{"id":615,"date":"2008-07-20T22:19:33","date_gmt":"2008-07-21T02:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=615"},"modified":"2025-08-11T20:47:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T00:47:25","slug":"spook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/615","title":{"rendered":"Spook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife<\/em> (2005) Mary Roach<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Spook\"<\/a>As much as I enjoyed Stiff<\/a><\/em>, I found Spook<\/em> disappointing. As a scientific look at life after death, excluding the last couple chapters, it read more as a debunking than a presentation. <\/p>\n

Of course that’s partially because several chapters deal with things like ectoplasm exuding from mediums, which was a short lived phenomenon, and so the “research” into it seems… unnecessary, although I admit that the chapters on where the mediums may or may not have hidden the “ectoplasm” was both titillating and disturbing. <\/p>\n

The chapters I did find interesting were on electromagnetic fields and low frequency sounds, and how they can cause repeatable phenomenon in a portion of the population. The idea that EMF and sounds beneath our hearing range can cause us to hear and see things that are not there is fascinating.<\/p>\n

And although I liked the chapter on Near Death Experiences, it seemed short, at least in comparison the the amount of time spent on mediums and ectoplasm. It feels as if there should be far more research on the subject (after all, there was a movie on the subject) and that the chapter should have been a little longer. Not that the information I learned about turn of the last century mediums wasn’t interesting, it just didn’t seem the slightest bit relevant.<\/p>\n

As always, the book is full of Roach’s characteristic wit and sarcasm, much of it to be found in the footnotes. And the footnotes ranged from completely irrelevant to occasionally more interesting than the text.<\/p>\n

All in all, although interesting, the book felt far more uneven than Stiff<\/em>. Interesting, but I’m not sure it was worth the trade paperback price.
\nRating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005) Mary Roach As much as I enjoyed Stiff, I found Spook disappointing. As a scientific look at life after death, excluding the last couple chapters, it read more as a debunking than a presentation. Of course that’s partially because several chapters deal with things like ectoplasm exuding from mediums, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,4,291,7,5],"tags":[419],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-non-fiction","category-paper","category-religion-philosophy","category-science-nature","tag-mary-roach"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/siQkW-spook","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":403,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/403","url_meta":{"origin":615,"position":0},"title":"Stiff","author":"Michelle","date":"July 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003) Mary Roach I was wandering the bookstore and Stiff was sitting on one of the display tables, one of the \"Recommended Summer Reading\" tables or something like that. I'd heard a review or interview or something like that when it first came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12794,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12794","url_meta":{"origin":615,"position":1},"title":"P.S. I Spook You","author":"Michelle","date":"April 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"P.S. I Spook You (2019) S.E. Harmon (The Spectral Files) Couple of things to note, start with the fact this is self published, so parts of it are a little rough. Not typos or anything, but there story could have been tightened up in a few places where I got\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"PS I Spook You","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/PS-I-Spook-You.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3311,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3311","url_meta":{"origin":615,"position":2},"title":"The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011","author":"Michelle","date":"November 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 (2011) edited by Mary Roach and Tim Folger I'll admit I bought this because 1) it was on sale and 2) because it was edited by Mary Roach. I have no idea is Mary Roach is a good editor or not on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/best-american-science-nature-writing-2011.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8753,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8753","url_meta":{"origin":615,"position":3},"title":"My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places","author":"Michelle","date":"February 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places (2013) Mary Roach (T)he complete collection of her \u201cMy Planet\u201d articles published in Reader\u2019s Digest. She was a hit columnist in the magazine, and this book features the articles she wrote in that time. I adore Mary Roach's writing. She makes me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/my-planet.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19852,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19852","url_meta":{"origin":615,"position":4},"title":"Curse on the Land, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"March 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Curse on the Land (2016) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam Nell Ingram is now officially a member of PsyLEDs Unit 18. She's finished he training at Spook School and is officially a problem. This is the story with the underground working and the slime mold and things coming to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Curse on the Land","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Curse-on-the-Land-e1511010399585.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4649,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4649","url_meta":{"origin":615,"position":5},"title":"Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal","author":"Michelle","date":"June 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013) Mary Roach I love Mary Roach. I would love to be trapped in an elevator with her (unless she's claustrophobic, in which case, that seems unfair). She is a science fan-girl of the best kind, and is unafraid to get into the nitty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gulp-Adventures-Alimentary-Canal","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Gulp-Adventures-Alimentary-Canal.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}