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Exploring the Darker Side of America... Strange Highways: A guidebook to American mysteries & The Unexplained | 
 enlarge | Author: Jerry D. Coleman
Publisher: Whitechapel Productions
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $9.01
You Save: $5.94 (40%)
New (17) Used (8) from $3.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 210168
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 200
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 6 x 0.5
ISBN: 189252337X
Dewey Decimal Number: 031
EAN: 9781892523372
ASIN: 189252337X
Publication Date: October 20, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Highways? September 13, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Yes, as others have mentioned, the editing is terrible! Punctuation (particularly apostrophes) are in all the wrong places. The subject matter is interesting, however the title is a misnomer. . . Strange Highways? Why did the author choose to call it that title when most of the stories are his personal experiences and those of his friends and family in his hometown? Other topics were covered, such as the Jersey Devil, Bigfoot, etc. but the information was basic and not anything you haven't seen in a thousand other books.
 Title is Very Misleading...... April 27, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you're looking for strange highway stories across America, this book isn't it. Most of the stories are Tennessee based. That's because Jerry lives near there. Also, Jerry talks about happenings not even based in America like Springheel Jack. His cattle mutilations rant is very biased and he has little in his book to back up his claims. This book is a mess............Stay Away............
True stories or campfire tales? July 25, 2006
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
Overall, Strange Highways was a decent read; however I have some problems that bothered me throughout the book.
First of all, this book is deeply in need of a good editor...or at the very least, a decent spellchecker. The book is literally filled with obvious typos and grammatical errors. It really kills the flow of some stories when the eye is continually being distracted by these mistakes. Some sentences don't even make sense when read, so it seems hard to believe anyone actually took the time to proof read the book. Even the table of contents randomly stops listing page numbers half way down the page!
Next, many of the paranormal stories in the book actually revolve around Mr. Coleman's own purported experiences. At first glance, this isn't a bad thing, as it would seem to provide some fresh material for the reader. As I progressed through the chapters however, I became more and more suspicious each time he revealed a first hand experience from some point in his life. I am a believer in at least the strong possibility of paranormal events, and am a regular reader of this type of material. Despite this, I can safely report that I have never actually had any type of paranormal experience, be it cryptozoological, extraterrestrial, ghostly, etc. (Nor have any of my friends, that I know of.) Yet it appears that Jerry Coleman has had these experiences regularly, throughout his life; as have many of his friends. Hardly a chapter in this diverse book seemed to pass without a first hand account! Now I can accept if someone is unusually receptive to ghosts, or believes they've been abducted by aliens, but I find it hard to believe that anyone could experience the diversity of paranormal phenomena Mr. Coleman claims to have experienced. It seems everywhere he went in life a random paranormal occurrence fell upon himself or a friend! I have no reason to call him a liar, but it certainly seemed suspicious after awhile.
My third criticism of the book is that it attempts to be very diverse, yet does not evenly address any of its topics. The entire text is less than 200 pages, despite the fact that many of the topics within have been the subject of thousands to millions of pages of research over the years. It would take a real effort to compress that kind of information into a useful summary of each topic, and unfortunately Strange Highways did not succeed. Topics are simply addressed very unevenly. For contrast, I will use a book I thought provided an excellent overview of various paranormal topics: John Keel's "The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings." In Keel's work one gets a very broad and thorough (although superficial) treatment of all the topics. By contrast, Strange Highways is completely hit or miss. Coleman chooses to skip discussion of the phenomena themselves, and plunge right into his random collection of stories.
Finally, there is a distinct lack of structure or scientific method in the information presented. There is very little done in the way of references for material, or documentary quotes or photographs. When you read some works on the paranormal, they're well documented, as you would expect a scientific report to be. Strange Highways reads more like campfire tales...they may be true, but there's little in the way of proof short of the words themselves.
I will give one upside to this writing: some of the material does seem fresh to me. Since it's based primarily on some of Coleman's own experiences and/or interviews, it makes sense some of these stories are not to be read elsewhere. You don't have to worry about being hit with the same old rehashed tales for the umpteenth time here.
So in summation, there are certainly better books available. If you already have experience with a given topic you'll be better served choosing a book focusing on that topic. If you're new to the paranormal you won't learn much here, as there is much more storytelling than discussion of the actual phenomena. I recommend this book only to pad the collections of avid readers of the paranormal who may be looking for a couple fresh tales.
Mixed Review July 15, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
It truly pains me to give this book such a low rating, because I honestly came away with a great impression of the author as genuinely good human being with much integrity. However.. the previous reviews regarding run-on sentences, fragments, and above all else- spelling errors- are absolutely true. At some points I couldn't even make sense of an entire paragraph, because the editor/proofreader not only misunderstood the point of the statement, he/she just all out butchered it without really reading it. You can tell this just by reading the paragraph in sequence. I've worked in testing, analysis and editing for many years, and it is evident to me that this book could have rated an additional two stars with a proper review and careful proofreading. I have no doubt the person meant well.. you just can't take ANY shortcuts when properly proofing a book. You must fully immerse yourself in the actual content, to really do your job. But enough on this subject..
As for content, many of the stories were engaging, full of personality and details. I was especially intrigued by the sections on The Mothman and Ghosts. The authors personal stories are interesting and engaging- I especially loved the story about his dear mother and her challenging life experiences. I hope to see this author evolve in the next book, as I plan to see it through. I really believe he is on to something here- he just needs help getting it across. This is true for all of us in our given fields though, and I'm happy to stick with Mr. Coleman on his journey.
Strange Stories, Many Of Which Involve Mr. Coleman June 12, 2006
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Dealing with Cryptozoology to Mass Murderers. Ghosts and Springheeled Jack, there's something for everyone fascinated with the bizarre. Many tales are personal experiences of the author himself, like the time he was followed down the highway by John Wayne Gacy. Yikes! But as one previous reviewer has already noted, very much in need of an editor. Many errors throughout. And a terribly grainy quality to the photographs. But it will still hold your interest if you're into the unexplained.
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