Eric D. NuzumAnmeldelser

If you decide "I want to get into podcasting" but aren't sure of anything beyond that, this book is perfect.

It tells you what you're in for, what to think about, and really guides you through how to flesh your ideas out, and a taste of some of the "problems" you might face if you get successful. I feel like I know what I'm getting into now.

It is purely due to the relatively low page count that I did not DNF this book.

Think back to your freshman English Lit course in college. Do you remember that one guy that sat two rows from the back, against the wall. He claimed Tom Waits was his favorite and he wore a leather jacket, but only one that he thrifted and he made sure you knew it was thrifted because he would never put money in the leather trade. He always brought a book to class that wasn't anything the class was reading. It was probably Heart of Darkness or Albert Camus or his "comfort copy" of Catcher in the Rye. He definitely thought he was leagues smarter than everyone else in the class and it was downright embarassing that the rest of the trash around him dared express themselves and their interests at all. He sneered and guffawed at everyone'e answers, ESPECIALLY women who dared to have an opinion about literature.

Reading this book felt like having to listen to that asshole for 5 hours. Mind-numbingly, jaw-crackingly, skin-crawlingly uncomfortable. Wanting to cut him off and tell him he's an asshole, but it's a book that was published 14 years ago so you just have to keep listening to him and hating every second of it.½

I went back and forth a bit between enjoying this book and really, really hating the author. He doesn't have a real interest in vampires and seems to just enjoy making fun of anyone who does like them. I would suggest Sundays with Vlad. That said, I did enjoy some of the book, had a few chuckles and really want to eat some Count Chockula now.

Contains very useful and usable information, but also suffers from the age-old sin of business books, ie. it still manages to be fluffy at times. Would recommend for all podcasters, tho.

In Make Noise, Eric Nuzum lays out an agenda that is at once extremely ambitious and directed at a narrowly defined audience: His intention is to explain to would-be creators of podcasts how to conceptualize, organize, and execute their vision in order to launch a successful venture. What the book is not about is how any of the millions of potential users might select or evaluate the podcasts they listen to. However, as the author notes, given that there are currently about 700,000 existing podcasts available to choose from, this is apparently an important problem to address, in terms of both improving current products as well as influencing the development of future ones.

Nuzum would seem to be the perfect person to write such a book. He has a lengthy and impressive resume chronicling his work in this area, including program development experience in public radio and creating or producing some of the most popular podcasts in the market today (e.g., TED Radio Hour, Invisibilia). For the most part, he succeeds in translating that experience into practical and insightful advice on how a would-be podcast producer should go about the task of creating and delivering effective content. Beyond the substance of the message he conveys, Nuzum also writes in a down-to-earth style that is especially effective in getting his points across. The use of many illustrative examples from his personal knowledge of the industry is helpful in that regard.

The book is divided into ten chapters (including the Introduction), each of which explores a different aspect of the podcast development process. For me, the first several of these chapters contained the most compelling, interesting, and useful material. In particular, the author describes the importance of developing a ten-word descriptive sentence that encapsulates the creative concept as well as the need to visualize the podcast’s specific target audience. Following those discussions, Nuzum addresses the issue of how a good podcast should be structured, emphasizing both the function and the form of the product. Above all else, he stresses the idea that podcasting is all about telling stories and that understanding the principles of how to tell a great story is the most important skill to have.

On the other hand, some of the material in the last few chapters was less effective at accomplishing the author’s pronounced mission. Specifically, the information on finding an audience through “guerilla marketing” tactics and how to lead teams of creative people were verbose and largely unnecessary to the core purpose. In fact, the latter chapter really read more like an excerpt from a general management textbook than advice tailored to someone interested in podcast development. Beyond that, it is actually difficult to know how to evaluate the usefulness of any of this information until a person actually tries to put it into practice launching their own audio project. Still, Make Noise is an engaging discussion from an author who writes with authority and passion, which makes it a worthwhile reading experience.½

Fun read, gave me great snippets for cocktail party conversations. From the Stoker-Nosferatu lawsuit to the working conditions for haunted house workers--it's all here, and well written, too.

After starting and stopping this book multiple times, I have finally made it all the way through! While I can see how the author wants to tie together the past and present threads of his life, everything felt disjointed to me. His present day ghost hunting didn't quite mesh with and reflect his own "ghost" experience, and his friendship with Laura never really felt clear and connected to the rest of his experiences. Maybe her disconnect and mysteriousness never really allowed me to grasp her impact on the author's life. A very odd book overall.½

I was put off by the misplaced modifier in the 2nd sentence of the book and it didn't get much better from there. This book didn't go anywhere or tell me anything. There was no back story to explain any of the incidents that the author related in the book. There was no conclusion to wrap it up. It was just a boring snapshot in time of the author's teenage years and an attempt to tie it to a time in his adult life.

