Books to Die For

Joshua Gee's ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA

When I was a child in those long-gone days before the Internet and search engines and all the rest of that wondrous technology that kids today take for granted, I had a thing for encyclopedias. My father had splurged on the complete educational package, which not only came with the reference books for grown-ups, but a more colourful and heavily illustrated children's set and three volumes of medical texts. I quickly bored of the safe and mostly sanitized children's version, but god how I loved those books about strange diseases and the other weird wonders of the human body (particularly the disturbing pictures). Probably not appropriate reading/viewing material for young me, but it was the early '80s and you took what you got. And since monsters were somewhat tricky to come by given my father's conservative Catholic tendencies, I had to settle for real-life medical creepouts (and there are so, so many in the world of viruses, diseases and parasites) and the more esoteric entries in the adult encyclopedias. Back then I would have absolutely killed for a book like this week's Book to Die For: Joshua Gee's ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA.

Of course, Gee's oversized but relatively thin hardcover is nowhere near as all-encompassing as those stuffy, library-like volumes of my youth, but its fixation on horror and the strange and morbid would have more than satisfied my early curiosity about the darker parts of existence and folklore. I'm thrilled that it will be there for my daughter should she someday find herself developing similar genre inclinations.

As the title suggests, ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA investigates vampiresm, krakens, aliens, werewolves, ghosts, zombies and mummies, as well as psychic powers, superstitions and much more, all while being especially mindful (but not patronizing) of its tween audience. A fun blend of fact and fiction (and even conparisons between the two), this book does not disappoint - just check out this sample page.

ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA appears to have gone out of print in the years since it was first released in 2007 and prices on Amazon appear to fluctuate wildly. That said, if you are not picky about the book's condition, affordable versions are available.