The Big, Bad Book of Beasts: The World's Most Curious Creatures

by Michael Largo

The world's wildest collection of animal knowledge and lore! Lions, and tigers, and bears . . . and dinosaurs, dragons, and monsters. Oh my! For hundreds of years, the most popular books in the Western world next to the Bible were "bestiaries," fanciful encyclopedias collecting all of human knowledge and mythology about the animal kingdom. In these pages, eagles and elephants lived next to griffins and sea monsters. Now, in The Big, Bad Book of Beasts , award-winning author Michael Largo has updated the medieval bestsellers for the twenty-first century, illuminating little-known facts, astonishing secrets, and bizarre superstitions about the beasts that inhabit our world—and haunt our imaginations. You'll learn about the biggest bug ever, the smallest animal in the world, and the real creatures that inspired the fabled unicorns. You'll discover how birds learned to fly, why cats rub against your legs, and a thousand other facts that will make you look at nature in a wonderfully new way. Did you know? The fastest animal in the world is the peregrine falcon, which reaches speeds of over 200 miles per hours. Circus ringmaster P.T. Barnum fooled many when he displayed a "mermaid" carcass that was later proved to be monkey bones sewed together with the body of a fish. Discovered in a remote volcanic crater in New Guinea, the Bosavi wolly rat grows to the size of a cat. President Andrew Jackson bought an African gray parrot to keep his wife company. The bird outlived them both and was removed from Jackson's funeral for cussing in both English and Spanish. A to From Aardvark to Zooplankton! For all ages! Includes 289 illustrations!

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Reference, Animals, Nature, Mythology, History

444 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Michael Largo is an expert on the anomalous ways of American dying. He is the author of The Portable Obituary (a Bram Stoker Award Finalist), Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die (winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction), and three novels. He was the former editor of New York Poetry and the researcher/archivist for the film company Allied Artists. The son of an NYPD narcotics detective, Largo was the owner and founder of the landmark NYC East Village, St Marks Bar & Grill during the early 80s, where he served an eclectic clientele, including Allen Ginsberg, Joni Mitchell, Larry Rivers, and Keith Richards, to name a few, allowing an insider’s look and unusual vantage to observe both genius and heroin--in all its deviations--and its impact on contemporary culture.

Michael Largo has been collecting statistics and information on the American way of dying for over a decade. He is a member of The Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America amd Horror Writers of America, and The American Historical Association.

Reviews

[Zara's Corner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was quick to read and the beasts mentioned in it were really interesting. I'm a sucker for the strange and unusual so this book really appealed to that side of me. I would love to purchase a copy of the book to have on my own book shelves simply because it is so bizarre. With the bizarre is mystery and reading about animals that may or may not have existed that are just down right peculiar is really fun.

In amongst the bizarre animals mentioned there were also animals that we know and love (or maybe even hate) today. For example, this book spoke of animals such as the Albatross, the ant, the capybara (all of which are still in existence today). It also mentioned that P.T. Barnum (the circus ringmaster) created a mermaid out of monkey bones to fool his audiences.

This book is based on the medieval encyclopaedias called beasteries so therefore we get a little insight into an era far beyond our reach today.

What more can I say other than I believe this book would be a great addition to anyone's home library purely because its contents marries the bizarre with the 'normal' so well.

[Bri · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's nothing really wrong with this book, I just didn't find it particularly entertaining. I don't think I'm necessarily well-read when it comes to the animal kingdom, but I didn't really feel like very much of the information in this book was beyond common knowledge. It serves its purpose as an encyclopedia but, like an encyclopedia, it's something to refer to, not to actually read for enjoyment.

[Rudyard L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very entertaining and well written with quite a bit of erudition, however, the fact checking was not perfect as I found several hoaxes and pseudoscientific ideas peddled without framing.

