A nostalgic journey back to childhood fears and fascination with ghosts through a book titled Ghosts & Specters by Bruce and Nancy Roberts. The power of books to ignite a lifelong obsession with the supernatural. Tales of ghostly apparitions and eerie photographs that blur the lines between reality and fear.
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Ghosts & Specters Impact
Richard Adams received the book "Ghosts and Specters" on his eighth birthday, sparking his lifelong fascination with the paranormal.
The book portrayed ghost stories with eerie photos and true accounts, framing fear as real and shared among adults.
insights INSIGHT
Childhood Views on Adults’ World
Richard saw adults’ world as a place of hope but later realized his view was flawed because he overlooked the cemetery near his home.
This unknowingly connected his fascination with spirits to the actual physical world he lived in.
insights INSIGHT
Fear’s Dual Nature
Fear is a hidden yet shared experience that can be both terrifying and thrilling.
Recognizing that others feel fear too can bring unexpected comfort and connection.
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“Whether you believe in ghosts or not—these stories are true.” –Ghosts & Specters by Bruce and Nancy Roberts
Being a kid can be scary. In the premiere episode of Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf, Richard takes us on a nostalgic journey back to his childhood discovery of the book that changed everything.
Travel back to 1974 as he recounts the pivotal moment when Aunt Sally gifted him Ghosts & Specters by Bruce and Nancy Roberts. This slim hardback, filled with haunting tales and eerie photographs, ignited Richard's fear and imagination and sparked a complicated lifelong fascination with the strange and unexplained that would later fuel his screenwriting career.
While Ghosts & Specters by Bruce and Nancy Roberts may seem unlikely to inspire an entire life, to Richard, it is anything but. It started him on a journey into the unknown, and he’s never looked back. Published by Doubleday, this collection of 10 stories describes ghostly apparitions and happenings paired with ghoulish photographs that seem to creep right out of the pages and into reality. Each tale within these pages transports readers to a world where the inexplicable becomes possible, and fear gives way to fascination (and then moves back to fear again). Maybe YOU have a book just like this on your shelf. It terrified you so completely that you couldn't put it down. Or, even stranger, maybe this is the same book that brought you to this podcast.
Join Richard as he reflects on the power of books that act as a beacon into the unknown and the transformative journey that book lovers and librarians can have in our lives.
Astonishing Legends