'Ghost Hunters' keep touch with Rooter roots in new book

For even casual fans of Syfy's Ghost Hunters, the backstory of Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson is as familiar as Superman's.

Plumbers by day, paranormal investigators by night, Hawes and Wilson of Warwick, Rhode Island, are best friends and leaders of The Atlantic Paranormal Society. Even as fame came their way with the successful cable TV show in 2004, the two continued to snake drains as blue-collar workers. So even though the story doesn't involve rocketing to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton, it still has that relatable hook of great entertainment.

The dynamic duo of the paranormal pop culture world are likely doing more ghost hunting gigs these days than plumbing ones, but they've maintained a mutually beneficial relationship with their boss Roto-Rooter Plumbing and Drain Service.

Now they're lending their voices as commentators to Roto-Rooter's new book, Chilling Tales From the Porcelain Seat . Essentially a collection of humorous and horrible porcelain god stories the leading plumbing company has picked up over the years, Hawes and Wilson pipe in (pun intended) with observations and one-liners every so often.

The "How to Poop at Work" survival guide is especially helpful, but more than just a book on how "everybody poops," there are weird ditties about reptiles, flushed drugs, a chocolate bunny and rescued kittens. While not technically a Ghost Hunters or TAPS book, Chilling Tales is an enjoyable and quirky little bathroom book worth reading outside of the bathroom.

However, if you're more interested in the spiritual world than the scatalogical one, you need only wait until the show's season premiere on Aug. 19 or for Sept. 29, when the next TAPS book comes out. Seeking Spirits: The Lost Cases of The Atlantic Paranormal Society by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, with Michael Jan Friedman, is a follow-up to Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from The Atlantic Paranormal Society. An embiggenable sneak peek at the jacket is below.

-aaron sagers