My collection of "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" books. For those unfamiliar with them, its basically a GWR book filled with crazy, but true stories. I'll give one of my favorite examples from each book I have, which currently are 5, and I ordered 2 more last Monday:
From "Eye-Popping Oddities":
A man from Russia faked his own death so he could propose to his girlfriend. He hired a movie director, stuntmen, make-up artists and even a scriptwriter to stage a bogus car crash, which was so convincing that when she arrived to the scene and was told he was dead, she broke down in tears. Convinced that she really loved him, the man jumped up on his legs and proposed, still covered in fake blood. She said yes!
From "Dare to Look":
The hottest rain ever recorded had a temperature of 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius). It fell over Needles, California August 13, 2012 in conjunction with a storm, but because of the heat and the dry air, most of the rain evaporated before hitting the ground.
From "Reality Shock":
An Englishman changed his name to "Stormhammer Deathclaw Firebrand", as he thought his original name, Richard Smith, was too boring.
From "Download the Weird":
I'll include two stories here, as I felt both were good.
A busdriver lost his job after his bosses saw a Youtube video of how he ran over a snowman someone had built on the road in Urbana, USA.
A college student in Northampton, England, was so bored during a class in civics that when she yawned, her jaw became dislocated for 4 hours.
Finally, "Strikingly True": The language Rotokas, only spoken on the island Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, has only 12 letters in its alphabet: A, E, G, I, K, O, P, R, S, T, U and V.