Interesting concept with very funny moments, yet sort of loses momentum at the end. Also, the author has some great insight at times, yet glosses over certain topics which would have been interesting if touched upon more. At times, his views and judgments (or lack of) were rather annoying. Still, none of this detracts from how entertaining the book is and overall is rather intriguing with some interesting insight on why vampires are so prominent in various cultures.

An honest and interesting account of the author dealing with his ghost phobia whilst being haunted.

However happily he lives his life now, with a beautiful wife, children, job and the essential American dream, Eric Nuzum remains troubled by his past. His close relationship with Laura and the relationship’s ultimate demise continues to upset him, and his experiences being haunted by a little girl in a blue dress have him avoiding anything remotely scary or ghost-related. After years of avoiding closed doors or spooky movies, Mr. Nuzum finally chooses to confront the otherworldly. Giving Up the Ghost is the documentation of his journey to determine the existence of ghosts and his moving tribute to his long-lost friend.

One of main issues with memoirs is the author’s reliability. All self-told stories will have some element of inaccuracies, and the trick is to determine whether this is deliberate or unconsciously wrought. Deliberate omissions are less acceptable even if they are understandable as no one wants to paint themselves in a horrible light. Thankfully, the deficiencies in Mr. Nuzum’s story do not appear to be calculated. Rather, a reader instinctively understands that much of what Mr. Nuzum discusses is so painful for him that any oversights are due to his inability to dig further into his psyche or into the past rather than a premeditated intent to deceive or omit facts.

That being said, as distressing as Mr. Nuzum’s past is for him, one cannot help but feel that there could have/ should have been more self-reflection. While he discusses his drug and alcohol abuse with nonchalance, Mr. Nuzum’s reasons for numbing himself to the world remain nebulous and unsatisfactory. There are indications that it was in large part due to his haunting by Little Girl, but this is more supposition on the part of the reader. Given how full of despair and hopelessness Mr. Nuzum is through much of his teenage years and the fact that he was able to overcome that to become a functional adult with family, friends, and a great job, one only wishes he would have dug a little deeper or explained a little more thoroughly as to his reasons behind his antisocial, self-destructive behavior.

However, the wish for more explanations about past behavior in no way diminishes a reader’s sympathy towards and enjoyment of Mr. Nuzum’s stark confessional and hunt for his personal ghosts. His ongoing love for Laura is as beautiful to behold as it is moving in its tragic demise. While his experiences highlight the fact that we can never truly understand or know another person, they also emphasize the essential need for friends. For it is his loneliness, however self-imposed, that ultimately leads to his downward spiral, and it is his unwavering friendship with Laura that brings him back to the functioning world again. No one can go through life without friends.

For those who remain dubious about ghosts, Mr. Nuzum’s conclusions about their existence are thought-provoking and poignant. While his searches among some of the nation’s most haunted locations yield nothing concrete to assuage his curiosity, he emerges from his experiences convinced that ghosts do exist but not in the forms people would technically consider. His journey to his final conclusions are breathtaking in their honesty and internal pain. Mr. Nuzum holds nothing back as he explains his past, his connection to Laura, and why he is so easily disturbed by the thought of spirits and otherworldly visitors. Giving Up the Ghost is a truly modern ghost story that is as upsetting and challenging as any memoir should be.

Acknowledgments: Thank you to LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program for my review copy!

Ten pages into this book, I was surprised to find that it was non-fiction. Seriously. I don't know if it was just me, but I definitely thought this was going to be a kind of literary paranormal/horror novel. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a memoir though, and I was hooked right from the beginning.

Giving up the Ghost is about Eric Nuzum's search for answers. Since he was a boy, he'd been haunted by a ghost he called The Little Girl, and as he grew older, he became increasingly haunted by his friends and acquaintances that have died far too early in life, especially Laura -- a girl who was his best friend and whom he was in love with at one point. Nuzum explores the past by switching from past events and to the present, where he is actively searching for haunted places in order to find answers about The Little Girl, and possibly Laura.

The beginning hooked me and I found myself thoroughly enjoying this book. It's interesting, funny, and has some truly moving moments. I'm also a fan of dysfunctional stuff, and Nuzum certainly had a lot of that going on in his life. It's also very open and honest -- I almost felt like I was listening to a friend's confessional or something. Nuzum leaves everything on the page, which makes for a raw, emotional experience.

