Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions
“Amusing Jews” Podcast Interview!
A few weeks ago, I was a guest on an episode of a podcast called Amusing Jews, where hosts Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field spoke to me about my nonfiction book The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions. The episode (Ep 136) is out NOW, and you can check out two versions of it: the video version (which I highly recommend, because – well – you can actually SEE Jonathan, Joey, and me), or the audio version, which you can listen to on Spreaker.
You can see the video version immediately below.
Or you can listen to the Spreaker version HERE.
To find out more about The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions, go HERE.
Perhaps you even want to buy a copy of the book, after listening to that podcast interview. Well, you’re in luck! You can buy it HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!
Happy New Year from Li’l Nosferatu!
Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to 2026! And welcome to my “year-end wrap-up” blog post for 2025. Look, before you say anything: yes, I’m writing a “year-end” post the day after the year ended. Which is probably against the rules, but as I’ve learned over the years, I don’t like rules. Rules are stupid. Also, I was busy yesterday.
So. Here are some of the best things that happened to me in 2025:
I wrote many, many books. Most of them were for kids. Some of them were for adults. Here are the titles of some (but not all) of those books:
The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions.
The Fantastic Four Little Golden Book.
Stitch: Out-of-This-World Numbers.
Also, in January of 2025, I began working as a writer and narrative designer for an upcoming video game called Shadows of Dawn, which is being developed by Next Player Games. Currently, I’m still working on the game with the good folks at NPG.
And as you may recall, back in 2023, I wrote two episodes of the animated preschool series Hey! Fuzzy Yellow. In 2024, one of the episodes began airing and streaming. But starting in 2025, both episodes (“Boomerang Jelly Car” and “Sculpture Jam Abstract”) began airing and streaming. I wrote the scripts and the song lyrics for both episodes. As of this writing, Hey! Fuzzy Yellow still hasn’t begun airing or streaming in the US, but it’s available in various countries in Europe, Central America, and South America.
I also wrote the script for a Passover-themed children’s audio drama, titled “Mort the Misinformed Morsel of Matzah,” which was released in the spring of 2025 as part of Yoto’s 5-Minute Spring Holiday Stories collection. The title character, Mort, was even voiced by a friend of mine, Eli Schiff!
And there are several other projects I worked on throughout 2025, some of which will come out this year. I announced one of them, 96 Facts About Chappell Roan, in my previous blog post. (That book comes out on January 13th.) But I’ll announce some of my other upcoming projects ASAP. Please keep checking this site for more info!
BTW, I wouldn’t have worked on any of the aforementioned projects without the book editors, video game producers, and TV showrunners who gave me these writing gigs in the first place. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who hired me in 2025 (or really, anyone who hired me at any time, ever). And I mean that.
You may also be wondering about the “Baby New Year” photo which adorns this blog post. See, to usher in the new year, I’ve put a “2026” sash around a puppet I built. I call him “Li’l Nosferatu.” If you’re obsessed with me (and why wouldn’t you be?), you’ll notice that I’ve occasionally posted pics of Li’l Nosferatu on social media during the past couple of years. For today’s purposes, Li’l Nosferatu is playing the part of Baby New Year.
Someday, I’ll explain the backstory behind this puppet, because there is indeed quite a bit of backstory there. Basically, I built the puppet for a project which never came to fruition. But more on that some other time.
And to anyone who’s reading this, I just wanted to wish you the best for a wonderful new year!
Rave Reviews Of My “Superstitions” Book!
As I mentioned in a recent blog post, I wrote a book called The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions. It’ll be published by Quarto on July 15th, 2025. But in the meantime, the first two reviews of the book just came out!
First, there’s a glowing write up of The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions over at Foreword Reviews. Here’s an excerpt:
“A delightful mix of education and entertainment, The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions is a spirited salute to humanity’s quirks—proof that even our silliest beliefs have something to say.”
You can see the whole Foreword Reviews write-up HERE.
And the second write-up comes from Publishers Weekly. It’s also a rave review! Here’s an excerpt:
“Written in an appealingly chatty style, this packs an impressive amount of research into an entertaining package.”
Click HERE to read the whole PW review.
And just in case you don’t have a subscription to Publishers Weekly and therefore cannot read the PW review via the link above, here it is in its entirety:
The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions: Ancient and Remarkable Traditions That Will Captivate Your Mind
Arie Kaplan. Wellfleet, $19.99 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-57715-462-4
Comedian Kaplan (The Encyclopedia of Epic Myths and Legends) wryly and informatively catalogs superstitious beliefs across history, spotlighting the many that are still prevalent in the modern world. According to Kaplan, “superstitions are more deeply enmeshed in contemporary life than you might think.” He notes that certain common practices are actually superstitious at their core, from traditions like throwing a bouquet at a wedding to everyday etiquette like how to speak to a baby (in much of Asia and Eastern Europe, one should never call a baby “cute,” as it might provoke the evil eye). Arguing that the contemporary conception of “superstition” as based on “ignorance, fear…. or a false conception of causation” is “a little judgmental,” he looks instead for the logic behind superstitious beliefs, ranging from the origins of the taboo against opening an umbrella indoors (likely handed down by the ancient Egyptians, who used umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun and had reasonable concerns about doing things that might offend the sun god) to the explanation for the nearly universal belief (documented in Asia, Native America, and early modern Europe) that pointing at a rainbow will bring bad luck (probably just an easy way to teach kids the good manners of not pointing at things). Written in an appealingly chatty style, this packs an impressive amount of research into an entertaining package. (July)
Oh, and one more thing: you can preorder The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions HERE, HERE, and HERE.