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This book is awesome. I have had it for about 3 years now,and every time I read it I learn something new. Even the book itself is a conversation starter with its bright orange cover and hologram on the front, but you're friends will really be amazed when they hear about the only albino giraffe or the man with the Devil's toungue.I recommend this book to anyone who likes the Bizzare, for thats what this book is.

Ripley produced his first Believe It or Not! cartoon about sport oddities on Dec.19,1918 in the New York Globe;and his cartoons have amazed and entertained us ever since.I received my first book of these cartoons in the 40's and have been reading them ever since.Many paperback editions were published throughout the 50's into the 80's and I have managed to find many of them.In addition, many large books have been published and the high standard set by Ripley has been maintained by the staff, in spite of the fact that Ripley died in 1949.Over the years there have been many imitators,and some very good,but in my opinion, no equals.Somehow, the originators have that extra spark.I would suggest Alan Funt of Candid Camera was another.
With respects to this book "BIZARRE";it's got to be one ,if not the best one yet.It includes over 6,000 oddities,facts and records in a beautiful,well made, with excellent glossy paper throughout it's 318 ,10 x 11 inch pages.The drawings and pictures are excellent.Although There are a few items I recall seeing before,I believe most are new.
For those who remember and enjoyed the cartoons in the papers;and don't get them anymore you'll really like this book.By the way,for those whose paper no longer carry this feature you can get it on the Net at Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Befor moving on, let me say that Ripley was a bigger than life character himself .His friend Bob Considine wrote a book,"Ripley--The Modern Marco Polo--The Life and Times of the Creator of "Believe It or Not";published in 1961 by Doubleday.There you'll learn about the man who owned a Chinese Junk which he sailed on Long Island Sound.He owned the most expensive cars but didn,t drive them.He loved liquor and women,but considered smoking and card playing evil and would have nothing to do with them.He was very shy, but no contemporary matched him in flamboyance or in seeking notoriety.--Believe It or Not!,that was Ripley,the man.

This is definitely the most interesting encyclopedia of facts out there. The cover makes this stand out alone with a hologram of a guy moving up and down stairs on his head. There's over 6000 facts in here, some you will have already seen if you've been to a Ripley's museum, but a lot you won't have.

There's stuff such as the sailing ship (Eclipse) that was hit by a meteorite out in the Pacific Ocean. The funniest entires in here are real life grave stones such as Here Lies the Body of Jonathan Blake, Stepped on the Gas Instead of the Brake. You'll also see photographs of stuff like the world's biggest broom and smallest violin as well as hotels shaped like elephants. Read about the guy who returned a library book his grandfather borrowed that was 145 years overdue and was fined $22, 646. There's so much to see and read in this huge encyclopedia. You have to own it.