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Exploring the Darker Side of America... Strange Highways: A guidebook to American mysteries & The Unexplained
Book by Coleman, Jerry D.
- GenresPseudoscienceHorror
200 pages, Paperback
First published October 20, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 3, 2015
Fun stories of high strangeness. However, I didn't care for the formatting of the book.
October 26, 2011
I was so looking forward to reading this book about one man's effort to follow in the footsteps of noted paranormal investigator Charles Fort.
Unfortunately it would be best to read this book more as a memoir and collection of opinions than as a serious attempt at investigating unusual incidents.
Despite the author's and his publisher's assurances, this is a scatter shot collection of incidents based upon scant hardcore documentation, personal anecdotes, and eyewitness accounts. So that kind of lets the author off the hook in the event someone would be willing to waste the time and effort verifying a lot of these stories for themselves. Granted, when the author writes about more well known phenomena he shows that he is capable of doing his homework.
Chapters IX to the end of the book (with the exception of the Jersey Devil/Mothman chapter) are a complete waste of time and trees. However his rantings in the last two sections about what it takes to be a real researcher of the paranormal is rather telling. The statement about questionable researchers "proudly (coming)to no real conclusions other than ifs, maybe, perhaps, and whatevers" could very well describe this book.
Needless to say that despite weighing in at a mere 196 pages, it took some kind of effort to maintain interest and finish it.
Special note to Whitechapel Production Press:
Save yourself from future embarrassment and try actually editing your publications before releasing. This book had so many spelling and grammatical errors that part of the problem with reading it were the mistakes.
My favorite is on page 92 when the author writes: "He reached behind the seat and GARNISHED a pistol..."...really? what did he use-parsley or chives?
So, just like the mysterious creatures and phenomena that the author went in search of, I will continue to "keep a VIGILANTE eye peeled" (page 192) for a better book on the paranormal.
Unfortunately it would be best to read this book more as a memoir and collection of opinions than as a serious attempt at investigating unusual incidents.
Despite the author's and his publisher's assurances, this is a scatter shot collection of incidents based upon scant hardcore documentation, personal anecdotes, and eyewitness accounts. So that kind of lets the author off the hook in the event someone would be willing to waste the time and effort verifying a lot of these stories for themselves. Granted, when the author writes about more well known phenomena he shows that he is capable of doing his homework.
Chapters IX to the end of the book (with the exception of the Jersey Devil/Mothman chapter) are a complete waste of time and trees. However his rantings in the last two sections about what it takes to be a real researcher of the paranormal is rather telling. The statement about questionable researchers "proudly (coming)to no real conclusions other than ifs, maybe, perhaps, and whatevers" could very well describe this book.
Needless to say that despite weighing in at a mere 196 pages, it took some kind of effort to maintain interest and finish it.
Special note to Whitechapel Production Press:
Save yourself from future embarrassment and try actually editing your publications before releasing. This book had so many spelling and grammatical errors that part of the problem with reading it were the mistakes.
My favorite is on page 92 when the author writes: "He reached behind the seat and GARNISHED a pistol..."...really? what did he use-parsley or chives?
So, just like the mysterious creatures and phenomena that the author went in search of, I will continue to "keep a VIGILANTE eye peeled" (page 192) for a better book on the paranormal.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews