More UFO books than credible sightings
Mark Honeychurch - 28th October 2025
We’ve had a request from longtime member Jan Feike de Bock, who has emailed us with a fascinating offer of a large collection of UFO books.
I would like to know whether the Society would be interested in having these in your library - over 650 books. The books form, in my humble opinion, a rare and fairly complete collection on the subject of UFO’s and Extraterrestrial visit theories. Decades ago I gave a series of lectures on this subject at the annual skeptic conference. All books are in excellent condition, and form a nice window into the world and history of UFO publications and movements.
I don’t think the books should be split up, but rather be treated as a ‘complete’ collection.
Sadly the Rationalists do not have the space for these books, especially after our last large donation to them - courtesy of our late member Jim Ring. Yesterday I emailed the Center for Inquiry to see if they’d be keen to take them on, and they’ve already responded saying they may be interested, if the shipping costs aren’t too expensive, the books are in good condition, etc. But I’d also been to hear if anyone has any other ideas of a good home for these books, either within New Zealand or internationally - so if you have any bright ideas, please let me know.
On the topic of UFOs, in this week’s newsletter I’ve responded to a request from a student to give them some juicy quotes about aliens, UFOs, ghosts and psychics for a project they’re working on. Following this, Patrick has summarised a talk given by Dr Rod Carr on the need for climate action. Bronwyn has collated all the events from our NZ Skeptical calendar for the next two weeks in history. Katrina has looked into how research is potentially being misused in the courts when it comes to family court. And finally, related to Katrina’s article, I’ve jumped into the main men’s rights movement website here in NZ to see whether it consists of well-reasoned arguments and concerns, or is a treasure trove of pseudoscientific nuggets - I won’t spoil it for you here by telling you which one I found.