I'm trying to locate three books from my childhood (mid-80's) about UFOs, monsters and ghosts.

June 26, 2009 5:04 PM

I'm trying to locate three books from my childhood (mid-80's) about UFOs, monsters and ghosts.

Sometime in my fourth through sixth grades (c. 1984-1986) I read over and over three books that I believe were titled "UFOs", "Monsters" and "Ghosts". My recollections of these are:

- "UFOs" contained stories about alien abductions, photgraphs of UFOs, illustrations of aliens and descriptions of the different kinds of UFOs.

- "Monsters" included stories about Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster and the Lake Champlain monster, among others.

- "Ghosts" contained ghost stories, photos and illustrations. The one that sticks out was an illustration of a ghost standing on the deck of a submarine or other watercraft that was ten feet tall or something. There was also an illustration of a haunted hause and the different creepy things that could be in there.

I remember these books being large and thin; I'm thinking 8.5" x 11"-sized and a half-inch thick or so. They may be larger; they certainly seemed big when I was that age. Do these sound familiar? Thanks!

posted by DakotaPaul to writing & language (11 comments total)

Google for :
usborne ufos monsters ghosts

There were three books by publisher Usborne which were also incorporated into one volume. I had a copy and was thinking about it the other day.

Usborne did some nice fun but educational books like that. :)
posted by plep at 5:11 PM on June 26

If I remember correctly, Time/Life put out a series of books (of which I think this is one, though I don't remember what the covers looked like) about various things. There was one about UFOs, one about monsters, one about ghosts, one about mythical places, etc. All I remember was that they were hardcover and the spine was black. And there was a badass illustration of the Flying Dutchman.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 5:29 PM on June 26

Oooh, I remember reading those at my sister and brother-in-law's house! I'm pretty sure it's the Time/Life series, as TGBM as alluded to already. More info at Wikipedia.
posted by greatgefilte at 6:27 PM on June 26

Although on a second read of your description, it sounds like it could be the Usborne books too.
posted by greatgefilte at 6:33 PM on June 26

Another vote for Time-Life books. I believe that they eventually combined these into one volume called "Mysteries of the Unexplained". I loved this book when I was a kid. I've got a copy of it and can take some pics of the title pages if you'd like.
posted by ttrendel at 8:15 PM on June 26

Now that I actually look, "Mysteries of the Unexplained" was published by Reader's Digest, not Time-Life.
posted by ttrendel at 8:20 PM on June 26

I recall well-circulated grade school library books that match your description. Usborne published it's “The World of the Unknown” series in 1977 (hardcover). The Amazon listings for the Usborne UFOs, Monsters, and Ghosts volumes do not offer cover images, but a google image search yielded these results:

All About Monsters (overview, plus images of cover and selected pages)
All About UFO's (cover image)
All About Ghosts (overview, plus images of cover and selected pages)
posted by skenfrith at 8:51 PM on June 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

Sounds like the Mysteries of the Unexplained series. Could be the Time Life Enchanted World series, although I always confuse it with the Mysteries of the Unknown. Try eBay or Craigslist if you'd like to buy copies of them, although I bet if you check the public library, you'll find them there too.
posted by jabberjaw at 9:39 PM on June 26

Upon further reflection, I think I was thinking of the "Mysteries of the Unexplained" series and not the Time-Life "Enchanted World" series.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 8:32 AM on June 27

Bingo! Wow, those bring back memories. Thank you so much, skenfrith!
posted by DakotaPaul at 4:20 PM on June 27

Love this book, I've been looking for it myself. I got mine from second hand shops and ebay. I'll let you know if I see anymore, when I was looking I ended up finding loads of them!
posted by flexiverse at 7:20 AM on August 22