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| Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Roach
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95 (32.84 RON)
Buy New: $11.16 (26.27 RON)
You Save: $2.79 (6.57 RON) (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  112 reviews
Sales Rank: 7827
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0393329127
Dewey Decimal Number: 129
EAN: 9780393329124
ASIN: 0393329127
Publication Date: October 2, 2006
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Please see a comedy instructor immediately December 27, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Spook is not a book about the afterlife. It's about Mary Roach's Zany Adventures With The Afterlife!, and to enjoy it, you better enjoy Mary Roach. Otherwise, this book will annoy the hell out of you.
Spook was a disappointing read. First off, let me say that I am not a believer, so please do not count me among the handful of one star reviews below from people clearly irritated that Roach did not take their beliefs seriously.
In the book, Roach covers a spread of supernatural topics, from ectoplasm and auras to near death experiences and seances. One thing you get out of the book is that a number of ridiculous modern paranormal beliefs harken back to shoddy science of the early 1900s spiritual movement that refused to die.
However, the book was disappointing for several reasons. The first is that Mary Roach professes to know very little about the subject and, modest or not, it's pretty clear after reading it that she does in fact know very little; and that further more, she did very little more than surface investigations for this book. I imagine part of the problem is the subject matter - this stuff ISN'T very deep to begin with, and certainly has little to no scientific basis to draw from.
But, for example, at one point, Roach goes to a weekend course in communicating with the dead. She is, predictably, surrounded by kooks and nutballs all of whom think they can communicate with the dead. And then the course ends, she's learned - predictably - nothing, and that's about it from that section of the paranormal world. To the reader, the weekend was clearly a wasted trip that would result in nothing more than comic anecdotes. On top of it are a number of stories and facts clearly garnered from Google searches, which really takes away from her abilities as a researcher.
Another problem: Roach really, really needs to take a course in comedy. The subject matter she's dealing with is so zany, so ridiculous, it is simply hilarious at times by just writing down what happened. Instead, Roach sticks in very, very obvious and forced jokes that really do nothing but detract for the humor at play. It's annoying at times, like a third rate Dave Barry. It would be like writing about people who bathe in Jello, then making a joke about how dumb they are for bathing in Jello. You don't have to - the reality is far funnier than any joke could be.
Overall, it's a scattered, fluffy read that serves more for a series of comic (yet not so comical) essays on crazy, zany paranormal stuff starring Mary Roach. Read it if you want a very light primer, but beware the horrible, horrible jokes to come.
 It's a pretty fun book November 27, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
There is a reason this was never a best seller, but it's perfect fun for passive skeptics of the supernatural. I enjoyed it, it's not one of my favorite books.
Spooky November 17, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What happens when you die? Roach tries to find out, and the journey is hilarious. I've found myself both laughing out loud and underlining zingers to use for myself ;) The trip is informative and relayed with a wonderful wit. A fun read, for sure - looking forward to "Stiff".
Enjoyable October 26, 2007
I gave this book a go, but put it down after the first few chapters failed to grab my attention. Then I picked it up again several months later, skipped over some of the old-school science chapters (like How to Weigh a Soul) and was thoroughly entertained throughout the rest of the book. Not quite as sharp and witty as Stiff, it was still a great book and Roach knows how to do her research and present it in a fun and engaging way. The final two chapters were definitely the best and most captivating. Her momentum kept building as the book approached its conclusion. I would have enjoyed it a bit more had it maintained that level throughout, but instead I was disinterested in the very first chapter on reincarnation and was daunted by the few proceeding it. Over all, it was well worth it for the read for the last half of the book, and I know I'll be interested in the next morbid topic Roach decides to tackle for her next book.
"We're ready to believe you" September 16, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I think it was Bill Murray in Ghostbusters who, during one of their commercials, stared into the camera and said, "We're ready to believe you." In Spook, Mary Roach, having already examined dead bodies here on earth in Stiff, turns her attention to one of the oldest of all questions: Is there life after death? The book's subtitle, "Science Tackles the Afterlife," is wide of the mark. The characters between the pages of Spook, with the exception of Thomas Edison, who may have entertained some ideas about connecting to the ancestors via new found electrical capabilities, would not by and large not be recognizeable as scientists today. What you do encounter are two groups of people. One group willing to disbelieve but "prepared to believe" and anxious to demonstrate a life in the hereafter. Another group, represented largely by Mary Roach, who are willing to believe, but reasonably sceptical at the outset. What I was clearly unaware of, until reading Spook, were the sheer variety of mechanisms deployed to ascertain a life in some next phase. Reincarnation, of course, which opens the book, is well-reported, and actually contains some interesting cases, but other areas were new to me. Readers who are unfamiliar with ectoplasmic parties -- I thought Ghostbusters invented it -- and the careful efforts of technicians to determine whether the dead lose weight and to explain that loss by the departure of the soul from the departed will find in Spook an entire underworld of quirky machinations. Actually, one of my favorite passages finds Ms. Roach trying to explain why a particular "researcher" found that the dead actually gain weight immediately upon extinction. That weight gain prompts Roach to speculate that perhaps the portal to the next life is a Dairy Queen drive-through window. In a nutshell, according to Ms. Roach, this is a book for people who want desperately to believe in a life after death, but who have a difficult time accepting that possibility. By the book's conclusion you are not quite sure where Ms. Roach stands and, fortunately, she provides curious readers with a short summary chapter in which she states that, "yes," she would rather believe that not believe, "What the hell, I believe in ghosts." I don't know where Ms. Roach's gifts will next take her, She has written about the "dead," and now also about the attempt to connect with the spirits of the deceased. I'll likely follow. She brings a genuine personal touch to her work and her humor has an infectious quality about it. These are not typically waters into which I'd venture. It is to Mary Roach's credit that I can wade through them and enjoy the experience.
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