Jon Ronson has been on patrol with America’s real-life superheroes and to a UFO convention in the Nevada desert with Robbie Williams. His most recent documentaries are Reverend Death (Channel 4), Citizen Kubrick (More4) and Robbie Williams and Jon Ronson Journey to the Other Side (Radio 4). I think this is a really well done collection of different journalist ventures however I found it really hard to get through the chapters as I simply didn't care about the subject matter. I've been told that the many of the short stories in this collection has been published before by Ronson, but they were all new to me.

He tracks down Phoenix Jones, a self-styled super hero, and follows the vigilante into dangerous street altercations. One of the stories involves a man who killed himself because he got in way over his head with credit card debt; another story involves an inventor who murdered his whole family after his fortune evaporated. To learn so much about someone when they're in absentia due to their death is riveting- when they are such a monolith of an artist, perhaps even more so. I'm looking forward to expanding my little expedition into the world of weird much further after this book. Those books were funny looks at some truly strange things that go on in the world of the military and conspiracy theorists.

Because when a victim of sexual assault doesn't distance themselves from their abuser, they are actively asking for it if it happens again, apparently. Ronson is a character himself his pieces, a highly neurotic, cynical one, but also one who also brings the perfect blend of insight and wryness to his personally felt observations. While I enjoyed the first section of the book (with articles on artificial intelligence, indigo children, etc) more than the rest, it's a testament to Ronson's writing skills that he managed to pique my interest even with the pieces on economics. Purportedly, participants on Alpha regularly speak in tongues--Chinese, other foreign languages they've never spoken before, due the power of the Holy Spirit entering them. His opening piece on the revelation that the hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse has secretly been hardcore Christian all these years was a small piece of essay perfection.

But this year I was looking for something I could leave on the table during my holiday break, to pick up briefly and leave off again without worrying about losing the narrative thread. His topics range from real-life superheroes to "psychic" Sylvia Browne, and his writing, while pithy and skeptical, shows a remarkable amount of humor and compassion. My plan was to read a chapter at a time, interspersing them with other books, but I ended up devouring it in one go over a couple of days - it was just so addictive. He's met a man who tried to split the atom in his kitchen and asked a conscious robot if she's got a soul. North Pole is unique as a town where it is Christmas 365 days of the year and everything in the town is Christmas themed.Frequently hilarious, sometimes disturbing, always entertaining, these compelling encounters with people on the edge of madness will have you wondering just what we’re capable of. Not all of the essays were winners - a longer piece on early attempts at artificial intelligence dragged a bit, and I didn't share Ronson's fascination with Stanley Kubrick's obsessively collected archives.

Jon Ronson is fascinated by madness, strange behaviour and the human mind, and he has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people. This updated edition of Lost at Sea includes the complete text of Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie . A contributor to The Guardian, Ronson is the author of the columns "Human Zoo" and "Out of the Ordinary". He doesn't even stick with his subjects over the short term: whenever there is a class that lasts ten weeks, he misses several of the sessions, so the material presented is spotty and incomplete.He's travelled to the Alaskan theme town of North Pole (where every day is Christmas Day) to investigate a high school mass-murder plot.