Dark World: into the shadows with the lead investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew

(Note: This will probably be the longest post since I'm impatient about writing the blog, I decided to write the blog while I was reading the book.)

Well what can one say about Zak Bagans' book Dark World: into the shadows with the lead investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew? Other than the long title (which everyone shortens to Dark World) it is the most terrible book I've ever read.............TOTALLY KIDDING YA'LL!!!!!!!

Honestly it is a very good book. I highly recomend this book for anyone wanting to take up ghost hunting. Bagans wrote this well. He doesn't try to convert non-believers in ghosts but tries to bring everyone together to try find the answers together. He really makes you think and come to your own conclusion. Perfect example and I am taking this from his book: time. It's not a perfect straight line like we make we make it to be to put history in order on a time line (even then time line kinda does have little branches but you get the idea). I recommend reading up that section at the beginning, to explain would take a while and I would end up rambling.

Here's another thing.... I actually had to look something up just to make double sure that I read it right. It was about the temporoparietal of the brain. I knew he knew what he was talking about but I still had to check. It's pretty much when your mind plays tricks on you.

Here's something interesting: I saw a consistent mention of an emotional pull at times while investigating. While this can occur thanks to the entities and spirits, I wonder if he's considered that he just might be an empath. Yeah he's a tough guy but, come on he does have a touch of a soft side. Who knows, he might be an empath for the spirits that he comes into contact with like I am for the living (however I haven't been around as many spirits nor on as many lockdowns as he has.....yet).

I do like how he describes his experiences. Sometimes when I'm watching Ghost Adventures and they say they felt something like a cold breeze go right through them. Okay describe it for us viewers who aren't there with you to experience it. Thankfully, Bagans has described what it feels like to get hit with that. So now I know what they feel, which makes since now of their reactions. So thank you Zak :)

I like very much how Bagans explains what Imprint theory is and Ley lines and all of what he mentions in the book. It really makes you think about the world around you and paranormal research could hold in store for the future.

A couple of his expriences gave me Goosebumps as I read the book. Poveglia Island, Bobby Mackey's Music World and the demon lair of Sin City are just to name a few (I do also want to say thanks for mentioning Louisiana in your book Zak I was hoping we would be and we would be glad to have ya'll back). Now the demon lair and Bobby Mackey's I did watch out of order but I caught on quickly when I watched the rerun of the Bobby Mackey lockdown. The tune "Three Blind Mice" was hummed by an unseen force and I remember stopping the DVR and finding the demon lair episode. After rewinding it a few times just to make sure I wasn't hearing things, sure enough it was there too. Couple of my theories: demons talk to each other and plot what they can do next or demon A from one place finds out where in the world you're gonna be next and asks demon B for passage into their territory. They think it's a cat and mouse game between them and the paranormal investigators where demons are the cats (because they come when they feel like it not when told) and the investigators are the mice (totally blind in darkness with only night vision to guide them). I'm glad the tune was caught by Ghost Adventures and mentioned in the book. It is quite possible that demons are watching us like we watch those reality TV shows. It's creepy to think about that but it might be true.

Here's something else that got me thinking: stone tape and water tape theories. I'll you read it on you're own but it makes sense with water and paranormal activity. My favorite haunted location is the Myrtles Plantation in St. Franciscille Louisiana. It once stood next to a river and now has a man made lake with a little bridge to get to the gazzebo at its center. Added to that LA is one big giant swamp because the water table is so high (hence why we bury our dead above ground). For me this place is a paranormal hotspot. According to Bagans' book water holds memory and muscle memory is the water molecules in our body that holds the memory of a rutine. Ok that makes sense. Musicans (both instrumental and vocal) have a kind muscle memory. We have to practice to know the keys on a clarient (any instument really, I used to play the clarinet) and when to breathe. Same with singers, we practice not only to make sure we know the words but to know when to breathe and hit the right notes. All of that is not just memory of the brain. So why can't spirits have energy stored in water molecules for their memories?

One more point I will bring up and this is also mentioned in the book: the future of paranormal research. I'm gonna try to help out as best as I can to spread the message. To all paranormal ingestigators (present and future) share your findings with other paranormal groups so this field can grow ya'll (or at least try to reach out to each other, ya'll might learn something from each other). I would love to open up a research lab for ya'll (I probably wouldn't be able to because I would be on the investigator side and not unbias) but investigators should reach out to one another and keep this field alive and not just pop culture phase. Imagine the questions that could be answered.

Bagans keeps the mood of the book light at times by an occasional saying like his Spidey senses were tingling during an investigation or by rambling a bit. And there were quite a few phrases that I did laugh at.

