I am reading Mary Roach's "Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife".
After enjoying her first book, "Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers" (decapitations! decomposition!) so much, I was looking forward to her next one, and so far (page 143) it hasn't disappointed. Although the subject matter is a little more esoteric than physical, the same curiousity, humour, and attention to historical trivia and gory/morbid detail are present.
Sample chapter titles:
*You Again (a visit to the reincarnation nation)
* How to Weigh a Soul (What happens when a man (or a mouse, or a leech) dies on a scale
* Hard to Swallow (The giddy, revolting heyday of ectoplasm)
* Chaffin vs. the Dead Guy in the Overcoat: (In which the law finds for a ghost, and the author calls in an expert witness)
I'm really going to have to obtain these two books for my own book-shelf. I was talking on the phone with my mother tonight and I mentioned how much I was enjoying Mary Roach's latest. She asked if I owned a copy of "Stiff" yet, and seemed incredulous when I admitted I didn't have a copy.
Yes, it DOES seem like a book I should own. Er, Christmas is coming...anybody?
3 comments:
Cadavers! Decomposition! Morgues! O My! I don’t think I am in Kansas anymore.
As usual, I am haunting your blog, and what do I find? Flying feet! Do those soles weight the same flying as when they are on the ground? If so, how are they flying? If Science tackles the Afterlife, does that mean those feet get a touchdown, or no?
I need a stiff drink now. I don’t think I’ll have a ghost of a chance to get to sleep tonight, thinking about this.
I'm going to have to read those. During my first year of medical school, I was around a cadavar the whole year.
I'm going to read Stiff over the break! So funny you were writing about it. I'm glad to hear the new book is also good. It'll keep me busy!
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