1. Weird and Wonderful Nature
One way to describe the plants, animals and natural phenomena in this lovely hardback from DK would indeed be weird and wonderful. The Cook's pine trees on the New Caledonian islands in the Pacific Ocean fit the bill: they all tilt towards the equator no matter where they grow, and the farther from the equator they are, the more they lean towards it, which scientists still cannot explain. Weird and Wonderful Nature if these little mysteries, as well as odd stuff that science can explain like the immortal jellyfish, it effectively cheat death by putting its life cycle into reverse and reverting from adult to polyp form, doing so over and over again. But some behaviours and characteristics are much better described as freaky, gross and even horrific. Case in point, lily beetle larvae, which smear their entire bodies with their own poo to put predators off eating them. Or the horned lizard, which shoots blood from its eyes at any potential threat, and the female Surinam toad, whose eggs are implanted into her back, subsequently swelling up under the mother toad’s skin like bubble wrap before they hatch. That’s enough to induce body-horror shudders in anyone – and you don’t need to look much further for something really awful: Weird and Wonderful Nature opens with a section on fungi and the zombie ant fungus, the spores of which stick to an ant – or other insect – and begin to eat it alive before hijacking the creature’s brain and forcing it to climb high up into the treetops, where the ant dies and the fungus can burst through its exoskeleton to spread its spores over a much wider area... truly nightmarish. There’s a big selection of beautiful, cool and creepy things in Weird and Wonderful Nature, and even if you want to skip over the parts that might keep you awake at night, you won’t have to flick more than a page or two ahead to find a species or phenomenon that’s genuinely wonderful. Coupled with some stunning photography and annotated illustrations, it’s a fascinating read whatever your age.