#Ripleys Annual: Eye-Popping Oddities Book #Review

     I know you love Ripley's.  Know how I know?  Because everyone loves Ripley's.  My family is trying to start a nice collection of Ripley's Books.  We started with 2013's Annual, Download the Weird.  We've decided that we really need to just collect them all because they are fantastic.  They are inspiring and shocking, awe-inspiring and sometimes just plain gross... but we love them.  Last year we sat down and went page by page through the whole book and read them to eachother.

     This year we are adding the 2015 Annual, Eye-Popping Oddities.  It's crammed full of all kinds of amazing people who do amazing things.  It's also full of slightly unhinged people who do weird things.  But either way, they have dedication and that's pretty awesome.

     Some of my personal favorites were the artist who creates street art from garbage.  He scours the city finding trash items in dumpsters and such, then creates birds, insects, and other small creatures using the garbage.  Sometimes he uses a team of artists and sometimes he doesn't.  His works of art are incredible.

     Then there's this guy who literally found the needle in the haystack.  He'd planned to do it in under 24 hours and totally rocked it, coming way under that deadline.  Personally, I'm not surprised.  Although straw is shiny is some ways, it's not silver shiny and it's heavier, so it would fall through the pile.  Still he did spend hours doing it, which shows a nice dedication.

     Then there is this woman, who is fully confident in her body, despite being nontraditional.  She is part of a religion that she knew would prevent her from shaving her beard, but she chose faith over "beauty" and I think that is powerful and beautiful in itself.  She is choosing to live just the way God made her.

     There were other things that you hated to laugh at, like this poor teenager who died because he didn't want teenage girls to kiss him on his birthday.  Poor kid.  You can't help but laugh as you picture the scene.  And his family must have had a sense of humor about it too to create such a silly tombstone describing the unfortunate events.

     There's also tons of interesting tidbits, that make you laugh, wince, and drop your jaw in amazement.  Like the fact about the oily fish that will make you suffer explosive diarrhea 30-36 hours after eating if you consume too much.  Or this one about the people in the UK being scared to lose their phones.  It's filled with so much to learn, we just love to read these books.

     Have you ever seen a funny tombstone?
     To learn more, check out Ripley's on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Instagram, and on their website at Ripleys.com
    
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.