Though I think there could have been more organization in terms of letting the reader know when everything was taking place (dates at the beginning of chapters would have been helpful), I loved the back-and-forth between the past and present. Seeing the parallels and changes that have happened from Nuzum as a teenager to Nuzum as an adult was interesting, and it really helped move the story along.

I would have liked there to be more of a focus throughout the book. The beginning was really strong, I think, but it started to lag in the middle because of all the issues that Nuzum tried to tackle. And near the end, I wasn't sure what message I was supposed to be taking from his stories. Like I said before, Giving up the Ghost is about a search for answers, a search for the meaning behind past events. However, this sometimes gets lost in all Nuzum's stories about drugs, fits of rage, and dysfunctional relationships. Don't get me wrong -- they're good stories. And I think that they should definitely be told, but not necessarily in this book. It would have been much stronger and much more satisfying if the focus stayed on The Little Girl, his relationship with Laura, and his search for haunted places.

With that said, I still enjoyed it and I think it's a worthwhile read. I'm also very interested in reading more of Nuzum's work.

*I was provided a free copy from the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review.*

Like an earlier reviewer, I had a difficult time with this book. Got about 1/3 of the way into it, and it just wasn't connecting with me at this point. It'a not that it wasn't well written, more like it was not what I was looking to read at this point. Later on I'll refresh the portion I have read and have another go at it, buut will refrain from rating at this time.

I don't read a lot of memoirs, and when I first requested this book I wasn't even aware that it WAS a memoir. It doesn't take long to realize that the author struggled from various mental health issues, but what draws you into the book is the loneliness and longing he feels for his friend Laura, a friend who died long ago but he can't let go of. The author goes on a journey to prove to himself once and for all that ghosts, the spectral kind, don't actually exist. Unfortunately he can't let go of the ghosts of his confusing past. Laura was his one true friend, his anchor, and while he has since recovered from many of his past demons, he has never been able to get past her loss. You can feel the sadness and regret, but what really comes through is the appreciation he has for his friend and this book is almost his thank-you gift to her. A quick and interesting read that I think a lot of people will appreciate.

When I initially requested this title from Netgalley, I was under the impression that it was a work of fiction, and needless to say, I was disappointed when I realized that it was not. I had yet to read a "scary" novel, and I somehow thought this might be it.

With that said, as I actually started reading the book, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found there. Nuzum recounts his life, alternating from past to present-eventually settling on the present towards the end. I had a few laugh out loud moments, and got my fill of scary when he first described his dream of a little girl in a blue dress-the same little girl, and dream, that turned out to be the cause and affect of moments surrounding and within his life, both mentally and emotionally.

As much as I hoped this would be a ghost story, sadly, it wasn't..well, it kind of was, not really. Though I still really enjoyed Eric's ability to tell a story-his story. His writing flowed well, and many times I found myself right there beside him. I grew so accustomed to fiction, that it was sometimes difficult to remind myself that what he was writing was real life, that he really did experience the horrible losses that he did, that his facts were exactly that-facts. If all memoirs could be written in this manner, I would be reading a lot more of that genre.

However, the story still remained a little anti-climatic for me, and what what I was expecting in the end, personally just seemed to fall flat and kind of meaningless. Which isn't a bad thing-like I said, I'm a fiction reader to my core, I've been horribly spoiled with insanely impossible endings..it's just what I've come to know and expect.

The quote that pretty much stopped my breathing for a few seconds:

"Everyone tells me that the stuff I like will never amount to anything.' I Said. 'So if you aren't interested in anything else, what is the point of trying? So you can end up sitting in an office and wearing a tie- and being miserable until you die-is that what I'm supposed to do with my life to make everyone happy? That doesn't sound like much fun. It's easier to deal with other people's disappointment than to deal with your own."

BOOM! Instant 'I can SO relate' moment.

*Received as an ARC from Netgalley

It seems odd to say that reading about a person being haunted was an enjoyable experience – but it was. “Giving Up the Ghost” was a very enjoyable book – one that made me laugh out loud many times.

Eric Nuzum is brutally honest about his adolescence – at least when it comes to his own actions and feelings. Since the story takes place mostly in his childhood/teenage years – I did find it a bit odd that his parents seemed almost non-existent through much of the book – but the book still worked very well.

The hook of “Giving Up the Ghost” is Eric’s memories of being haunted by “Little Girl” – but that didn’t turn out to be the most compelling aspect of his story. Instead, what he learns about his emotions and what he truly fears turned out to be riveting.

