The book of the bizarre

by Varla Ventura

The Book of the Bizarre is a veritable treasure trove of startling and stranger-than-fiction trivia that spans history, continents, even worlds. Never before have so many frightful facts been gathered together in one place. Teeming with the strange, the shocking, and the downright fantastic, this book is designed for the depraved, out-landish enough for the eccentric, and freaky enough for even the hardest trivia nut.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Humor, Reference, Trivia, Historical, Short Stories

303 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Author of THE BOOK OF THE BIZARRE and BEYOND BIZARRE (Weiser Books). Curator of the MAGICAL CREATURES and PARANORMAL PARLOR e-book collections.

Reviews

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ha-ha! Loved. Some really great trivia of the weird in here, including some stuff I actually didn't know. The highlights: midwives in Europe used to burn placentas to see how many times they popped, (the number of pops was said to indicate the number of children a woman would have) James Dean's porsche was thought to be cursed, and King George V was euthanized to meet newspaper/funeral deadlines (the royal physician agreed to do it so neither typesetters nor dignitaries would have to alter their plans to announce and mourn the death of the king in the coming days.)

[Liz Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically, Varla Ventura’s THE BOOK OF THE BIZARRE is a collection of morbid and strange factoids. It includes a fair amount of information on a wide number of phenomena and happenings and suchlike, and it’s great—to a point. Some of the trivia is nothing special—for instance, I think most people know that toenails grow more slowly than fingernails since we have to cut our fingernails more often. But for all the information that wasn’t new to me, there was plenty of information that was.

If you enjoy research as much as I do, and if you’re as morbid as I am, then I highly recommend this book to you because it is a great starting point for more research. I have yet to finish looking up all the stuff that caught my interest. If you’re a writer, especially of the morbid and macabre, you will probably get a few plot bunnies. But, if you don’t like going to secondary sources to read up on things, this book might not be for you. Most of the facts and anecdotes are rather abbreviated and are only worth reading as prompts for further research. On their own, they don’t have too much value. Also, there are some consistency errors within the text, and more than a few of the stories seemed quite implausible, to the point where I can’t recommend this book to gullible people who don’t fact check. (Grandmotherly reminder: It might be printed in a book, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.)

I got my copy for a dollar at a library sale, and the physical edition itself is attractive. I’m glad I read it (and glad I own it) because it makes for an interesting conversation starter and it’s given me more things to go out and learn about on my own time. But I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to you if you were thinking about buying it at market value, because you could just as easily scour the internet for creepy and strange facts without needing to pay a dime.

[Sean McGuire · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I'd give this book either 3.5 or 4 stars, so I went with the higher one. It was a great little book for what it is, and I learned quite a bit from it. It also had some of my favorite bits of history in it; Countess Elizabeth Bathory, aka "Countess Dracula", history's first female serial killer; Lizzie Borden, who didn't give her step-mother and her father 40 and 41 whacks, respectively, but definitely did a hack job on them (if you'll pardon the pun); and a lot of really fantastic ghost stories, and some other things I had no idea about. And it referenced Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography, another bargain book I've had for years and love, but thought no one really knew about it! So this little book was a good filler book. I needed something light with no plot, because the last book I read, Miss Buncle's Book, was so good that I couldn't get into my next book! So this book worked well.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

The source material and research for this book seemed a bit dubious, and I found myself questioning the research more than once. There were a few interesting tidbits in it, but I found myself doubting them after coming across a couple of errors. A great example would be the case of the giant penguins in Florida. The book lists the event as taking place in 1998, when it was actually 1948.

The book itself is more or less an 'anthology of summaries,' with very few of the tales being much more than a few lines. Towards the end of the book, the pages weren't even straight in the book. I received this as a Christmas gift based on the fact that I tend to like the strange, but this seemed to be straight out of the bargain bin at Barnes & Noble.

[Staceyj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good and interesting.

[Ahmed Abdelsattar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book of the bizarre freaky facts and strange stories by Ventura Varla

I like books about strange stories but I didn't understand some sections. 

