Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

The last non-fiction book I read, of course, was The Mapmakers, and it took me forever and a half, so I was a bit reluctant to read another non-fiction book this soon. But I knew this one would be lighter, so I went with it anyway. And I was not disappointed. Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach is quite informative, and a fast read.

I’ve heard good things about Mary Roach before, but I had yet to get around to reading something by her, and the Goodreads average rating was lowish on Spook, thus it was with some trepidation that I began this book. It’s premised by her saying that she’s neither skeptic nor spiritualist, but merely a curious researcher in the name of science. She also said that the book was supposed to be light-hearted in tone, which it mostly was, although sometimes I found her footnotes and clever comments slightly annoying (I hope they will be lessened as her writing improves over time; this is only her second book).

Despite my misgivings, I concluded that the low GR average is probably due to the topic, and the fact that she sees herself on neither side of the typical argument, which probably just pissed off everyone, rather than opening the discussion.

Gah, sorry, I feel really inarticulate this evening, and I’m having a hard time organizing my thoughts about this book.

It covers many topics including rebirth (and children remembering their past lives), the physical search for the soul in the body, several famous mediums, ectoplasm, the roles of technology in both proving and disproving spirits, and near death experiences. Each topic was covered (as best as possible) from the distant past through to the present, and what modern science is discovering about it.

And most of the topics came across as unbelievable, even when M. Roach tried to keep an open mind. This is fine by me, I’m pretty skeptical about it all. Actually, if anything, I thought she was a bit too soft on some of the people she spoke of.

But there was something about her writing, most especially when she would drift back and forth in time, which left me occasionally confused. Perhaps because there was too much personal narrative worked into the overall storyline? Or perhaps just because my brain does not like dates all that much.

So…I don’t even know if that’s enough…I don’t even know if that’s coherent. Let’s blame the heat. But anyway, it was a decent read, I enjoyed learning the things that it contained, I wasn’t completely put off by any of the style issues (just disappointed), and I already have another book by Mary Roach lined up to read; Packing for Mars.