This book was on the shelf of my grandmother's house when I was a child. It may have influenced me more than any other text in or out of print, and has acquainted me with all manner of things bizarre, paranormal, and futurist. The woman who channeled Franz Liszt's symphonies from beyond the grave, the guy who sold the Brooklyn Bridge, Spring-Heeled Jack, the Chinese Chess-Playing Automaton Hoax or hundreds of other fantastic, bite-size tales - all of these and more I have read and re-read and th...

I was just randomly browsing through my books on GR when I came across this. Of course, now I know that the "facts" reported by Reader's Digest are mostly fantasy, but this book gave me an introduction to many fascinating things which I had no knowledge of: it also kindled an interest for the bizarre in me.A nice read if you take it with a pinch of salt.

Like many others, I acquired this book from my grandparents who had passed it on to my parents. Also like many others, this book influenced me in ways no other book has. It took my 10 year old mind on a ride and I never got off of it.. and thank you for that. This book, written before the days of our ever fact checking internet era had my mind spun with crazy tales that stretched across many subjects and kept me ever entertained. There are few books from my childhood that I remember so well. At

In the 70s, ghosts still existed and many of the stories of the supernatural presented here seemed, at the least, plausible. We had a copy of this on the bookshelf when I was a kid and I read it cover to cover and back again a few times. Of course, most of the stories have dated in a somewhat delightful manner -- especially the section dealing with predictions of the future, which has repeatedly failed to deliver me the comfortable life in an underwater city it promised -- but I'm not giving it

My boss Jo gave me this book about a week ago and the first thing that drew me in was the cover because I love it when books just have simple cover with the writing on and knew it would let look great on my shelf. The book itself is quite big, with over 500 pages it looks quite intimidating. I must say though it really was an interesting book, I especially loved the supernatural section! I don't really know if everything in it is fact but I can deal with that. The only thing that got me was how

My favorite of the Reader Digest Books my parents amassed when I was young. When my mom 'downsized' several months ago she sent it to me because I was always reading it and it has spent the last few months on my bedside table. The book is a compilation of just what the title says--"Strange Stories and Amazing Facts." Subjects run the gamut from space and nature to science and engineering to my favorite sections of legends and unsolved mysteries, hoaxes and interesting bits of creepy history. Les...

This was my book OBSESSION when I was a kid! I carried this thing everywhere I went. I read my favorite stories in here dozens of times. I loved the paranormal ones, historical oddities, and mysteries the best. I even bought another copy as an adult after the original was destroyed in a house fire. This book did more to boost my imagination than anything else I ever read did.

This review may not make much sense in the age of instant informationSuch a widely interesting and eclectic series of stories and facts. Reading this book alone could you make you more quote-worthy than anyone else in your school in the 90s

It is an amazing collection of information and stories and treasure hunts and....it's superb! I love it.

SSR REVIEW by: Max NicklausI read strange stories amazing facts; the title pretty much describes the book. Is tells of things like how lightning hit a gunpowder storage and killed hundreds. It is actually very fascinating, I learned things I never would have learned otherwise. The book really did not have a typical plot line, but rather has a collection of smaller ones. There were a lot of stats and things we never really think of. So I definitely liked the book for how informative it is. Though...

I remember the first time I took this book off the shelf at home and read an article about a suitcase that double as a life preserver, and another about a device so you could tip your hat without using your hands.That would have been almost 30 years ago, and I'm still just picking this book up from time to time and reading random articles. These days it's interesting to see that some of the engineering projects written off by the book (like the Chunnel), have now, finally been completed, and som...

An enjoyable collection of often dubious tales, historical oddments and strange events to be read with a desalination plant's worth of salt - nonetheless an engaging and enjoyable read that should encourage wider reading to learn more.

This was my grandparent's book and I would sneak away and read it whenever we visited their home. Although I was only 8 years old I quickly became hooked on the macabre stories, the creepy legends, and most of all, the scary pictures. That was all the way back in 1982.The book now rests here on my very own bookshelf. My grandparents were nice enough to let me have it - the very same copy I would hide away with to enter the realm of Strange Stories and Amazing Facts.In terms of who might enjoy th...

This is one of those rare and obscure anthology books that utterly captured my childhood fascination and obsession. I remember spending HOURS looking at each page and section.It's title says it all; it's a collection of odd stories, each probably less than 500 words. The stories are all true (but who knows just how vigorous the research was) but have a hook of the macabre, gruesome, or bizarre. For a budding young horror and scifi fan, this book was like heaven.I was so in love with it, that yea...

I love this book, even though 85 percent of it is outdated, and most of it is sensationally written. Anyone know of a modern version of a book like this? A compendium of ghost stories, eccentrics, hoaxes, black magic, the supernatural, cryptozoology?