Ötzi, what are you doing here?
Nonfiction books that are definitely not about Ötzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural mummy, but which manage to find a relevant way to bring him up anyways.
Inspired by a weird little trend I've been noticing.
created by The_BookishBug
last updated October, 2026
Comments
Ötzi really is just THAT famous, he must be in everything 💅
He's an icon 🙂 ↕️
Ngl this is such a genius idea Vic! I can’t believe that so many books managed to bring him up randomly haha Maybe that’s the push I need to finally read Entangled Life 🙂↕️
I think it was Night Magic and Rope mentioning him on my back to back reads that finally made me go "hm" 🤔 Three of these books bring him up just to talk about the fungi he had on his person 🍄🟫🍄
The fungi?? Scientist really are one of a kind😭
Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless by Maria Pinto brings him up for this reason too! 😂 (It really is so cool though, so it does make sense that everyone wants to mention it. 🙂↕️)
Okay but this book sounds dope as hell, I will be collecting that for my interested shelf thank u
That’s exciting because it’s one of my absolute favorites! 💞
currently reading Fungarium and his fungi is also referenced here!
Excellent!!! The fungi folks are big fans of him, I see
Ötzi is everywhere for me. I keep encountering mentions of him in my daily life over the past few months. Ötzi, Ötzi, Ötzi. Soon I will begin dreaming of Ötzi. Ötzi, Ötzi, Ötzi. And now I've come across this list!
This feels like a sign of something, but I have no idea what it could be 🤔
Oh and if you came across any nonfic books that mentioned him, feel free to share and I'll add it to the list!!
I will let you know ✨✨
Not me being confused that DJ Ötzi was so famous like “wow I mean Anton Aus Tirol is a banger but I thought he was kind of niche….” Actually never knew where he got his name lmfao!
Lmaooo I had no idea there was a DJ with the name 😆
I only know it because I went to a German language immersion camp as a teen and they played a lot of his music at the weekend dances lol. It’s stuck in my head forever now. 😭
Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can't Look Away by Coltan Scrivner did! And I think Caitlin Doughty’s Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about Death did too
yay yay yay thank you!
Who Ate the First Oyster? The Extraordinary People Behind the Greatest Firsts in History by Cody Cassidy features him as the first murder mystery!
Yesss, thank you, added!
this is such a funny list kfkskskd
It came to me in a flash of inspiration while I was baked last night 🤓
clearly that was a message from him specifically, he reached out to you through the ages to make sure we knew he was using that birch polypore to light one up
Ur so right
I IMMEDIATELY RAN HERE 🏃🏼
Ötzi is discussed in the new book The Age of Alchemy by Kit Chapman
PERFECT!!! Added!! What was the context in this book??
To argue that people have been practicing science—specifically chemistry—for all time—even if they don’t know that’s what they’re doing. Discussing archeological studies about Ötzi’s objects, tattoos, tooth enamel, and stomach contents to illustrate his humanity and the science on display when we learn about him. His leather shoes and hair having traces of copper and arsenic—indicating his knowledge of chemistry via tanning and smelting.
Ooh thank you for sharing, that sounds like a really neat argument!
Love this concept, LMAO. As someone who ended up taking a bunch of anthropology courses in college, I think he's fascinating now, but as a kid I read a lil non-fiction book about him and was S C A R R E D. The pics of him scared me so bad 😂 Poor guy.
Oh no 😅 he is rather uncanny, I think I'd also have been upset lol
Time was not exactly kind to him, lol
I get it, the face on the cover of some editions of Frozen in Time (about the lost Franklin expedition) kinda had me fucked up and I read that within the last year 😭
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