Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Ripley's Believe It or Not

by Ripley Entertainment Inc.

There are hundreds of incredible facts and drawings gathered from the farthest reaches of the world to astound and surprise you!

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Trivia, History, Humor, Comics, Childrens

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 17, 1929

About the author

The Official Goodreads page of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!—where seeing is believing and it’s rude not to stare!

Reviews

[Gary]

There was a whole series of Ripley's Believe It Or Not books that I read back in the 70's. They were a big part of my pre-teen and early teen formative years. The paper was flimsy pulp and the hand-drawn B&W cartoons detailing each factoid filled the pages. Here's an example of a classic page: http://www.ripleys.com/core/answers/w...

[John Yelverton]

A must have for fans of useless trivia, and you really will not believe what's on every page.

[Catastrophe Queen]

Trivia! Lots of weird and entertaining facts I will probably never use in real life. But I like it.

[Kenneth]

The first collection of Ripley's Believe It or Not items published in book format, that Robert Ripley had collected back in the 1920's. These are little known facts and oddities that most of us would never guessed at. First read when I was a kid, they were quite amazing at the time. Am a bit more jaded now but there are still some interesting things to read in it.

[Daniel]

I'm going to go with "or not," at least for a fair amount of this stuff. Call me a skeptic, but some of these stories are little more than old wives' tales, and others that are technically true are phrased in misleading ways. For instance, at one point Ripley says that if you put all the Chinese in the world in a line four across and had the line start marching past you, the line would never finish marching past you. If you, like me, thought "How can that possibly be true? No matter how numerous the Chinese may be, any finite amount of people would eventually be exhausted," that is because you forgot to account for, as Ripley does in his explanation, the fact that all the women will apparently, while they are marching in this line, continue to conceive and give birth (how?) at the normal Chinese birthrate. Silly you! With that said, the book does have a certain sort of fascinating appeal in the facts that do appear to be true, whether it be strange animals or astounding sports stats or interesting mathematical facts. But there is also a surprising amount of theological liberalism in the book where Biblical miracles are given a materialist "explanation", which I was absolutely not expecting. So yeah, there's that.

[Aman]

Dear Ripleys,


This book was really interesting, because I learned facts that I never knew. The different facts that I learned were like crazy food, different animals, and other not believable but non fiction! Thank you so much for this great experience reading these books! So, you will know I will deffinetally be waiting for the next one. I deffinetally would reccomend this book to anyone who loves interesting facts, adn loves to learn about the living impossible things. I would rate this book a 4.5 because it was organized, and really fun to read. This is a nonfiction book!

Sincerely,
Aman Tolia

[Mark Piercing]

If there’s such a thing as a ‘coffee table book’ for a classroom then this is probably it. The Ripley’s books are full of mind-blowing facts, feats and photos from around the world. It’s a great book for getting children interested in other countries and cultures, nature and also science. However, I would be inclined to keep it for KS2 children only as I personally think some of the photographs might be a bit scary/uncomfortable for younger children.

[John Garcia- Landry]

I really enjoyed this book. I just visited the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum yesterday in St. Augustine and purchased this book. This book is a reprint of the original Ripley’s Believe it or not book from 1927. I enjoyed seeing the interesting pictures Mr. Ripley had drawn and also reading the different facts.

[Cam Hathway]

This book is full of amazing facts and photos. I recommend it to anyone that wants to be freaked out or amazed. I really enjoyed reading this book and it was my highlight of the day.

[UsagY]

A light book. ;D

[Marshall]

Forgot how much I loved the weird world of Mr Ripley.

[Prema Joshi]

mmm

[Maahnur]

If you are a fan of learning new facts and want to read something in your free time just to increase your knowledge, this is the book for you!

[Anna]

Interesting

The book is interesting, I admit, but has its share of racism and bigotry. Also, I must say, I subscribed to the "or not" for a fair number of stories.

[Logan Matthews]

I read each of these cover to cover. Love them.

[Dnobl260]

This book was really great. I think that everyone should read it. I can not wait for the next book. I would give this book 10 out of 10 stars.

[J]

To be honest I think this is the first Ripley's book that I enjoyed just for the pure age and the historical fact of that alone. The version I had was from February 1943 while it also included as part that the book was published due to the war efforts that was taking place at the time thus it is a piece of history. Furthermore I also enjoyed the fact that Ripley was so confident of himself and being able to prove it that he would include before the book started his address so that way he could prove whatever you may disbelieve (not many people are too willing to do that).