[BookEater100 · Rating 1 out of 5]

As both a folklorist (it's an actual major, fun but rather "niche" so to speak) and a lifelong paleontology, zoology, and biology aficionado, I found this book to be less than agreeable. This author obviously has a passion for the subjects he writes about, but he should stick to poetry and film due to the massive number of errors and sheer lunacy of the pseudoscience known as cryptozoology he so often supports, (seemingly) uncritically. I found 1-2 errors + in nearly every entry. Here are just a "few" of the ones I noticed:
-Flamingo's legs do not bend backwards, the tarsometatarsus and tibiotarsus are greatly elongated, creating the illusion that the animal's knees are "reversed" when really the knees are tucked up close to the body (this is actually common amongst birds)
-Frequently uses the singular "bacterium" instead of properly using the plural form "bacteria"
-De-evolution is an outdated concept; today, evolutionary biologists recognize that evolution has no guided "purpose" towards achieving so-called greater complexity. What Largo calls the return of terrestrial mammals to an aquatic lifestyle is simply known as evolution. These supposed regressions are actually increases in fitness for these individual species, and thus increased survival.
-The illustration for the impala confusingly uses 2 other species of antelope in its illustration, complete with labels apparently taking a blackbuck and Grant's gazelle as examples of the titular animal, with only a single image of the aforementioned animal.
-Refers to the eurypterid Jaekelopterus as a "proto-insect" when it was actually more closely related to the Chelicerata superclass (i.e. spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs etc.)
-Mistakenly states that myriapods are part of the BEETLE family Coleoptera for goodness' sake
-Meganeura's (the largest known flying insect) wingspan topped out at 28 inches, nowhere near 5 feet
-The lynx is not a member of the leopard genus (Panthera) but the Lynx genus
-NO pterosaur had a wingspan of 60 ft. The largest, Quetzalcoatlus, had a wingspan of about 36 ft.
-Often calls marine reptiles and pterosaurs "dinosaurs" when they were only distantly related
- Giant squid (genus Architeuthis) are poorly recorded as ever having "attacked" a vessel. They only surface when severely ill and in the process of dying, and all such "attacks" are likely due to molestation.
-Giant squid do not attack small whales, and always end up on the losing side of the sperm whale (despite the scars from their serrated suckers when they try to defend themselves). They most likely feed on fish and other squid.
-Eels' tails do not "continuously grow." I cannot find any evidence to back up this fact, and if they did we would be finding absolutely massive eels, which we don't
-Image used for the lantern shark is actually a port jackson shark. Uses image of blue sharks, not a reconstruction of Megalodon. Uses picture of a cranefly rather than a mosquito. Image of an osprey instead of a peregrine falcon. How difficult can this be? Several other incorrect images as well.
-Image for quinotaur isn't remotely near what the beast was supposed to look
-Constantly makes the assumption that all people up to the modern era unwaveringly believed in every monster, mythical beast, etc. Give them more credit; Greeks and Romans later believed less and less in literal interpretations of mythology, and history has been filled with critics of the existence of such creatures. Humans are perfectly capable of using something known as an imagination to fabricate composite creatures such as griffins and manticores, absolutely no need to tie every single animal to a living, real creature.
-Last of all, for an attempt at a bestiary, he gives the iconic dragon a regrettably short entry (only 2 pages!) in contrast to, say, moles
-Cryptozoology is absolutely a pseudoscience because there are "shockingly" no photographs or physical evidence of the existence of floating turtle islands, the Jersey Devil, the apparently immortal Loch Ness Monster, or living non-avian dinosaurs. Certainly there are thousands of undiscovered species out there, but none will ever be as absurd as the evasive Sasquatch of the Mongolian deathworm. Okapis and coelacanths make perfect sense because they fit into what we know of taxonomy and basic biology. Not actual support for such a dubious "field."Goodness.
-Basically don't take this book too seriously, and definitely do not take it at face value. I'm sure the author is a perfectly wonderful guy, but he only succeeded here in making exactly what he is so fascinated with: a bestiary, complete with as many unbelievable beasts and inaccuracies as the medieval books had themselves.

[Llamazing Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book filled with revelatory information, both factual and fiction.
The one and only factor preventing me from awarding a full 5 stars, is aesthetic. The illustrations within are excellent, however as far as layout and presentation goes, this deserves to be presented in a far grander fashion in my opinion! Nonetheless, currently perusing a copy from the library, but will 100% be purchasing a copy to own!

[Devon Flaherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are not really meant for kids, but I found them to be a fun resource when studying botany and zoology. We referenced them occasionally, so I didn’t end up purchasing them (just got them from the library), but I wouldn’t mind having them on the bookshelf. They could be better, but a great idea.

