Sunday, October 9, 2011

Jim Harold's Campfire True Ghost Stories-Book Review

Here I am, still alive and kicking :) The summer has been really busy for me, had family out for an extended visit, now everything has slowed down to normal for me, I can start writing more. A little while back, I was contacted by a publisher to do a book review, I replied saying that I would be more than happy to do so, it's funny because this publisher had no idea that I do book reviews on a regular basis, mostly having to do with the other part of my life, living 100% off grid, I gave the publisher the link to my book reviews and after reading them, he seemed very pleased about that.

The book I received is Jim Harold's Campfire: True Ghost Stories This is the perfect fall, October, Halloween book, I have enjoyed reading this book, with the night coming on faster and the cool crisp evenings, it's the perfect book to curl up with, just remember to leave the lights on in the rest of the house, LOL. I haven't read many books merely for pleasure, not in a long time, I am truly happy with this one.

I assume if you are reading my paranormal blog, you are probably familiar with Jim Harold, mainly through his Paranormal Podcast shows. I have heard of him, but have to admit that I haven't listened to his shows, though after reading this book, that will be changing. The biggest reason (and probably the only reason) why I haven't listened is because it appeared that I would have to sign up with iTunes and just didn't want to do that (yeah, I'm stubborn like that sometimes...).

So, back to the book, this is a collection of stories from the call ins from Harold's show, people call in and share their paranormal stories, the best and most memorable ones are all here in this collection, stories about ghosts, UFOs, aliens, monsters, dreams, death, stories that defy categorization and even some of Harold's own eerie experiences.

Most of the stories are short, some as little as a few paragraphs, some are more elaborate, since the book is written exactly from the callers' own words, it took me a little bit to get used to the "writing style", there really isn't one, but once I came to an understanding about that, I just tried to imagine what the caller's voice must have sounded like, I tried to "hear" the words as I read them, then I really began to enjoy reading the different stories.

Each story is different, one of my favorite stories is chapter 9, it's called The Girl in the Attic, it's about a girl who goes to visit a friend who lives some hours away, the friend has an attic and they find a little girl up there, they "play" with her but she seemed a bit different, nothing that really bothered them though. Later she figures out that no one really knows about this little girl in the attic, so she figures the attic girl must be a ghost. I like that one because it reminds me of one of my first paranormal experiences, I had a playmate when I was very young that no one else could see, he wasn't imaginary, I knew the difference, he came over and we played everyday, I didn't realize he must have been a ghost until many years later.

Some of the stories ring very true with me, some of them remind me of being a little girl and telling scary stories to each other during sleep overs and such, it's funny how we were always trying to scare each other so much. I've had quite a good time reading this book, Jim Harold really hit it out of the ballpark on this one, I highly recommend it, you should be able to find it in any good bookstore, especially this time of the year. If not, you can get it on Amazon, it's a really good price right now, and you get free shipping. :)