Customer Reviews

The UFO Investigator's Handbook: The Practical Guide to Researching, Identifying, and Documenting Unexplained Sightings

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Boringness is usually in the mind of the beholder so all I could say to ME this book was very interesting.It's also a myth to say "all ufotos are bad" as some try to say;indeed the ufotos in Friedman's book are excellent.(Not saying all are not hoaxes,though.)
Friedman's background in high: A Physicist,with a Master's in physics,(Sagan was his college classmate)(!),and about 31 years researching ufos.
To me its his other books(the Roswell one and Majick one)
that were dull,but even in that Majestic-12("Majick" I called it) book there is alot of scientific data regards the ufo field,making it more interesting.
Further,Stanton Friedman is not an extremist in ufology;we have all to many these days-skeptics especially.
Stanton is probably a "soft-extraterrestrial hypothesis" proponent-stating that "some" ufos are from other planets.
As a qualified ufo-investigator I highly recommend this work.Good ol' Stanton Friedman!

Let's face it. No one knows the answers but everyone is fascinated when the topic of UFOs comes up. This book is a great journey through the varieties of UFO experiences, theories and investigators. And has some classic photos as well. What more could you want?

The present writer commented on this book earlier in 2002,as a qualified ufo-investigator with a large ufo organization,and as a resident of California.
Glenday got his blessings from Stan(the Man)Friedmann,that is a reason enough for the book.
It does have certain aspects of ufo-investigation that even some ufo-org.s dont allude to,e.g. the computer analysis of ufo photos.
It also covers most of the areas germaine to ufo field investigating.
If there is one flaw its the idea of contact: given the problems it causes I would highly recommend against it in any way.The rest of the book doesnt have such pitfalls in the ufo territory.
My rec.is that ufo organizations supplement thier field guides with this book.They would actually complement each other in fields.Enough said!

You don't have to be a confirmed UFO believer to find this a great book on the subject.You can't have been living and aware of what has been going on since the 1950's;without hearing about UFO's.This book puts order into all the things we've heard about;Spaceships from other Worlds,Strange Lights in the Sky,Alien Abductions,Objects from Space,Chariots of the Gods,Crop Circles,Nazca Lines,you name it.
Most people think of spaceships from other worlds whenever they hear the term UFO.This book makes you think differently.What it really means is an object or anything in the sky that cannot be understood or explained.Therefore, a "Sun Dog" is a UFO to someone who sees one for the first time and has no idea of what it is.Once known and understood it is no longer a UFO.
I have been interested in the 'unexplained' ever since a kid,over 60 years ago.For instance,I was about 10 at the time,sitting on my front steps,and noticed light flashes ,on the horizon,at the top of the mountain range about 15 miles.They looked like someone was flashing a huge light for a second or so,then a few seconds there would be another a mile or so along the range ,then another,etc.I seem to remember that there were 10 or so.I had no idea what they were,but I knew they were strange and unexplained to me and remain so today.As I remember they occurred at or near the top of the mountain range ,and were spread out across a few miles.
This book is a great aid in helping you to know what to look for and how to record what you see.It is also a great aid to have at hand when reading about accounts of UFO's.
Just about all the things you'll ever hear about are covered.
Don't expect to find the final answr on Roswell,or Area 51,or for that matter the solution to the numerous Crop Circles.I have been following the stories on them for many years,and expect there will not be any resolution for many years to come.
There is no limit to the things that still occur or have occurred in the past.Not all signs of possible visitors are recent and there are untold numbers of books written on ancient mysteries.
For those who look at the unexplained and cry 'nonsense';and that science can answer everything,remember Lavoisier ,the renowned scientist ,and father of modern chemistry,who ,in 1772 was sent by the Academy of Sciences,to investigate a rock that had supposedly fallen from the sky.He pronounced superciliously,"There are no stones in the sky,therefore no stones can fall from the sky."
"Years later ,as our knowledge of the sky became more advanced,these stones were,of course,shown to be meteorites.Lavoisier,in the meantime ,lost his head to the guillotine,and historians mostly chose to overlook this episode of scientific intractibility that,for many,epitomizes science's attitude to the unexplained."
A great book for any reader or observer of the unexplained.

There are not much books like this in the field of UFO investigation. It is a good beginners "how to" for research of UFO phenomenon. Only problem is it is overly beginners material and it is full of unecesary images and explanation of trivial things. I must say I was expecting much more proffesional aproach to it.
But it is still a scool book for any researcher out there.

The UFO Investigator's Handbook by Craig Glenday is exactly what it sounds like: A guide for investigating reports of UFOs. I find this review particularly difficult to write, because I'm very torn over how to rate the quality and utility of the book.

Let's start with the good things. The Handbook is easily the most beautiful UFO-centric book I've encountered to date. It is extremely colorful, and every page features high quality photographs or illustrations, all of which are annotated to provide context. From a technical standpoint, the book is well written and edited. It reads easily, and is quite frankly a fun tour of UFO research.

I think most books have two major qualities; their informational content and their enjoyability. Too much information may become dry and unpleasurable to read. As I've already discussed, the Handbook excelled on the emotional side of the scale. The problem is it seems to fall rather short when it comes to information. It's not a particularly heavy read at 130 pages, and when you account for the quantity of images and fancy layout within, you come to realize that the data just isn't there. As much as I enjoy reading texts on the paranormal, I always hope to learn something new each time. Sadly, the farther I went, the more obvious it became that I wasn't really seeing anything here that I hadn't seen before. The book seems to touch all the bases of UFO investigation successfully, but it touches them at such a high level that you're left wanting more. There's little to learn here that a combination of common sense and a couple of History Channel UFO specials won't also teach you.

I suppose with a book that considers itself to be a "Handbook," I really shouldn't expect copious amounts of information. But then I have to ask, who really needs such a handbook in the first place? If you know enough about ufology to be investigating in the field, you probably already know far more than you'll find here. On the other hand, if you know so little about the subject that you found this book to be a good source of information, you probably should not be out in the field taking on the responsibility of a UFO investigator!

As I said in the beginning, this review was hard to write. For some reason, I really did enjoy this book. Maybe it was the excellent visuals, maybe it was the easy writing style, or maybe I'm just a sucker for UFO books. But I would be amiss to turn a blind eye to the reality that the factual content was, ultimately, very shallow. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone other than the uninitiated readers in the UFO audience...or those of us who don't mind wasting a bit of time reading through some pretty pictures.

This is a great and powerful book for showing people the case on UFOs and what magnitude of a phenomenon the weird objects seen in the sky. I recommend this to any age group it very detailed and intellectual.

Big help, I've found 43 UFOs and met several alien races in the short 3-month span since I've purchased this book. Thank you Craig and Stanton!