Overall this book would be a great book to read when it's raining and all you have next to you is a lamp and your under a blanket in an attempt to keep you warm from the chills you get from this book.

Now I want to go learn the history of New Orleans and face my fears and go on my own little ghost trip.....might go back to the Myrtles. When I do, that will be another post.

The Two Towers

Okay so this book took me a little longer than I expected it to take. Overall a very good book, well written, I remember most of it. The first have of the book was action packed and I loved it....the second half however I wish I could have skipped. They walk, they stop and rest, they walk some more and then they stop for food...more walking more stopping, oh look Faramir, rest a bit, walk some more, rest again, the Witch King!!, rest, walk, tunnel, spider, and doom. Yeah I think that about sums it up pretty good.
Don't get me wrong I love LOTR, but this was the hardest book I had to finish.....
Yeah short and sweet blog this time... on to my next book The Girl who Played with Fire.

The Secret Garden

I wish I had read this as a child. If I had understood the way it was written I think I would have read a lot more. I’m so sorry I missed reading this book when I was younger. It’s an instant classic! (yeah I’m already sounding like a book critic) It is a wonderful story about kids making a difference in a garden and making friends and helping each other over come the impossible. I love this book and I would love to see the movie again.
Parents read this to your kids! Yorkshire is hard to read but it’ll make the kids laugh at the funny language. I do believe this will inspire kids to read more since it is a book about kids, and who knows maybe it will inspire them to start a garden of their own.

Dracula

What can you say about this book? If you want a good, creepy, give-you-nightmares, bite-your-own-lip book, then this is the book for you! Yes I bit my own lip while finishing this book. It is totally different from Bram Stoker’s Dracula movie with Gary Oldman as Dracula. That movie is more a love story behind the vampire story. The book is creepy, dark, and I loved every page of it. It will wake up a dark side in you to love vampires as monsters (not this Twilight stuff…sorry Twilight fans but in my book real vampires don’t sparkle and no I will not be reading those. If you have okay enjoy it, but I will not because I would like to keep the image of vampires as these creatures of the dark that haunts our nightmares. And don’t hate on me because I won’t read them). Back to Dracula. Dracula really is the bad guy in this book. You don’t feel for him in this book as you do with the movie.
I can’t wait to read the other book by Bram Stoker (Dracula’s Guest). I didn’t get nightmares but I did dream about vampires for a while (and still do on occasion, like last night). It took me about four years to read this book partly because of school and work and partly because of the way Stoker wrote the book. The language is difficult to read. However since I read Pride and Prejudice and Emma (both by Jane Austen) I think I can read the classics a little better and maybe a little faster than I used to.
Definitely this is a must read!!

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Bare with me, I’m doing this from memory. I read this just before graduation. However I did like it enough to go on and get the second book and put it on my shelf to read. Now this book has its main twist (and I’m not telling where it is but it’s a big twist). When you’re reading this book you’ll think that the author was a pyscho woman hater, but he wasn’t. He was bringing to light the abuse that women face (especially abused women). So don’t dislike the author. He was doing something good by making it a story. I’m currently reading the second book (I just started it).
Definitely read this book. It’s slow in the beginning I know. It took me a very long time to push through it but it is worth it. The thing that kept me going was the old man at the beginning of the book when he got a package delivered to his house by someone every year on his birthday. Once he came back into the story, I wanted to see if he was still around at the end (not telling). I loved this character because he was a sweet man. I know pulling teeth and watching paint dry is more exciting and less painful than the beginning of this book but you’ll be happier knowing that you got through it and read the end. I will say this: (someone else and I both feel the same way about this) it felt like it was rushed at the end. Like he was trying to hurry up and wrap up the story. He spent a lot of time writing mundane things (which I can only guess was writer’s block) than the main story. But over all still a good book to read.
A must read!

Midnight Bayou

A beautiful story written by my favorite author Nora Roberts. I’m not a romance novel reader but I saw the movie of this book and loved it. I love the book too. I love it a little more than the movie but I still love the movie. It’s a wonderful story about two people who have a past life together. A wonderful love story. Truly. I think this took me a week to finish, which was at that time the fastest I’ve finished a book (I read this before I read The Prince of Frogs). I know I will be reading more from this author (and all of her works under her other names). You have your ghosts haunting a Louisiana plantation, past lives, a sort of mystery for the main characters to solve of why a mother would leave her infant child, or was it foul play? If you want a taste of Louisiana (I know because I live there), then read this book and get a hint (but come on over, we’ll have a gumbo for ya when you come for the full experience).
This is a must read!

