Audiobooks about the topics I’m interested in are difficult to find (for free). A few weeks ago, I saw an audiobook version of Linda S. Godfrey’s I Know What I Saw, a book about American cryptids, and decided to give it a go. I hadn’t heard of Godfrey before, and seeing that the book was published by Penguin, I thought it could be quite good. I’ve read a few books about Fortean topics by accomplished writers that walk a very entertaining line of openness and critical thinking, and I guess I was hoping for something along the lines of Jon Ronson‘s conspiracy theory books. Cryptozoology is an interesting field, but many of the books on this topic are completely devoid of skepticism.
I Know What I Saw – Linda S. Godfrey
Unfortunately, I Know What I Saw is another of these books. The author presents countless sightings of cryptids (mostly dog-like creatures), none of which are difficult to dismiss as bullshit. I am sure Godfrey received less believable accounts that she didn’t include, but that doesn’t make the stuff in here any more credible to an ordinary person who doesn’t spend all their time reading about monster sightings.
The fact that I only recently finished reading McEwan’s Mystery Animals of Britain and Ireland may have affected my enjoyment of Godfrey’s book. Both texts are similar books about different locations, but Godfrey’s book is made up of reports sent to the author over the internet rather than accounts in other books or newspaper clippings. McEwan’s book didn’t convince me of anything, but I am definitely biased against information sent over the internet, and Godfrey’s book seemed more credulous because of its sources.
Another thing that really set me against this book was the author’s claim in one of the opening chapters that, “the Scandinavian countries became largely Christianized around 1000 BCE”. I heard the narrator read that and assumed that it was a mistake, but then I checked an ebook copy of the book and was able to confirm that Godfrey did actually claim that Scandinavia was somehow Chrstianized an entire millenium before Christ was born. Everyone makes mistakes, but I find it hard to imagine how this one was published.
There’s descriptions of encounters with Bigfoot, Goatman and a few other weirdos, but not much stuck out to me. The weirdest part was the account of a man who saw 2 dogs whose movements were so similar that he thought were robots. There’s another part where the author discusses if Bigfoot might be descendants of the Biblical character Esau. This is silly nonsense.
Nocturnal Revelries 