techniques of Natural Magic

by Scott Cunningham

-Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death

by Deborah Blum

-Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century

by Janet Bord

The last two are very good.

I read "Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th" when I was a little kid and I know it is the root of my fascination today.

Edited July 10, 2009 by Katherineelvira

[pumpkin_head]

I've got two books from Readers Digest. They are very informative and cover a broad range of topics, however they may be slightly out dated.

Unsolved Mysteries of the Past. (1992)

Mysteries of the Unexplained. (1988)

I also have "The Prophecies of Nostradamus", Translated, edited and introduced by Erica Cheetham. Published by Corgi Books in 1973.

Although I don't put much stock in his prophecies, I found it a very interesting book, and quite handy when looking for alleged prophecies quoted on UM.