Books like The Call of the Weird by Louis Theroux

The Power of Habit shows how tiny habits shape our lives and how they can be transformed to achieve personal and organizational success.

Jon Ronson's investigative inquiry into psychopathy examines the tools, practitioners, and personalities behind the science—and reveals how the lines between study and madness can blur.

Oliver Sacks explores the many faces of hallucination, weaving patient stories and his own psychedelic encounters to reveal how these visions illuminate brain function, culture, and the human experience.

Bill Bryson revisits life in America—its quirks, customs, and absurdities—after 20 years abroad, drawing on his Appalachian Trail adventures and Mail on Sunday columns for witty, observational commentary.

Philip Caputo chronicles a 16,000‑mile road trip from Key West to Deadhorse, Alaska, engaging everyday Americans to explore how a nation of diverse peoples remains united.

Charles Dickens’s 1841–42 American journey, as recorded in "American Notes," chronicles his travels from the eastern seaboard through the Great Lakes states, offering his observations on slavery, customs, and the social life of the United States.

More tales of the odd and unbalanced. Just when you thought you'd already heard it all, here comes the third hilarious volume of botched crimes, bizarre sexual escapades, governmental goof-ups, and general indecent behavior collected from actual stories in our nation's newspapers. Infomaniacs and curiosity seekers alike will revel in the outlandish antics revealed in these newsworthy tidbits. The incidents are so bizarre, the experiences so outrageous, they go beyond news of the weird! So read on! We don't make this stuff up -- it's all strange, but it's all for real! - Back cover.

From the University of California Press edition: Here is the ultimate American road book, one with a perspective unlike that of any other. In January 1947 Simone de Beauvoir landed at La Guardia airport and began a four-month journey that took her from one coast of the United States to the other, and back again. Embraced by the Condé Nast set in a swirl of cocktail parties in New York, where she was hailed as the "prettiest existentialist" by Janet Flanner in The New Yorker, de Beauvoir traveled west by car, train, and Greyhound, immersing herself in the nation's culture, customs, people, and landscape. The detailed diary she kept of her trip became America Day by Day, published in France in 1948 and offered here in a completely new translation. It is one of the most intimate, warm, and compulsively readable texts from the great writer's pen. Fascinating passages are devoted to Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and San Antonio. We see de Beauvoir gambling in a Reno casino, smoking her first marijuana cigarette in the Plaza Hotel, donning raingear to view Niagara Falls, lecturing at Vassar College, and learning firsthand about the Chicago underworld of morphine addicts and petty thieves with her lover Nelson Algren as her guide. This fresh, faithful translation superbly captures the essence of Simone de Beauvoir's distinctive voice. It demonstrates once again why she is one of the most profound, original, and influential writers and thinkers of the twentieth century. On New York: "I walk between the steep cliffs at the bottom of a canyon where no sun penetrates: it's permeated by a salt smell. Human history is not inscribed on these carefully calibrated buildings: They are closer to prehistoric caves than to the houses of Paris or Rome." On Los Angeles: "I watch the Mexican dances and eat chili con carne, which takes the roof off my mouth, I drink the tequila and I'm utterly dazed with pleasure."