“So it wasn’t an apparition I feared. I was scared of what I didn’t know, simply because I didn’t know it. My life began to feel like that flash of a moment between when you know you’re going to be in an auto accident and the impact itself. Like that moment between when the wave crests above your head and when it comes crashing down on you. Even if it is only for an instant, the waiting is the worst part. Worse than the collision. Worse than the injury and damage. Whenever Little Girl came to me in my dreams, my whole life started to feel like that moment. Just waiting, knowing and not knowing, all at the same time.”

That is not to say that his descriptions of Little Girl and how his dreams of her weren’t gripping as well. When he first describes his recurring dream of her – the images are so clear that I felt as if I was watching it through his eyes – and the experience was spooky.

Eric’s fears, compulsions and depression eventually land him in the hospital. And, although there is certainly nothing funny about those battling mental illness or those who try and help them, this part of the book provided much of the humor, I have to admit.

The doctor’s constant pushing of laxatives, for instance. “Dr. Chang started to write notes on his chart. “You have suicide thoughts today?” he asked. “Well, I had been so constipated that I thought of ending it all,” I said. “But now that I have milk of magnesia, I should be good.”

“Giving Up the Ghost” is a description of a journey few of us will ever take. Not many people will be haunted, not many people will spend time in a mental hospital and not many will intentionally spend time in some of the most reportedly haunted places in our country. As hard as it was for Eric Nuzum to take this journey, his description of it provides for a book that is hard to put down.½

It took me a while to realize that this book wasn't a novel, but a memoir. I probably enjoyed the book more than most because my teenage years were similar to Mr. Nuzum's. I also think the book touches home because most people have someone in their past that they think would have made their own life different if the other person had had more of an influence on them.

All in all, a pretty good read.

When I first saw the eerie cover and read the above description, I assumed this was a novel. It's not; it's a memoir. The instant I realized this was not fiction, the story became all the more compelling to me. A book about being really haunted? YES!

Nuzum neither presumes that ghosts are real or not real, he simply tells his own story with being haunted and how it became a contributing factor in a downward spiral of despair in self-destruction. While a teenager, Nuzum did many things that were unlikeable, and was, as he admits, not a very likeable guy. He drank, did lots of drugs, acted crazy, was rude and mean and occasionally vicious. Some memoir writers might describe these same sorts of events as a way to garner sympathy, or to pawn off and blame their faults on somebody else, or to revel in the freedom or coolness of the act. Nuzem, thankfully, does none of these things. Rather, he states the facts as he remembers them (perhaps not accurately, he notes), while accepting and taking responsibility for his mistakes. He seems to tell the story the way many people tell ghost stories — matter of factly — and perhaps will the aim of exorcizing some of his past ghosts.

As much as the story is about his downward spiral, it is even more so about his rise and the friend who held him up and kept him sane. Laura, who was very much a mystery in his life, unwilling to share much (or any) of her own truths, helped Nuzum keep track of, organize, and make peace with his own sorrows and fears and wobbliness. Their friendship is entertaining and touching to read.

Giving up the Ghost is a well written and compelling read. There's no ultimate resolution, of course, because life doesn't have many ultimate resolutions. Many mysteries stay mysteries, and human beings can't help but be haunted. Tthe ghosts of our past linger, hiding on the other side of the door whether we want them to or not.

I received a copy of Giving Up the Ghost by Eric Nuzum as an Early Reviewer and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Nuzum's memoir deals with his troubled childhood and adolescence, the Little Girl in the Blue Dress who he thought lived in his attic, and Laura, his best friend he knew next to nothing about. It's a poignant tale, sometimes funny, written from Nuzum's point of view as a fairly successful adult as he tries to figure out his fear of ghosts. He travels to some of the best known haunted places in the U.S.--Clinton Road in northern NJ; the Spiritualist town of Lily Dale, NY, and Mansfield Reformatory in Ohio--trying to discover if the ghost he's been afraid of for years could possibly be real, but as it says on the back cover, "it's only when he digs up the ghosts of his past" that he reaches a some kind of truce with his past and can move on with his life.

I really liked this book. Nuzum did a good job inspiring my interest in his life. I was especially taken with his description of his relationship with the mysterious Laura. To me, she was the real ghost in his story, and I felt a little heartbroken to learn what little Nuzum discovered about her. I also enjoyed his haunted travels--they were a nice hook--and the description of his stay in the mental ward. It bogged down a little for me in the middle, as his mental decline was progressing, but that's my only complaint, and it could have been my mood as I was reading it, more than anything.

