• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

Recommended Books?

Forums New posts
N

NZflyfish

Paranormal Novice
Hi All. I am new to the subject of UFO's but very interested and wondered if someone can recommend a good book(s) to kick-start me? Am concious there are a number of authors in this area to be avoided so thought I would ask prior to purchasing something to ensure I am not subjected to the 'cranks' before I have enough knowledge to know different. Mainly interested in the UFO topic.
Many thanks for any assistance.
:question::question::question:
 
Hi I know I keep mentioning it but I think Timothy Good's "Above Top Secret" is a great book. It is filled with actual reports from around the world mainly from credible witnesses like the military, air force, commercial pilots. Timothy Good tends to let the reports do the talking rather than putting his own slant on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Above-Top-Secret-Worldwide-Cover-Up/dp/0688092020/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251968751&sr=1-1 There's also an updated version: "Beyond Top Secret".

Also "You Can't Tell the People: The Definitive Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Mystery " by Georgina Bruni http://www.amazon.com/dp/033039021X/?tag=rockoids-20
 
I would definitely recommend Passport to Magonia by Vallee and Keel's Operation Trojan Horse. They aren't quite nuts and bolts ufo books, but I reread them recently and still found the arguments presented fascinating. They might be easier to borrow as used copies can be a bit spendy; for books currently in print, Grassroots UFOs by Michael Swords and Redfern's Final Events were very good reads.
 
I just finished Operation Trojan Horse which is finally back in print courtesy of Anomalist Books. Highly recommend. Of all the UFO books I've read (and I've read a bunch) Keel and Vallee (Dimensions, Confrontations, Revelations) have gotten closer to the true nature of the phenomenon that any of the others. (Although, I suspect the true nature of the phenomenon is, and will remain, beyond our ability to ever understand). Keel and Vallee were the first "out of the box" thinkers on the subject (correct me if I'm wrong).
 
Dedpanman said:
I just finished Operation Trojan Horse which is finally back in print courtesy of Anomalist Books. Highly recommend. Of all the UFO books I've read (and I've read a bunch) Keel and Vallee (Dimensions, Confrontations, Revelations) have gotten closer to the true nature of the phenomenon that any of the others. (Although, I suspect the true nature of the phenomenon is, and will remain, beyond our ability to ever understand). Keel and Vallee were the first "out of the box" thinkers on the subject (correct me if I'm wrong).
Click to expand...

I guess that all depends on what you mean by "out of the box" thinking. Keel was more a precursor to Whitley Strieber in that he was a fiction writer who became interested in UFOs and other out of the ordinary phenomena, and claimed to have had many experiences of such phenomena which he then wrote about. How much of Strieber's work is docufiction and how much is fact? I think it's perfectly fair to ask the same thing about Keel. Does this kind of thinking qualify as "out of the box" thinking? If it does, does it really get us any closer to understanding the true nature of UFOs? For these people "out of the box thinking" seems to involve building a mystery by invoking unconventional ideas that test our credulity.

Vallée is an interesting character. On one hand he makes some very grounded assumptions and observations, while on the other he goes completely off the end of the pier. When he does the latter it seems that he's applauded for his "out of the box" thinking. However I reserve my applause because as an observer on the sidelines, I see problems with Vallée's rationale for his viewpoint on the ETH, and I've discussed them in more detail in other posts. The bottom line is that there is nothing about the UFO phenomenon in particular that cannot be explained by the ETH.

So given the above, I'm reserved when it comes to agreeing with statements like, "... the true nature of the phenomenon is, and will remain, beyond our ability to ever understand." This is the same kind of thinking people often invoke for God. The core subject matter for ufology are alien craft, not supernatural beings, and consequently understanding alien technology is only a matter of having access to it and studying it long enough. I think this is well within reach of the human intellect. For that matter, it's probably only a matter of time before we figure it out ourselves, with or without any alien samples to work from.
 
there are so many books on different subjects that it's difficult to pick only a few ones. However, for starters I think that the first two volumes of "ufos and the national security state" by Richard Dolan are a good overview of the history of the phenomenon, including brief summary of well known cases.