[Stefen Hepburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I shipped this book from a Canadian library... definitely worth the wait! With in 30 minuets of reviving this book , it has immediately become my favourite nonfiction book of all time. This book contains amazing detailed illustrations and strange newspaper clippings on the BIGGEST BADEST BEASTS (real or myths) the world has to offer!

[Nagarajan Madeswaran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its a fun book to read. With some interesting tidbits about the animals we are familiar with and bringing in known details about the mythological ones. What was most interesting was the fact that the mythical beasts are merely not cast into realms of imagination but are thought as animals that could have once really lived or were mistaken identities.

[Lisa Kizer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love reading these types of information books. I would have rated this at least one star higher but whenever the author wrote about extinct animals the 'facts' he sited just seemed to be more invented than factual.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of interesting facts

[Chy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read. Would I want to read it again? No, but I did enjoy it!

[gabby]

very entertaining. i need to actually buy a copy of this book rather than borrowing it every other week

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

***Actual Star Rating: 1.5 Stars***

This is actually one book whose cover I didn't quite closely look at until I started to read it the book and came across a fantastical creature. At that point did I finally take a moment to review the cover itself and noticed to my surprise that this was meant to be a modern take on the bestiary of older times although providing more access to "discovered" species that our ancestors would have encountered in their lifetimes along with fantastical creatures that may have been common to some of them depending upon where they came from and modern creatures added from the field of cryptozoology.

Taking this all into account, though, I was actually excited to read on to see what would all be included but then found to my dismay it is a rather horrid book. The only reason why I provided the book with 1.5 stars is just since readers who are into fantastical creatures and cryptids may get a kick out of some creatures they may not have known about but everything that is found in the book should be taken with a large grain of salt just since there are so many inaccuracies, weird misspellings, stranger representations and indirect bad advice. And further as a result I feel that Michael Largo took the opportunity of our ancestors' lack of knowledge about the natural world around them in making their bestiaries so that he could do the same but willfully which makes it all the more sinister in a book that should be fun as well as informative.

Some of the things that bothered me was the fact that he mentioned mandrills are not the same as baboons but then uses the whole baboon entry to comment upon the mandrill as a species. And at times I felt the same could be said for the raven entry in which I felt that I was more reading about the crow instead of actual ravens.

The author then proceeds to interchangeably use killer whale incorrectly for orcas and antelope antlers for jackalopes when antelopes have horns. Furthermore the wrong name was used for the cockatrice, which yes there is a difference between basilisks and cockatrices as a whole.

Spelling mistakes including calling female reindeer sows and the femur of giants as a lemur bone. And also translating ichthyologists as shark scientists when the term collectively covers all fish.

Then there are the weird displacement of species such as that gorillas can sever the spines of tigers, which would be interesting as one lives in Africa and the other in Asia. Furthermore Michael Largo state that the vicuña was prized for its wool by its masters the Incans when it should have been alpacas and that leopards are llama's natural enemies, which doesn't compute since leopards are from the Old World. And to clarify how much the author didn't care to research his information he mentions an Aztec god for a Mayan god.

Common mistaken information includes the fact that sponges are thought to be able to sexually reproduce, the majority of penguins come from cold homes, that roly-polys are insects before later confirming they are rather instead isopods and that no other animals have wings and can fly then birds when the last I knew insects are quite a common flying sight in most parts of the world.

Finally there were some weird additions to some entries in which it mentions would that particular species make for a good pet. Honestly this part of the book should have been left out as it felt the author was indirectly encouraging those species such as in the entry for the sugar glider in which he says they make for happy pets before casually also explaining that they "can't be housebroken, they excrete everywhere, like to bite and make noises at night".

And as mentioned this is only the top of the iceberg of everything wrong. To compound the difficulties of the whole book, The Big, Bad Book of Beasts includes most often really outdated illustrations that are in black-and-white thus showing t-rex in the wrong bodily position as now confirmed by science, wrong features for creatures such as the tikbalangs which shows that it has human feet instead of hooves and also incorrect specimens like the hippocampus for the inkanyamba when the description tells you what you should be looking for. Other included mediums show collections of animals or incorrect animals thus the reader may not actually get a chance to see the creature being discussed although the skeletal models were a bit neat.

So all in all it makes for an interesting and somewhat informative read but only as long as you are willing to suspend fact for fiction....

