Finally reading "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" for the first time.

[BreweryYardRat]

<b>Goddamn</b>, but Thompson was a brilliant writer.

I'm going to have to get his other works.

[SteppingRazor]

1. Bah. He's a hack.

;)

[mitchum]

2. His Hell's Angels is even better...

studying that book can teach one how to write.
Studying Fear and Loathing can only teach one how to write like Thompson

[driver8]

8. Hell's Angels is an amazing book!

I have read it a few times -- absolutely fascinating!

[Forkboy]

3. He's great. My fave is Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.

Still the best book I've read on politics, in it's own twisted way.

[Kat45]

4. Yeah. I thought that should have been assigne reading for poli sci classes

Though I doubt that it ever was.

[Zomby Woof]

7. It was one of my required texts in '88

A PoliSci class I took in college regarding media coverage of presidential campaigns required that and Timothy Crouse's "The Boys On The Bus" as the two supplements to our main textbook. The class was only offered during the spring of each presidential election cycle, so I eagerly signed up. The prof knew what she was doing - HST's rep was pretty solid in college circles, even during the Reagan era. :D

I also enjoyed "Better Than Sex", his chronicle of the '92 campaign, but "'72" stands as his best campaign book.

[Kat45]

12. Cool! I'm glad to hear that. n.t

[Kat45]

5. That book got passed around among my friends when we were in college

Our stoner days. :D

[Richardo]

6. One of the most riveting first sentences of a book I've ever read:

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."

[conscious evolution]

9. You will never look at bats

the same way again.
Same with lizards.
Trust me on this.

[kimmerspixelated]

10. Did you see JDepp in the movie?

Completely insane!

BTW, Johnny will be playing the young hunter Thompson in The Rum Diaries, which I believe wrapped up in June. Can't wait to see it!

[trof]

11. It's a trip, ain't it?

'At boy could WRITE!

[gmoney]

13. For some reason, I like this quote...

"A good .357 is a hard thing to get, these days. So I figured, well, just get this bugger back to Malibu, and it's mine. My risk -- my gun: it made perfect sense. And if that Samoan pig wanted to argue, if he wanted to come yelling around the house, give him a taste of the bugger about midway up the femur. Indeed. 158 grains of half-jacketed lead/alloy, traveling 1500 feet per second, equals about forty pounds of Samoan hamburger, mixed up with bone splinters. Why not?"

I guess it's the precise physics of it...

His run in with the police in Chapter 12 is also brilliant.

Sadly, despite Terry Gilliam's best efforts, I feel the movie is a sad, sad echo of the book.

[applegrove]

14. Never read it.

[david13]

15. He was a way big gun nut. He shot himself to death in his kitchen,

you know.
He once said "I don't want to advocate drugs and alcohol and violence for anyone, but they have always worked for me."
dc