For myself, I still have a strong memory of one the first books I read on this subject which was the classic "report on unidentified flying objects" by Edward Ruppelt. Among the last ones I read, "Firestorm, James Mc Donald's fight for ufo science", by Ann Druffel, stands as an absolute wonderful tribute (and an impressive work) to this scientist who crossed the ufologic scene like a shooting star.
 
chikane said:
there are so many books on different subjects that it's difficult to pick only a few ones. However, for starters I think that the first two volumes of "ufos and the national security state" by Richard Dolan are a good overview of the history of the phenomenon, including brief summary of well known cases.

For myself, I still have a strong memory of one the first books I read on this subject which was the classic "report on unidentified flying objects" by Edward Ruppelt. Among the last ones I read, "Firestorm, James Mc Donald's fight for ufo science", by Ann Druffel, stands as an absolute wonderful tribute (and an impressive work) to this scientist who crossed the ufologic scene like a shooting star.
Click to expand...

Cool, I just picked up "Firestorm" at my local used book store the other day, one of the books I've had my eye out for...

The other three you mentioned are all great also. Too many books to list, but Greg Valdez's recent book is excellent....
 
I would just say not to skip over the period in history during which the UFO first became a part of public culture. Credible works written during and about events from about the mid 1940's through the 1950's paint a picture of a government genuinely caught off guard by something extraordinary then, slowly but surely, cordoning off whatever it does or does not know about it. Sources are works by Ruppelt, Hynek and Keyhoe. Both Ruppelt and Hynek were publicly in the employ of government agencies scrambling (seemingly) to resolve the UFO "problem".

A wider view of the phenomenon as a kind of subset of the paranormal is well represented by Vallee. His work is wider and more philosophical in scope. But he is (IMO) a seminal thinker in the field.

And many, many more....
 
toxicsurf said:
Cool, I just picked up "Firestorm" at my local used book store the other day, one of the books I've had my eye out for...

The other three you mentioned are all great also. Too many books to list, but Greg Valdez's recent book is excellent....
Click to expand...
Hey toxicsurf - I did see the new book by Valdez on the Anomalist this weekend - would you recommend it? Does it go into a more "high strangeness" perspective with Dulce?
 
toxicsurf said:
Cool, I just picked up "Firestorm" at my local used book store the other day, one of the books I've had my eye out for...

The other three you mentioned are all great also. Too many books to list, but Greg Valdez's recent book is excellent....
Click to expand...

indeed too many...but I bet you won't be disappointed by Firestorm! good read
 
sagesigma said:
Hey toxicsurf - I did see the new book by Valdez on the Anomalist this weekend - would you recommend it? Does it go into a more "high strangeness" perspective with Dulce?
Click to expand...
no real "high strangeness", mostly its about tying the mutilations and ufo sightings in and around Dulce with the CIA, Air Force, NIDS & Bigelow, the Aviary....and alot on Benniwitz as well...
 
boomerang said:
I would just say not to skip over the period in history during which the UFO first became a part of public culture. Credible works written during and about events from about the mid 1940's through the 1950's paint a picture of a government genuinely caught off guard by something extraordinary then, slowly but surely, cordoning off whatever it does or does not know about it. Sources are works by Ruppelt, Hynek and Keyhoe. Both Ruppelt and Hynek were publicly in the employ of government agencies scrambling (seemingly) to resolve the UFO "problem".
Click to expand...

I share the same feeling. It was kind of the real beginning of ufo reasearch, not to say that the ufo phenomenom started at this period, but that ufos really started being studied, due I believe to a number of reasons among which national security, the developpement of aviation and the mastering of airspace, the context of cold war which imposed increased surveillance and I believe, an increase in the ufo phenomenon itself. In my mind there seem to be an optimistic and open state of mind in the ufo studies be it in the army or among civil groups...till the project sign's conclusions about the ETH were rejected by high officials and the era of debunking and secrecy began. However that was just the beginning and legendary figures like Keyhoe were still pushing things hard to get to the truth. I don't know if this is because it was sort of the beginning with a willingfull and prolific activity in the ufologic scene or its legendary figures, but I find this era kind of attracting and fascinating. There was so much going on at this time
 
Back
Top