“Like everybody else, I don’t know what to think, but, rather uncommonly, I know that.”

“For everything that is supposed to be so well-known that it is proverbial, there are exceptions.”

“Only those who know little of a matter can have a clear and definite opinion upon it.”
( )

A vast compendium of unexplained, mysterious, and downright bizarre events collected by Charles Fort. Fort's dedication to recording and sharing reports of unexplained phenomena, combined with his innate distrust of scientific establishment and his tongue-in-cheek humorist style, garnered him a loyal fan-base and enough renown that the study of strange occurrences explainable by science was named after him - Fortean, or Forteana.

Lo! is one of three books he published on the subject, and it's a beast to read from cover to cover as he rattles through hundreds of reports featuring everything from rains of frogs to phantom planets, and his prose can be a bit meandering even for early twentieth century writing (Lo! was originally published in 1913). But as a reference for bizarre events, Lo! - one of three books Fort published on the subject - is indispensable for both its exhaustive knowledge and entertaining approach. ( )

I'm a big and long term fan of "Fortean Times", having read the magazine for over twenty years and amassing a collection of related publications. So, I was obviously keen to check out the source. As it turns out, I'm glad I didn't read "Lo" before anything else as I may have given "Fortean Times" a miss.

Fort's writing style is underwhelming and doesn't seem to have aged well. He also starts the book with a long chapter on odd things falling from the sky, which has to be my least favourite fortean topic. The book drags on, with a few highlights but eventually I tossed it aside and reread an old "Fortean Times", which was much more enjoyable. ( )

Lo! Charles Fort explains the world! Rains of living things, mysterious disappearances, unexplained appearances, spontaneous human combustion, Kaspar Hauser, natural disasters, it’s all here in this book! Charles Fort spent many hours in the libraries of New York and London rifling through newspapers and journals looking for strange occurrences. He lists all of the unusual phenomena and then asks you the reader to decide if the scientific or theological explanation is correct, then he gives you his ideas.

Fort was an intelligent man and even though his idea of how the world works is a bit wacky, it doesn’t seem totally implausible because it is obvious he has thought about it a great deal. He has a wry wit when dealing with scientists and theologians. His sense of humor helps to keep you interested in the book because lists of articles in newspapers and scientific journals can get boring after a while.

This book was written in the 1930s. The first half is a lot of fun to read. It slows down in the last section which is about astronomy and the rotation of the earth and how that affects natural disasters on our planet. This section in dated because he is speculating on whether or not man could leave the Earth’s orbit and travel to a distant star. If he had written the book today he may have seen space differently or maybe not. He probably wouldn’t have believed the moon landing. ( )

A happy hunting ground of offbeat phenomena