[Anna Abney Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
Somewhat entertaining, and a quick read, but some facts were absolutely incorrect (and not even the paranormal ones!)

[Patricia English · Rating 4 out of 5]

These were fun bits of info, I really enjoyed all the stories in this book about all kinds of subjects from music, to hauntings, to legends, to the bizarre. Great read

[Sean Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a great laugh and an enjoyable experience altogether. Varla Ventura has an amazing way of finding incredibly strange facts and piecing them together into a pile of pages wrapped in cardboard. Some of the stories I had heard, and some I hadn't. "Stories, you say?" Yes. This is not a chapter book or a book containing a strict storyline. There is no main story, no main characters, and nothing is very consistent throughout this book. I love to read chapter books, but I recently have been reading different kinds of books. There was really no part in this book in which I got bored and every single page was filled with vivid and descriptive words that really brought the stories to life. My favorite section of the book was the ghost stories. I personally believe that there are ghosts or spirits on Earth, and I find it incredibly interesting to read about them, but regardless of whether or not you believe in ghosts, I'm sure you'll find this book interesting and enjoyable to read. This kind of book inspires me to write because it proves that books can be written how ever the author wants them to be and that there are no strict rules regarding how you can write a book. I'm sure Varla had fun writing this book. Another thing I like about this book is the author's choice of vocabulary. There are some really big words in this book, and I find it interesting to actually look up the meanings. I really loved this book. If you get the chance to pick it up and flip through it, I'm sure you'll want to hang on to it. This is definitely a "bizarre" book that I recommend to any bored adult or teenager!

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like this kind of thing, but found this particular example very disappointing - a farrago of brief, vague and overly credulous teasers, many of questionable provenance and veracity - a latter-day Ripley's Believe It Or Not! but without the edifying pictures and rigorous standards of research (heh). If you've never been exposed to the fringes of human belief and behavior - ghosts, UFOs, ghastly murders, medical oddities, the occult - then this book might serve as an introduction... but you'd be well advised to take anything you read in it with several grains of salt (thrown over the left shoulder, please!).

[Elaine Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting book filled with fun and sometimes horrific or hilarious facts that most people would never know or even dream of! I read such weird facts as: six people died from a brain-eating amoeba detected in
Lake Havasu, a man-made lake on the border of Colorado and Arizona; and Attila the Hun did not die in battle,as
many believe.He met his maker on his wedding night. After a night of lovemaking, he got a nasty nosebleed, and
lost so much blood that he died! If you are interested in trivia or weird facts, you would probably love this
book. I'm not a trivia nut, but once I started reading it, I could't get my nose out of it. Happy reading!

[Nomad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of whimsical history, odd facts and strange happenings. It's a trivia book that I recieved for Hanukkah from a friend and it was a fully enjoyable read. There is something so entertaining to me about the truth is stranger than fiction genre of books. None of this information is ever going to come in useful to me outside of a Trivial Pursuit game, but I still feel like a I fed my brain nevertheless in a very fun and entertaining way.

I highly reccomend this book, especially after having read perhaps one too many heavy, weighty books.

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has literally just become my new faveorite book. While it's just a fun factoid book, it still has VERY strange but fasinating information. There was a lot of things in the book I didn't know until I read this. We have made a story time amonst my friends with this book, talking about all the strange and bizzare stories and facts in the book. It has become a fave amongst everybody I know. I auctually plan on buying a couple more copies to send to friends who I know will enjoy this book. It was worth every penny of it, and I would love to see another book like this!

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love trivia and interesting tidbits, and this book is chock full of them. Everything from ghosts to cursed objects to phobias to UFOs. It's all here, plus lots more. For instance, I discovered I break the law in SC nearly every day because my pants have hip pockets. There's a law saying hip pockets are no-nos because you can hide a flask there. A fun, quick read or something you can pick up when you have a minute here and there.

