r/whatsthatbook • u/chargarten • 6h ago

SOLVED Trying to identify a general reference book/encyclopedia I saw around 2005 — black pages? and a smoky ghost photo

I’m trying to identify a book I remember seeing around 2005 as a kid, though it may have been published earlier.

It covered lots of different subjects, not just ghosts or the paranormal. I remember topics along the lines of animals, science, history, and the human body. I don’t know whether it was technically an encyclopedia, and it wasn’t necessarily a children’s book.

There was a small section dedicated to supernatural phenomena. In that section, there was a small photograph surrounded by text showing what I remember as a smoky, floating apparition against a dark background. It looked like a photograph rather than an illustration.

I remember staying at a friend’s house and he pulled that out and I was genuinely terrified of it. I wanted to see if I could relive that lol.

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u/LamppostBoy 5h ago

I had a collection of Ripley's Believe It or Not that fit this description, except the section devoted to supernatural phenomena was not small.

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u/chargarten 5h ago

I think you’re actually on to something. It might have been a Ripleys believe it or not book.

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u/chargarten 4h ago

Alright I’m 99% sure it was a “Mysteries of the Unknown” Time-Life book.