I'm not sure what I went into this book expecting it to be but I ended up enjoying it. However, even the subtitle "a story about 80s rock, a lost scrap of paper, and what it means to be haunted" is a bit misleading, like Nuzum himself didn't know what he wanted his memoir to be. There were a few mentions of 80s punk rock but not enough to be considered a main part of the story, something I was disappointed in, wish music played a bigger role. A better subtitle would be something along the lines of, a story about a friendship, being committed, and ghost hunting. But with all that said, I still found this an entertaining and fast read. Nuzum's descriptions of his mental illness and trips to notoriously haunted locales made for interesting reading. The little girl in the blue dress was a common thread throughout the book and provided a bit of mystery. I hate to say it but the friendship between Nuzum and Laura was the least interesting thread of this memoir even though it seemed to be the most important aspect of his story for Eric. I'd be interested in reading more of the ghost adventures. The concept of each person being haunted by the ghosts of people they've encountered is one touched upon throughout the book and really delved into at the end. It's something that made me think and made the book more than a flat memoir. I guess I was initially confused and a little disappointed but despite that there was still enough material that kept me reading thus leading to my 3 star rating.

One of the best things about Giving up the Ghost is that it is not the memoir you expect. From the publisher's description it sounds like it's going to be sort of a search for information about his friend, but mostly a somewhat serious/somewhat silly romp through paranormal places. It's not that. Not even close.

If you were ever different as a kid, ever bullied or just shunned by the other kids around you, you're left with two basic choices: conform or defy them. Mr. Nuzum chose to defy his classmates and it's a choice I can relate to because I also steadfastly refused to conform and made a lot of bad choices along the way. It was very easy to me to relate to Mr. Nuzum, stuck in small town Ohio, wanting something different, but not sure what, doing too much damage to yourself along the way. I was fortunate because my early bout with depression was caught at its beginning and I was very fortunate to see a wonderful therapist where I was first in college. At that time there weren't a lot of anti-depressant options, but she saw me three times a week, listened to me, guided me firmly, and helped me talk my way through to the other side. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't had her help.

We all know what it's like to be haunted, I think - by people or places or dreams that never came true - something about all the possibilities that didn't reach their potential sticks with us. It is all of that that is so hard to forget. Mr. Nuzum's brutally honest memoir takes the reader through one person's life (so far) and that person's attempts at self-destruction and ultimate desire to be whole. While I'm not sure he reached the conclusions he might've wanted, the journey is interesting and I'm glad he chose to share it. Lots of people have similar pasts, similar ghosts, but not everyone writes about it with such straightforward honesty. A good, if sometimes difficult, read.

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy this book. It seemed to drag at the beginning and was starting to look like a chapter every other week read.
As more and more of his story emerged and grew I found it harder to put down. That little Ghost girl drew me in and in the end I too wanted to hear what it was she had to say.

I am quite intrigued with the ideas of how our ghosts, those that are real or imagined, haunt us. I thought this was a sad tale of one persons ghosts, and experiences. It was not quite what I expected, and I set it down a few times to pick up a novel or other work, but I found myself returning to it, and finishing it, which does not always happen with memoirs in my house.

I liked this book far better than I expected to. The first few pages made me think it would be another whiny, 'I should have been a rock star" memoir, and I was apprehensive about what would follow. The book defied my expectations, proving to be a fascinating exploration of fear, love, loss, and joy. Nuzum's journey from the precipice of schizophrenia to an equinamity with unanswered questions and the joy and pain that the memory of those we have loved and lost drew me into the book, and held my attention to the very last page.

Worth owning.

Eric Nuzum was something of a mess growing up. He was isolated, into drugs and convinced that a ghost haunted his house and dreams. He eventually ended up in a mental institute before finding his way back on track. The only thing keeping him together at times was a relationship with a girl named Laura who ultimately died in a tragic accident. So, what is there to like about this book? Honestly, for most of it I wondered what the hell I was reading. Some of the time it felt like a coming of age novel and then suddenly I would be reading a chapter that read more like a non-fiction travel story.

I was all ready to give this book a low rating, but then I became engrossed in the author's relationship with Laura. It was the only thing that felt real about this entire book. The author could never quite get a grasp on his friendship with Laura and after her death he had a hard time grappling with what their connection meant. In all the years since her passing he has held on to a poem she gave him that she said he would understand one day. Eric ends the book still not understanding what she meant in giving it to him, only that her friendship - more so than the ghost of his adolescence - haunts him to this day.