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no idea how Largo picked the animals that he put in the book. It runs from ants and bears to extinct animals like the dodo and the tyrannosaurus rex, there are myths and legends like the phoenix and trolls and cryptids like the chupacabra and the Jersey devil. There is a little bit of everything. There are animals I am familiar with and ones I have never heard of before. I learned a lot of new things even about the animals I thought I knew well. You get from a few paragraphs to a few pages about each animal. There is information like life span and habitat and more specific information like how many times a woodpecker will bang his head against a tree in one day. He explores were myths about animals (even real ones) started and what animal might have been misidentified to start rumors of nonexistent animals. If you are doing some kind of research I don’t know how much this would help you. But if you just like to learn about animals it is a great book to visit off and on and read an entry or two.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In alphabetical order from aardvark to zooplankton, this book covers lots of animals, including real, extinct, and mythical in 427 pages. Also includes sources, but no actual table of contents or index. Each entry includes at least one black and white illustration. Among the entries are the banshee, chupacabra, dragons, griffin, the minotaur, phoenix, and unicorn. Some not-so-strange entries are the dog, cat, crickets, flea, fox, hummingbird, mole and elephant with sidebars of interesting facts. Also included are some extinct animals like the dodo, elephant bird, and the passenger pigeon, and some known only from fossils, like ammonites, the creto shark, elasmosaur, jaekelopterus, longisquama, microraptor, and tyrannosaurus rex. Great for browsing.
I got this from the library, but I'd like to get my own copy.

[RumBelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating reference guide to, mostly, real animals, although a fair amount of imaginary ones made up the guide as well. The text was very conversational, almost like you were listening to a person you liked give a talk on animals Each letter had its own section, and each section had a selection of interesting, strange and unique animals. I learned a lot about the animals profiled. One of the most amazing facts, that I didn't know, was that albatross, basically, never stop flying their entire lives. Once they learn how, they take to the skies and only ever nest when they need to mate, however the first time they do that is not until they are at least 10! They can sleep flying, and even have the ability to use only part of their brains at once. This was a fun guide to read through.

[S.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lions, and tigers, and bears . . . and dinosaurs, dragons, and monsters. Oh my! This is one crazy besiary of animals, real and imaginged and how they each have influenced the meanings we have bestowed upon each. Part NatGeo, Part History Channel, Part Mythbusters, and Part Grimm, this collection of origins, superstitions and factoids makes for a remarkable read. 289 illustrations and even more antidotes about the inhabitants of the world. P.T. Barnum's mermaid, check, Jefferson's cursing bird, check. From aardvark to zooplankton, Biggest, smallest, baddest, most curious... you won't be putting this book down for quite a while. (too bad they discovered that striped spider as big as your head after publishing. It deserves its place her (...AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD!)

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book. Easy to read reference book, although I just read it cover to cover. Discussed regular animals (dogs, lions, sharks, etc), as well as mythical beasts such as the mermaid, chupacabra, minotaur. Not very scientific-y if you are worried about that. No, you couldn't get a biology degree from this book and it won't help you on your Zoology test, but it's fun and probably would help you in a pub quiz bowl (What do you call a group of hippopotami? a BLOAT) heh

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating in the fact that it was designed to be like the bestiaries of old (an encyclopedia of real and fictional beings) but with more updated information. However, my only complaint was that I would have liked to see more mythical creatures. Also, if there were to be real animals, I would have liked to see more of them that possessed more unique traits. Otherwise, I would most definitely recommend this book!

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is useless junk. In the introduction the author says something about bestiaries. But the authors of those books were convinced the animals described were real. This is a nonsensical mix of real and fantasy. The real is badly documented. The fantasy, well, nobody can tell so who can blame the author for a bad work?

[DeAnne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some parts were really interesting and/or funny, but there were so many real creatures in there that I wasn't sure what criteria Largo used for inclusion. Anteater but not wallaby? Unicorn but not centaur?

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love animals (well, excepts insects and spiders...blah) so this book sounded like it would be right up my alley. I learned a lot of interesting things, but my biggest beef? No otters??!! Come on, otters are the coolest animals around lol! Otherwise, it was an interesting book!

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the reason I didn't particularly care for this book is that he wrote with an "all-ages" style that wasn't very engaging; especially compared to his other books, all of which I've liked.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learn about beasts!

A thoroughly entertaining read which is a great introduction to the wonders of the natural world and the diversity within it.