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's exactly what it says it is, a book of strange facts and stories. They run across a pretty sizable chunk of the random trivia spectrum, and as most of the entries are only a paragraph or two in length, it's probably more ideal for bathroom reading than anything else. Lots of interesting stuff in there though.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat book, I wish I had the paperback though, not much fan of hardcover. Full of lots of weird and interesting things, but previously stated, some of the stuff I couldn't just believe. Unlike the other reviewer, I was too lazy to look up corrections. But other than that, I did enjoy reading this book and I have loaned it out to a few friends and they too enjoyed this book.

[Dee brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little snippets of trivial bizarre things. Entertaining read! She shares links to many of the stories.
The stories range from bizarre plants to bizarre deaths to superstious beliefs from around the globe.

[Lori Shafer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across The Book of the Bizarre in a catalog. I quickly requested it from my local library.

This book is truly a book of bizarre. The stories are short and sweet. The quotes are priceless. The stories are disturbing and at times humorous. A great read for October.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It covers a wide range of topics and really gets you thinking. I did take some of the information and do some of my own research.

[Jillian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't even finish it. Just wasn't impressed. Stories were too vague.

[Carmen Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly organized, haphazardly researched, and thematically confused, the writer affects a quasi-conversational, repetitive style that bores rather than titilates or informs. There are some treasures in here, but otherwise this book is a slog, which is surprising because it's not long. (As an Ohioan, I was glad to see the Melon Heads get a mention.)

Random facts about U.S. presidents, archaic laws, and trivia about rock bands seem out of place next to the good stuff about unexplained mysteries, eerie coincidences, and paranormal phenomena. The book is long where it should be short (random lists of facts, dull anecdotes) short where it should be long (very little in-depth exploration of any single topic except, weirdly, MK-ULTRA) .

Ultimately, I can't recommend this for anyone: die-hard fans of esoterica and lore will be alternately bored and annoyed by the shallow research and well-trodden subject matter, while casual readers should steer toward more engaging books. Right now I'm reading Cursed Objects by J.W. Ocker, which manages to be concise yet passably comprehensive, and is certainly better stylistically. Might be okay for young, voracious readers who are obsessed with the weird and gross, and who have run out of better age-appropriate reads.

[Jason Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains a plethora of “freaky facts and strange stories), and I was entertained the entire time that I was reading it. I do wish that Ventura cited sources throughout the book. There is a bibliography at the end, but I am going down with my ship named “Bibliographies are for people who cannot be bothered to put the work in to craft a Work Cited Page” - my ship’s name wraps around my entire ship. Also, many of the entries throughout the book were very short (just a few sentences long) with very few details: I am sure brevity was a goal for this author (as attention spans become more and more keyed in to brief snippets of information), but I was left wanting a bit more. Still, some interesting “facts” and historical oddities.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dozens of brief entries (many of them are a single paragraph), so if anything in here piques your interest you'll have to look it up elsewhere. The author sometimes misses the forest for the trees; for example her entry on Jennifer Mee notes that the fifteen-year-old had hiccups "for more than three weeks," but doesn't mention the fact that she was later convicted of murder.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best light lunch reading that exists, it's a series of bizarre facts organized by supernatural, strange, religious, and more. The feel and look of the book is what sets it apart with the red headings, thick paper, and small size.

I'll be featuring it in our next nonfiction fact though there are HUNDREDS of them in here I could use this alone for the rest of the year!

[Jason Martian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read filled with interesting factoids like:
[SPOILER]
Among the notable literary figures who counted themselves members of the Order of the Golden Dawn are Algernon Blackwood, Bram Stoker, and William Butler Yeats. Yeats’s magical name was Daemon est Deus Inversus, Which is Latin for “the devil is God backwards."

[Eileen Nichols · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting items but heard most of them before.

[Lucid Quill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book several times over throughout my life and still to this day use some of the facts in here as conversation starters. It's a great little book. Total must read.

[Marsha Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of the most AWESOME things I've never need to always know. Lol. It's simply a must read, I couldn't put it down.

[Jennifer Darwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is good for what it is. It might have needed some more editing. It has the "Packer cannibalism" thing in there twice. I liked how the chapters were laid out and learned a few new cool facts.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining. Filled with great facts and some strange things.