Book Review: The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena

I’ve wanted to start doing book reviews for awhile now, so I thought I would post one today. I have quite a few paranormal reference books on my bookshelf. The one I pulled off to review was “The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena (2^nd Edition)” by Bob Rickard and John Michell.

This book is a collection of articles about all kinds of paranormal phenomena. Overall, I think this is a great book. There are very few topics that go uncovered here. Everything from UFOs, unknown animals, psychic abilities, weird natural occurrences, and everything in between are in this book. Some of the topics covered in this aren’t so much paranormal, but interesting animal/human behavior pieces (a man eating tree, a cat with wings ect...) The book relies a lot on witness testimonies, old news paper reports and a bit of story telling to make each section interesting. There are also a lot of photos and illustrations that make flipping through this book fun and easy.

I do believe that skeptics will have a hard time accepting many of the stories in this book, and most likely can find natural explanations for much of what’s covered. The articles are also on the short side, which makes the book read quickly but limits the depth covered on every topic. The book is over 400 pages long, though, so there’s plenty to read. It would make a great starter book for someone interesting in learning about the paranormal. Overall I give this book 4 out of 5 ghosts.