Alien Hand Syndrome: And Other Too-Weird-Not-to-Be-True Stories

Welcome to the five stages of reading Alien Hand Syndrome: Astonishment: This is amazing! Insecurity: I'm a smart personÑ how could I never have heard of this before? Panic: Please, don't let it end. Gratitude: Great!Ñand look, there are over 90 more essays where that one came from. And Zeal: You won't believe what I just read.

Collected and curated by Alan Bellows and his team at DamnInteresting.com, with over 400,000 unique visitors a month, this is the stuff nightmares are made of, and no one will be able to stop reading: Giant Carnivorous Centipedes; Mike, the Headless Chicken; The Exploding Lakes of Cameroon; The Swirling Vortex of Doom; Secret Agent Cyborg Cats; Fiery Balls of Naga; The Deepest Hole; The Terrifying Toothpick Fish; and, of course, Alien Hand SyndromeÑa disorder wherein a person's hand develops a "will of its own," unbuttoning shirts, grabbing at the steering wheel, tossing away cigarettes, and in some cases actually attacking its host.

Most entries are full-blown narratives, complete with illustrationsÑfor example, pointing out step-by-step how "The Halifax Disaster" unfolded. Other entries examine short-take anomaliesÑsuch as unusual drug side effects, including the antidepressant Clomipramine (spontaneous orgasm upon yawning), the hormone Oxytocin (increases one's generosity), the medicine for Parkinson's disease, Ropinirole (compulsive gambling), and Viagra (priapus syndrome, with a remote chance of gangrene curable only through penectomyÑsay no more).