I've had an interest in weirdness since a very early age. Strange coincidences, rainfalls of frogs, strange lights in the sky, noisy spirits, premonitions. Why does everything have to fit neatly into categories? We know perfectly well that human life isn't neat and ordered, so why should the universe be too? I've always sought explanations for everything, I like to know WHY something happens, not just that it happens. It's such a shame that a great pool of interesting facts and happenings are ignored purely because of the label 'paranormal'.
My own early experiences of UFOlogy, for example, suffers from a very unusual event. It concerns a book. A children's book about UFOs which I read when I was young.
I found the book in my local library and took it home along with the regular stack of books I used to consume constantly - I read a lot as a child, and still do when I get the time. It was a book that wasn't much different from the usual children's books on cars, aircraft, history or whatever. In fact, from what I remember, it was very much a book which presented events as definite happenings. Roswell was there, presented as the first contact with extraterrestrial life... albeit dead extraterrestrial life. Even advanced lifeforms screw up, it's a perfectly natural thing.
At the time I thought nothing of it. I knew a bit about UFOs, enough to know that not all the events in the book were quite as real as depicted.
It wasn't until a few years ago that I thought about that book again. I was beginning to really take a definite, researched interest in UFOs and wondered about what had happened to that book. A return to the library yielded no such book in the children's section. In fact, I don't think our library stocks anything even remotely like it for any age of reader. From what I can tell, it doesn't appear any UFO book for children has graced the library's shelves...
So was I dreaming? Nope, I am absolutely sure of that book. It was similar in style to Usborne's children's books (I assume Usborne are available outside the UK), though I'm uncertain if it was actually Usborne. It was heavily illustrated, colour with 'bite-size' chunks of text. Possibly hardback, though I am a bit hazy on this particular matter.
If I wasn't dreaming, what did happen to that book? It's easy to scream 'Cover Up'...
I'd be interested to hear from anyone who recalls a book similar to this. It's more than likely the book had a more plausible ending - it didn't sell well, someone walked off with the library's copy, and it was withdrawn from sale for being too biased.
The truth is out there, and accumulating library fines...