The Prince of Frogs

WOW! This book is not for those who don’t like reading X rated books. This is actually the second book in a trilogy. I didn’t know it at the time but I read it and I was not confused at all. She explained briefly what had happened. Sadly there is not a third book out yet. I’m hoping the author is currently writing the third book and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
I have NEVER NEVER read a books so fast in my life! It took me three (3) days to finish it. It was so good. It is most definitely a page turner and you do not want to put this book down for any reason. Just lock yourself in a closet with snacks, and drinks, with lots of pillows and blankets and just read the book. Take breaks to stretch your legs and go to the bathroom of course but don’t put the book down. It’s fantastic.
You have faires, vampires, human (although they don’t make much of an appearance), and other supernatural creatures in this story. It has so many twists and turns in the book you can’t guess anything. I don’t think I can even give a summary without giving something away.
This is a must read!

Practical Magic

…Well I will say that I like the movie better than the book, which has never happened since I picked up my first book and began to enjoy reading. The book down plays the magic. Of course Hollywood always puts more magic in it because that’s how they get people to go see the movie. I do prefer the movie. However the book itself is good, but I don’t think I will read any more from the author. To me she went from talking about one subject like the sisters were making Thanksgiving dinner and then all of a sudden one sister is getting married, she talks about the wedding and then goes back to the sisters making Thanksgiving dinner (unmarried). I didn’t like that at all. It confused me. The movie yes did add a LOT of elements. The magic was there, the aunts played more of a role than they did in the book, and the same with one of the last characters in the book. It’s a shame that my first book review is kinda negative. But it is what it is.

First blog

I am a book-aholic. I love to read for hours without end. I remember when I was little I hated reading because I could not focus (or sit still long enough) to read the books that I was forced to read for school. Everyone else I knew had their books finished within the first few weeks after getting our summer reading list. I always finished the last book just before school started.
I didn’t like being forced to read. Not to mention that every book they picked from grammar school and all through high school, they picked boring books. Some books were good like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (which I read fully later on…after the movie), and even The Hobbit (which I had read before it was a school book…and it was a school book twice). I enjoyed those books very much.
I must have had about a hundred books or more in my bookshelf that I had bought and had yet to read.
So I thought in high school that I would start reading something out of the young adults and into more my age books…..the first book I picked up Interview with a Vampire. Yeah I think I got through the first few chapters and then stopped. School got in the way, and I had a difficult time with reading. I read painfully slow still at this point so it took me longer to get into the book. Well other books were put in front of me by my friends and I read those. The Lioness Rampart was one series I read and I read them fairly quick for someone like me. I loved them. So that was the genre I stuck with.
Then I tried to venture out again and found a few other books that struck my fancy. I picked up Bram Stoker’s Dracula Freshman year of college, once again I got through the first few pages and stopped. Terrible! Blasphemies! I know I’m a horrible person! However I plead not guilty because I was not used to the language. In order to get immersed into books you have to be used to the language. It’s not about speed or anything like that. It’s about the language. If you’re not used to the old style English, you’re gonna have a hard time reading. Which I did have a hard time. So again I put the book down claiming that school was in the way and that I would pick it back up once school was over. I read other books in front of it, like Pride and Prejudice. It wasn’t until I had graduate from college that I finally finished Dracula. I loved it! I will always love it. And you can bet that I will be re-reading that book again once I’m finished with the rest of my bookshelf. (Which I’m proud to say that I have about eighty left to read).
If I didn’t have my dream of being a Critter Sitter, babysitting dogs and cats, someday, I would have my own business of being a book critic (or at least have a job as one). Currently I’m trying to finish up The Two Towers from when I started it for school. The trouble is I couldn’t keep up with the reading assignments and I was always swamped with homework. And yes I have been reading other books because this part of the book is so slow I can’t help but read it slow. But I’m so close I plan on staying up so late tonight and finishing it so I can get back to The Girl who Played with Fire!
Being a slower reader does have its advantages. I absorb more. My mother is a fast reader but she can’t quit recall a lot of points in the book. I remember a lot of details of books because of my reading slow. It’s just one of those things with me. I love books so much I’m willing to take the teasing of reading slow, so I can enjoy the book and remember more. Since my mother has brought that up to me I’ve decided that I will be my own book critic and blog about the books I have read. I hope it’s enjoyable and these are my opinions and I will not give away any ending and spoil someone else’s reading. Some may be extremely short, others may be extremely long. I probably won’t give a summary of the book since anyone can easily look that up. The first few book blogs will be from books that I’ve already read most recently and I’ doing it from memory. But hope ya’ll enjoy.