Blogging for Books: Review of "A Curious Man" by Neal Thompson

To begin with, I'd like to start off this review by mentioning that I received a complimentary copy of "A Curious Man" by Neal Thompson in exchange for my honest review. So here we go! First, the cover of the book is very enticing. Here is an image of it:

Several things struck me about this book from the moment I opened the cover and began reading it. Foremost is that this book is about the life of LeRoy Robert Ripley, not necessarily the oddities that were the hallmark of his career. The next thing that captured my attention about the book is the many facts about Robert Ripley that I was unaware of. I grew up with the television show, and Robert Stack's imposing voice exhorting me to "Believe It, or Not!" but I never gave much thought to what went on behind the scenes, what led to that show I loved so much.

One thing I almost never do while I'm reading is to take notes, but this book nearly demanded that I do so. Among my notes for this book are the fact that Bob Ripley nearly had a professional baseball career. Another was his near miss in the newspaper business upon several occasions. Ripley was a very shy young man, and had a nearly disfiguring dental condition which caused his foremost teeth to protrude from his mouth in a very unsightly manner. He continuously attempted to hide these teeth with his lips and mouth but in many of the photographs inside the book, they are prominently displayed in spite of his better efforts. This revelation made me feel sorry for the shy cartoonist, and piqued my interest in his adventures. How could someone with his disfigurement, shy mannerisms, and awkward social skills have created the "Believe It or Not!" empire?

I won't give away the meat of the book, the many adventures which took Ripley to far away lands and which led to the famous quote, preceded by incredible facts of daring and mystery. One thing I will mention, to further endorse this book, is that it is interactive. There are interesting photos in the center section of the book, and within the chapters there are small blurbs which give an interesting fact that pertains to the material covered in the chapter. Not only are there photos inside the book, but you can download an app for your phone which scans some of the pages. Once scanned, you can unlock more content, such as never before seen videos and photographs, and some of Ripley's radio show recordings as well. The videos were amazing, to me; they showed an era which I have always been interested in and further supported the incredible journey of this shy man from lowly cartoonist to entertainer extraordinaire.

Did I like this book? Yes and no. I loved learning about Ripley and how the "Believe It, or Not!" phenomenon began. It did read somewhat like a text book in some areas, and there were parts of it I was simply not interested in. Overall, if I were to allot this book a star rating (with five being the greatest praise, and one being the lowest praise) I would give it four out of five stars. Believe it, or not, it was just that good.

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