Spook by Mary Roach

I've started my next outside reading book. This is a 295 page nonfiction book about the afterlife, but it's not agendized or boring. Mary Roach is incredibly witty and her diligence in research is kind of incredible when you take a step back and look at it. She finds out exstensive details about strange "scientists" weighing dying people or animals to detect if a soul is leaving the body or researching "ectoplasma". She manages to make an interesting information-packed book feel like a guilty treat. Here is a perfect example of Roach's writing:

"The loss [of weight after death] was ascertained to be three-fourths of an ounce. Which is, yes, twenty-one grams. Hollywood metricized its reference to the event for the simple reason that 21 Grams sounds better. Who's going to see a movie called Point Seven Five Ounces?"

There isn't a terribly deep book, but it does provoke some thought. For an example, I've determined that I don't believe in an afterlife and I don't think that there are any people that can communicate with spirits. The idea does make for sometimes very good stories, but that's about it. I find it strange, the way people keep believing arbitrary supernatural concepts only because people before them believed it. I mean, what good did the belief in ghosts, spirits, and true love do to our predecessors? What are some things I actually do believe in? Well I'm not all cynical, I think hard work will prevail in the end, and I think the corny saying, "Stay true to yourself" is actually worth following. I'm still taking a leap of faith here, but at least I'm not waiting for messages from the other side.