Customer Reviews

Weird America

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After reading many titles and authors dealing with strange phenonema Jim Brandon is one of the rare authors who actually makes sense of all these strange goings on - on this planet. This book is a detailed, state by state listing of some of the weirdest places and occurances in North America. Jim Brandon writes with hunour and with an open mind. If you've read the reviews above they mention that copies are stolen frequently from libraries. There is a reason for that. It a rare and wonderful book. Its strange that it hasn't been reprinted. Used copies go for over [$]US. Maybe there's a conspiracy afoot.

This book should be required reading for school kids except that it might create a generation with open minds. If you can afford the money to buy a used copy, follow it up with "The Rebirth Of Pan" if you can find it. That book tells more about specific sites. If you've done a search for this book and want more try: Loren Coleman, John A Keel, or Salvatore M Trento. But do a search for Sourcebook Project on the web first. You'll thank me later.

There is an alternative to this reality and you'll find that it overlaps at many of the points Brandon sites in this beautiful book.

Good luck.

This collection of the unexplained (and perhaps unexplainable) phenomena called Forteana is not the most exhaustive or scholarly I've ever seen, but it makes, hands down, the best introduction to the subject. Sea monsters, ghosts, poltergeists, freakish weather phenomena, UFOs, lake monsters -- they're all here, documented with just enough thoroughness to be convincing. Brandon is neither a blinkered rationalist nor a wide-eyed, credulous dope, and the book is leavened with a sense of humor throughout which makes it especially fun to read. The author never loses sight of Fort's basic insight -- that the "explanations" offered by conventional science for many of these mysteries are often more ludicrous, far-fetched, and interesting than the phenomena themselves.

The book is organized geographically -- it goes state by state, city by city, so you can readily find the stuff that's happened nearest you. My favorite incident? The nylon cord that hung from the sky over Caldwell, New Jersey, in the 1970's, for several weeks. Get hold of this book no matter how hard it is to find and read all about it -- you'll be glad you did.

If you ever get a chance to read this book, you will find it amazing. I went on a trek in 1993 to follow up on some of the listings and I had a great time across three states. Some things have changed, of course, in the intervening years. The strange beehive structures that used to sit on public land in Arizona are no longer available to the public because someone bought that parcel and named it "Beehive Ranch." Still, the photos alone are worth the cost of the book...

I bought this book in the 70's due to my interest in unusual places and happenings. What a goldmine! I still posess this wonderful road map to the weird and highly recommend anyone with a mistrust of reality to pick up this gem, if you should be so fortunate to run across it. It covers the gambit from bigfoot to big mounds, giving directions and advice on how to reach the location of some of our country's strangest places and/or happenings. Jim Brandon, where is our sequel to your amusing and fascinating book? Now, there's a mystery...

I read this book at the very beginning of my blossiming interest in paranormal phenomenon. At the time i was 14 or 15 and could not fully understand the greatness of the book. Later when I realized what a great book it was i couldn't find and this is the first place i have even seen it advertised! The book goes state to state, town to town, and event to event through American history to bring you some of the most chilling stories and phenomenon you will read about.

A book about Forteana and other oddities has to be good to appreciate in value like that.
Most have lame stories that are borrowed from other books of the strange. This is much better than that. You will see what and where, and when you get there, the thing is there.
Unfortunately, I lost my copy when I loaned it to somebody. This is mitigated by the the fact he owns a somewhat misplaced gold mine. Been there. But I digress.
The book is a classic about Forteana and things unexplained. Get it if you can.

Back in the late '70s, I read "Weird America" by Jim Brandon (his pseudonym, of course), and I immediately started a correspondence with the fellow. To me, Brandon's writing was at worst incomplete, and at best inspirational. "Brandon" wrote back to me that he thought I had the most interesting handwriting he'd ever seen, and he invited me to submit a few more arcane locations for his research. Since that time (early 1980s), I have not heard from "Jim Brandon" again. Of course, I queried his publisher; they said he was not available, and since that time I have conducted a futile search for the fellow. Here we are almost than 20 years later, and I'm still intrigued with "Weird America" and Jim Brandon. Does anyone know where this author ended up?

I've been a real fan of anomalous folklore for years, and was concerned that this would be a bunch of crap re-hashed in a dozen books that have come out since. Jim Brandon seems to have scoured local small town newspapers for many of these bizarre stories of sightings that can't readily be explained. This isn't a book full of bogus "haunted" bed and breakfasts... it has such strange stories as bubbling huge piles of what appears to be yeast dough in Illinois and Texas, modern sightings of Pterodactyls, things that are very bizarre but not entirely outlandish to the point of absurdity - just without explanation. The occurrences are documented in a mapped out, state by state format. If you really enjoy this kind of thing, it is indeed worth the fifty bucks.

This is a great book & a fun read. Unfortunately, I lent my copy to somebody about 10 years ago & never got it back & since then have been relying on an increasingly battered library copy for my periodic re-readings. Brandon is a good writer who gets a lot of eeriness into the mostly short entries in his book. The encyclopedic style of the book, with everything broken down into states, adds to its feeling of reality. Since reading it I have been waiting for the second edition--maybe some day there will be one!

This is an older book (1978) by Jim Brandon. It is hard to find and very good. If it happened in America before 1978 and it was weird it is in here! I have used the book to plot a vacation at least once.