I get it. They like to help people, and they want their underlings to take the job seriously.

I'm sorry. But I like ghost stories and, although I've never watched the cable series Ghost Hunters, I was intrigued when someone passed me a copy of the show's companion book, Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from the Atlantic Paranormal Society, to see what these prime-time plumbers and paranormalists brought to the table.

A lot of disgruntled team members, apparently, and a repetitive mantra that they want to provide aid to anyone who needs it. But, otherwise, not a lot of memorable ghost stories.

I'll admit, my mood was soured before I began to read. As many readers might do, I flipped to the center section to scan the "spooky photo insert of paranormal phenomena" collected there. The first two pictures are so obviously altered to look "spooky" that it was hard from the get-go to take these guys seriously.

But OK, they want to find ghosts, and this book collects a whole lot of their experiences. Will anything here convince a skeptic? No. Will the stories send chills up your spine? Nope. Will you come away from the book with a better understanding of the ghost-hunting process? Not really.

Certainly the book provides some interesting anecdotes for the casual reader. And it's interesting to hear how some of these so-called hauntings were debunked. But despite all of the "real" ghostly encounters they describe, they came away with no hard evidence to include in the book. Just ... stories. Folks who watched the show say they're mostly just brief recaps of some of the episodes, but without any new information to tantalize even their diehard fans.

Jason Hawes, who writes most of the book, spends far too much time bellyaching about some of the people on the ghost-hunting team. We get it, you want committed people on your hunts, Jason, but keep personnel matters to yourself, OK?

I'd love to know more about their methods, but I guess there wasn't enough room left in the book to get into those details. Each vignette is brief, vague and for the most part unhelpful.

This book is, I suppose, mostly a postcard to fans of the TV series. Anyone else can find much better resources on the subject.