Unlike the more modern Ripley's books this one had more of the actual tone of the man himself who started a worldwide desire to learn about the strange and what some may turn the bizarre. When you hear the facts and/or trivia you are being told by the man himself who began out to bring the little know to you.

What also makes this book interesting is the fact that it combines a bit of his comics along with his stories and some letters from readers sharing their own Believe It or Not! It puts a bit of a sense of community together.

The actual formatting though was a bit on the random side. Some of the trivia was put together but others you would find scattered here and there. Furthermore the comics also sometimes didn't match so you would read a comment that was surrounded by stories that weren't even remotely related.

Otherwise for the Ripley's fan this is a must-read. It allows you to be able to compare the growth of Ripley's from what you know of the modern collection. Some of the facts in the book have been repeated even as late as the 1990s but others have been replaced since humans are a striving type of creature who fortunate for the rest of us try the boundaries and push them as far as we can get them to go....

[John]

As a kid I always enjoyed reading Ripley's Believe It Or Not cartoons. When I saw this book at the library last week nostalgia kicked in and I checked it out.

It was an interesting read, although since this is an exact reprinting of the first Believe It Or Not book, published in 1929, some of the content was quite dated (for example: the fact that a telegram was sent around the world in 8 minutes is no longer amazing). At the same time, I have come across at least a few of the facts printed in this book at various locations within the last year, so at least some of the content is still being circulated.

Ripley comes off a bit prejudiced against some of the cultures he describes, and content in the book seems a bit disorganized at times, but other than that this was a quick and fun read.

[Terry Marzell]

Ripley's Believe It or Not. Orlando, Florida: Ripley Publishing. 2004. Target Audience: Ages 14-17. Reading Level: 6.6. An eclectic assortment of the amazing, the unusual, and the gross, including fantastic animals, purported alien encounters, and exotic human bodies, living and dead. Short, one-paragraph narratives and sidebars that are easy to read, accompanied by tons of full-color or black-and-white photographs arranged on 247 visually-appealing oversized pages. Eye-catching holograph on front cover. CSULB Class 6 High School Hi-Lo Nonfiction.

[María Paz Greene F]

ME ENCANTAN LOS LIBROS DE CURIOSIDADES, en especial cuando son documentados, en especial cuando son reales.

Mi crítica es que, hoy en día, pasa que algunos se van al extremo solo para aparecer aquí o en los Record Guiness, pero esta edición tan vieja (¡y además pionera!) no es el caso. Además, el otro día leí en el diario que ya no estaban haciendo categorías de cosas que afectaran la salud o las buenas costumbres, jaja.

[Joff!]

If there’s such a thing as a ‘coffee table book’ for a classroom then this is probably it. The Ripley’s books are full of mind-blowing facts, feats and photos from around the world. It’s a great book for getting children interested in other countries and cultures, nature and also science. However, I would be inclined to keep it for KS2 children only as I personally think some of the photographs might be a bit scary/uncomfortable for younger children.

[Jean Oram]

This is a great book for boys. This will be freaked out, amazed, intrigued, grossed out, and all those things that appeal to boys. (Ages 7-99 pretty much covers it.)

Great photos, lots of colour. Lots of interesting facts and unbelieveable things. Boys cant put it down--great way to get boys to read. Highly recommend all of their books when it comes to boys.

[Claire]

Have you seen something in your life that scares you for life? Well in Ripley's Believe It or Not, you will see many of them. I rated this 5 stars because even though some of the pictures scare you, they mean something to me. But I rated it 5 stars because I thought that it shows what happens in real life. To read this, you need to be brave to believe what you see in the book.

[Erik Graff]

This old paperback sat around grandmother's cottage in Michigan for years. It was, I believe, the umpteenth printing of the first book- length collection of Robert Ripley's cartoon columns and was just recently reprinted yet again. Naturally, as a little kid, I found it fascinating.

[Maggie]

I think this is a really interesting book because it has pictures and stories about crazy things people have done. I really want to go to Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum and see some of these exhibits and more exhibits too!

[Yasmine Dero]

I enjoyd reading this book with all his wonderful, funny and rare facts. However it's something you read once , not for every day of course. But i enjoyed it and learned a few facts that i will remember :)

[Kevin Gallan]

very interesting book

[Anonymous]

Great book for kids and adults who've got nothing else useful to do.

[Persephone Jaeckel]

The actual version that I read was the 2007 special edition, but no matter how you cut it these books are fun.

[Alex T]

finding new things that you might not of ever known about is what will make you wonder about things...