A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven

I write book reviews and the book I'm reading now is called A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Heaven: (Or, How I Made Peace with the Paranormal and Stigmatized Zealots and Cynics in the Process). The title alone made me pick it out for review. When I got it in the mail I was surprised to learn it was written by lead singer of Slipknot, Corey Taylor. I was a little hesitant as I started the book, hoping it wasn't going to be a maudlin, over-the-top, in-your-face-motherfucker! account of this guy's run ins with ghosts. Well it is, but it's brilliantly funny and smart as well.

Taylor recounts in chilling detail the encounters he's had, beginning at a young age, with things that go bump in the night. I'm not done with the book yet, but so far I've read about a horrifying abandoned house in the woods that he and his friends broke into when he was a kid, a haunted mansion in the Hollywood Hills where Slipknot recorded one of their albums (and where he ran into a ghost butler while naked in the shower), and his own houses that have included odd things like a shadow man that followed around his then three-year-old son.

Because Taylor writes with such zest and wit, I'm too busy laughing to be scared. But after I put the book down, I start thinking about the stories he's shared. That shadow man, in particular, forced me to leave the hall light on last night.