The irascible James Randi, a onetime
MacArthur ''Genius'' award winner and professional magician, takes on
thousands of years of cranks, fakes, charlatans, and wizards. An
Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and
Supernatural is less a scholarly text than a diatribe against the
dubious, from the abominable snowman to zombies. Whether he's
pooh-poohing the spoon-bending tricks of Uri Geller or lifting the
curtain on ''UFO-formed'' crop circles (''a schoolboy stunt,'' he calls
them), Randi never lets you forget that if something seems too weird to
believe, it probably is.