Book Reviews: Things That Go Bump in the Night AND The Ghost of Elvis

Things That Go Bump in the Night is the 2004 Barnes and Noble edition of Brad Steiger's work originally published under the name, The Awful Thing in the Attic (1995).

Like the original title suggests, this book explores the concept of what attics can symbolically come to mean when it comes to the world of the unknown.  However, that is only a small facet of this book, which is packed with 176 pages full of various types of paranormal phenomena.

Steiger doesn't really identify himself as a ghost hunter or a parapsychologist; rather, he is a phenomenalogist, collecting stories of the strange and the unusual.  This particular work is a somewhat jumbled and strange mix of well known hauntings and poltergeist stories, but also includes a smattering of missing persons, ufology, and even a few personal experiences.  This was a quick read, well researched, and pretty thorough.  Its a great book for beginners into this field, as well as seasoned researchers looking for an entertaining read.

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The Ghost of Elvis and Other Celebrity Spirits (1994) by Daniel Cohen

Daniel Cohen has more books on ghosts and hauntings than I can count, and they generally are pretty good reads.  This book is no exception.  While it is best suited for a younger audience, there are still plenty of entertaining and educational stories about the ghosts of some famous celebrities.  What I loved most about this book was that although there were a few extremely popular ghosts, like Elvis of course, many chapters gave much needed coverage on lesser-known ghost stories and more minor celebrities.  The short length makes it a great book to read in one sitting.