In the wake of my 3,2, 1 of UFO Hatred posting, someone asked me a few days ago what my 3, 2, 1 of favorite UFO books would be.

Well, that's an interesting question! And I'll do my best to answer it.

For me at least, the answer is kind of difficult, because, as with my favorite music, it tends to depend on what mood I'm in, where my head is at (or isn't!), and whether I'm in a state of ufological nostalgia, disgust, admiration, excitement, or...well, you get the picture.

Today, for example, as I'm writing this the rumbling backbeat of the superb And You? by Wild Kingdom (a true classic from more than a few years ago, and one not to be missed) pumps out of the CD player. Two days ago, it was the Raveonettes, and on Monday it was a morning of Megadeth, followed by an afternoon of Helen Love, the Crystals and the Ronettes (punk-rock and Brit-Pop aside, my main other musical loves are the Phil Spector-produced "girl-groups" of the 60s) .

And that's kind of how I am with UFO books. My favorites vary as much as I do.

That said, however, I do have several all-time faves.

One would have to be Jim Moseley's Shockingly Close to the Truth - which is without doubt shockingly close to being one of the most entertaining UFO books I've ever read. I've heard people say that Jim's book is nothing to do with UFOs. Instead, it's full of gossip, rumor and innuendo about the UFO field and the people in it.

Well, so what? If you haven't read Jim's book, you are missing a great treat. And as Jim skillfully points out, Ufology is indeed as much about the people in the subject as it is about UFO encounters. Maybe more so, too.

So, if you want a fascinating read about Jim's wild adventures in South America, at the famous Giant Rock, and at numerous other locations that range from Wright-Patterson AFB to cheap motels, and with a truly dizzying number of famous characters from Ufology, Shockingly... is essential reading.

Then there's Project Beta by my good mate, Greg Bishop. A book that well and truly sent a shockwave throughout much of Ufology when it was published in 2005, Beta amply demonstrates that much of what passed for fact within late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s Ufology was actually fiction.

Not only that: it was fiction cooked up by the U.S. Air Force, and various cohorts in the world of American Intelligence. And it was this same fiction that led to the tragic downfall of one Paul Bennewitz. I heartily recommend Beta if you're interested in seeing the extent to which the official world will go in an effort to preserve its top secrets - many of which, in reality, had zero to do with UFOs.

Yes, there are real UFOs; there's absolutely no doubt about that at all.

But, as Greg's painstaking research reveals, there are also face-less souls (and soul-less faces) in the world of officialdom who want you to desperately believe their bogus, camouflage-like UFO stories. Well, don't.

After reading Greg's book, I guarantee that when it comes to UFOs and the Government, you won't know what to believe - or who.

The third book that always hovers around my Top 3 is Len Stringfield's Situation Red: The UFO Siege. Primarily because this was one of the first books on UFOs I read as a kid (I think I was about 11 when it was first published), and its stories of close encounters, military cover-ups, the massive ''73 wave, and Stringfield's own involvement in 1950s-1970s ufology all fascinated my young brain. 

It's one I still dip into now and again.

Of course, many other titles could be considered for center-stage positions too (as I see things, at least - and for wildly varying reasons, I might add), including Gray Barker's They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers (because it's a great, well-written and atmospheric story. How much of it is fact and how much is fiction is a different matter, however...); Jim Schnabel's Round in Circles (a "must-read" book on the crop circle community that is in equal parts fascinating, funny, and tragic); John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies (ESSENTIAL!, as is the rest of Keel's output); David Bischoff's excellent (and I do mean excellent) "UFO Conspiracy" trilogy of novels on all-things-alien; Strieber's Communion (for making people realize that there is far more to abductions than the simplistic "alien scientists are stealing our DNA to save their dying race"-scenario); and Island of Paradise by my good friend Jon Downes.

The latter hasn't actually been published yet; however, it will be: in about two weeks from now. Island of Paradise tells the story of my and Jon's expedition to Puerto Rico in 2004, in search of the Chupacabras, and encompasses an assortment of tales pertaining to alien encounters, crashed UFOs and even Mothman-like entities deep in the heart of  Puerto Rico's El Yunque rain-forest.

A combination of The X-Files meets Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets The Rum Diary meets Jurassic Park, it's one not to be missed!

I could go on and on, I suppose, and there's doubtless some great titles I've read and forgotten about. So it goes. Like people within Ufology, good and bad books come and go...