Robert Ripley (1890–1949)

The usual collection of strange and interesting tales; this edition has a heavy rotation of stories from the Islamic world, for some reason. Also quite a few stories about botched executions.

I obtained this old copy through my great grandmother back in 1996. In most ways, it’s what you’d expect from the series, but it provides an interesting snapshot in time due to its old age. Thankfully, my copy is not too fragile. I imagine it’s almost impossible to come by.

Great collection of ripley’s believe it or not comic strips!

This particular edition (which is a reprint of an earlier, 1962, work) seems to have fewer of the suspend-disbelief entries that some of the later series have. Also noteworthy is that this volume has quite a few family crest and city-seal entries. Better than the average run of Ripley.