I'm not sure how much I actually believe in them, but the first book I ever bought was about UFO's, and I found the subject fascinating.
Over the years my opinion about UFO's and UFO occupants has changed from thinking that they may actually be extraterrestrial in origin to believing that they are more paranormal in nature.
One of the books I recently re-read, Jacques Vallee's "Messengers Of Deception", hints that this paranormal nature of UFO's and UFO phenomena may indeed be the case. Vallee is one of the preeminent UFOlogists -- in fact, he was the template for one of the characters in the famous movie "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind". Vallee believes that UFO's are paranormal in nature -- he even equates them to fairies in one of his books "Passport To Magonia". He doesn't say that UFO aliens are fairies, but he talks about the similarities in the way such beings appear and disappear, the similarities in the way they treat humans, and the like.
In "Messengers Of Deception", Vallee suggests that the entire UFO phenomenon is rife with deception: it's possible that the US government is involved, using the phenomenon as a form of disinformation; the UFO occupants -- if they indeed come from other planets -- seem also to be agents of disinformation. In "Revelations", one of Vallee's later books, Vallee hints that such famous UFO incidents as the one in Bentwaters, UK, during the 1980's was possibly a military disinformation scheme.
In his series of books, Vallee takes apart the UFO phenomenon bit by bit, and much of the UFO phenomenon simply does not add up unless it is supernatural in character. If anyone wants to read his books on UFO's, "Messengers Of Deception" is probably the best one to start with. His book "Revelations" is also very good. It has a section on the way that the human mind can easily be fooled into believing something is fact, when it probably isn't. Vallee, who was one of the first scientists to look into the UFO phenomenon during the 1960's, is a skeptic, but he isn't a UFO debunker. The phenomenon is very real -- but it's defining what it actually is that is the problem.
"Messengers Of Deception", originally published in 1979, unfortunately does not seem to be available in eBook form, but is available in paper book form on Amazon for various prices. Apparently Vallee's eBook "Dimensions" covers much of the same material.
Over this summer I read two other books -- and part of a third -- that dealt with the UFO phenomena.
"Area 51" by Robert Doherty is a fast paced fiction book -- an easy read that is based on the idea that the U.S. government discovered an alien mothership buried deep in a mountainside in Nevada, and the mothership could possibly destroy much of the Earth. Naturally, the main character -- an ex Special Forces dude -- tries to save the day. "Area 51" being just the first of a series of books, I don't know whether the ex Special Forces dude ultimately saves the Earth from blowing up or not (the end of the book leaves you hanging on that point). But as Doherty is on the fifth or sixth book of the series, so it seems like the ex Special Forces dude probably did. :-)
Another book I recently read (re-read, actually) was a book I found at a thrift store in the early 2000's: "Genesis", by W. A. Harbinson. From the cover and the title you wouldn't think the book was a fascinating story about Nazi UFO's and Nazi bases in Antarctica -- but that's what the book's storyline is about: an American scientist from the 1890's manages to work with Goddard, and then the Nazis, and then the U.S. government after WW2 is over -- he invented the airships seen in American skies in the 1890's, and then much later on he helped the Nazis invent the flying saucer. Then the technology was brought to the U.S. after the war. Meanwhile, the Nazis escape to a secret base in Antarctica.... you get the idea.
It's a well-written book, and the most fascinating part of it is the 13 page appendix at the end of the book, where the author informs the reader of the facts behind the book: the Nazis were indeed working on a flying saucer, and there is evidence that some of them tried to escape to Antarctica -- although it's possible they actually were headed to Argentina, where many were found years later. There are some strange stories about massed U.S. forces heading for Antarctica after World War Two was over. There, of course, are enough strange facts about U.S. secret programs to form the basis for hundreds of conspiratorial books, but the facts that Harbinson used for "Genesis" are quite telling.
Harbinson has several books out that continue the "Genesis" story, including the pictured "Inception: Projekt Saucer", which continues the "Genesis" story. Most of Harbinson's series are available on Amazon in eBook form. I'm trying to finish his second book, "Projekt Saucer", as I write this. Both "Genesis" and "Inception: Projekt Saucer" are available for sale online in eBook form.
Another book that I'm including in this post is one that I read a long time ago, called "Above Top Secret" (the book pictured at top of this blog post), by Timothy Good, a British journalist and writer. If there is one book about the UFO subject that doesn't do much speculation, but just gives the facts as we know them, this book is IT. It has government documents, news stories, and well documented accounts included that make you wonder about what really is going on with the UK and US governments and UFO's. The most fascinating story is one where a family suffered radiation poisoning as they drove near a UFO that was flaming through the Texas sky. The UFO, which appeared to be malfunctioning, was under the escort of several US military Chinook helicopters.
Good has written several books since this one -- and I have one of them, "Alien Contact" -- but I think this "Above Top Secret" is his best work. "Alien Contact" goes further into the UFO phenomenon than "Above Top Secret" -- both books include illustrations and photocopies of excised U.S. government documents -- making for fascinating reading.
I'm not a voracious reader like some people, but I do read a lot. Mostly what I read is non-fiction -- a fiction book really has to be fast paced and full of action and interesting storylines to keep my attention. Or, if it has some historical significance, I'll read it. Right now I'm trying to finish "Growth of The Soil / Markens Grøde" by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun. It's a fascinating book about pioneers in the northern part of Norway. The book has an incredible amount of heart in it -- both in the writing style, and the characters.
Aside from Hamsun and a few books on the Irish fairy faith (notably three books by Irish fairy expert and PhD Bob Curran), most of what I've read since the summer has been books like the ones in this post.
I'm not a paranormal nut, but UFO's (and other paranormal subjects) often make for impressive fiction. If you're interested in reading fiction that has a lot of cool conspiratorial UFO stuff thrown in, the fiction books pictured in this post are all good. And if you want a good take on what UFO's really seem to be about, then Good's "Above Top Secret" and Vallee's "Messengers Of Deception" are excellent books that don't go way out into the ozone like some UFO books do.
