Book Review: MYSTERIES, MONSTERS and untold secrets, George Laycock

MYSTERIES, MONSTERS and untold secrets

My First Book

Author:                               George Laycock
Cover Illustration:             Ted Hanke

                             

Publisher:                            Scholastic Book Services          

Type:                                    TPB

Pages:                                   158

Genre:                                  Non-Fiction

Published:                           1978

ISBN:                                   0-590-31270-7

Source:                                 Independently purchased 

This isn’t the first book I read obviously, it is however the first book I bought. At my primary school they would sometimes pass around a book catalogue from scholastic, and we had the opportunity to purchase books from this catalogue. A few months later the book would arrive and all was good. In year Five I purchased this book, in part to try to make sense of my own Yowie encounter.

The book is well constructed, it has survived some thirty years, it is scattered with full page black and white drawings and photos.

The book devotes one chapter to each topic; the topics are so diverse that I am sure at least a few would be of interest to any reader.

In a new look at loch Ness, we are shown  Dr. Rines expeditions to find the Loch Ness Monster as well as the Surgeon Photos, this chapter also mentions the Flathead lake monster, which opens the mind to the possibility that Nessy isn’t the only one.

Strange lights in the sky examines MinMIn or ghost lights as this book calls them.

Have you seen the UFOs?, touches on sightings, government investigations of the phenomenon and a little bit on abductions.

Ghost ships of the high seas tells the salty tales of the Mary Celeste, Carroll A. Deering and the Rubicon ship mysteries.

We then delve into the Bermuda Triangle and the more famous disappearances.

Big Birds of Texas tells us of the reports of Pterosaur like creatures coming from Texas.

In the mystery of Oak Island we are told of the money pit and the misfortune that befalls those who seek its treasures.

The gold nobody can find lies in the lost Dutchman mine.

The trail of Bigfoot, looks at bigfeet and the evidence of their existence, the Gimlin/Patterson film is covered of course. It is interesting to note that back in the day this was published Bigfeet were thought to be gentle, quiet and inoffensive forest ape-people.

At the time of first reading this and comparing it to my own encounter, I was confused, as I was sure the only reason my head wasn’t ripped off was because I was a small child.

The Missing Virginians examines the mystery of the lost Carolina colony.

Finding water with a stick, explains what dowsing is, I remember making my own divining rods at the time I read this and being to lazy to dig where they told me to.

We look at the Mayans in Mysteries of a jungle civilisation.

ESP-the inner mystery, examines parapsychology and psychic investigation.

Animals and ESP, looks at the ability of beloved pets to find their carers even if they have never been to the carers new home, how pets know when their carers  decide to come home, and how pets can travel to their former homes despite the fact they shouldn’t know the way.

Island of the forgotten looks at the enigmatic Easter Island and the stunning statues that guard it.

This book had a profound effect on me as a child. For one I knew I wasn’t alone in my experiences but it also opened my mind to the possibility’s. That the world is still full of mysteries and secrets.

It also paints a rather pleasant picture of ‘science’ showing true scientists, those that don’t merely scoff at a mystery but realise it is their job to document and explain it. This view of science no longer fits well with me, I have heard too many ridiculous arguments from sceptical scientists that are far more extraordinary than the sighting they are trying to ‘debunk’. Too many times I have heard sceptics on behalf of the scientific community demanding evidence of a witness, when the only responsibility of the witness is to report the sighting (a witness report is evidence) and then it is up to the scientist to investigate. 

Perhaps it is not science or scientists that are the problem but close minded, big mouthed skeptics, which are only skeptical of anything they don’t understand or are ignorant about?

About the Author

The book doesn’t have an author page, perhaps which was the style at the time. Some online research shows that he was a learned writer who wrote many books on animals and cryptids, I am sure his books encouraged and inspired many. He was born in May 29, 1921 and died March 31, 2014.

What was the first book you ever purchased? 

Read? Cherished?