Customer Reviews

The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange, and Downright Bizarre

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OK, first let me say, as disclosure, that I know one of the authors, and knew him while he was writing this book. Let me ALSO say that, for that reason, I did not want to review this book. What if I didn't like it? What if I hated it? What would I do?

Well I can now say, unequivocally, that I love this book so much I am ordering one for myself, one for my sister, one for my nephew, and at least one more for a good friend. It is fabulous. It is entertaining. And above all, it is incredibly informative, whether you want to research a superstition, a "lake creature" (there's more than Nessie out there!), various gods and goddesses, astrology (a heck of a lot more than "what's your sign"), and so much more.

From Divination to Elves and Faeries to ESP and Haunting to Herbs and Stones, to name just a few chapter titles, this book is a wealth of well-written, fabulously illustrated entries. Pay particular attention to Chapter 3: Demons and Angels.

This is not a "cult" book; it's a compendium of just about every myth and belief that makes up the human psyche, ancient and modern. Again, I love this book, and am proud to recomment it.

The entire thing is not a dictionary. Instead, it's one short dictionary after another: terms in cryptozoology, terms in demonology, terms in necromancy, etc. The entries are not long and they are totally without sources. There are a few illustrations, but I would say they're both unnecessary and lame.

In short, this is the kind of book that a 14- or 15-year old kid wouldn't mind flipping through for a few weeks (mainly on the john), but for everybody else, it's mainly just good for browsing. If you're seriously interested in anything herein, there's not anything this book has that isn't done much, much better by the related Wikipedia article.

The title caught my attention, and I'm glad I bought it. This is one of my favorite topics. Its perfectly organized, comprehensive and very entertaining. I keep it close by and its great inspiration for the creative mind.