Weekly Geeks 2010-07: Commenting

As a proud participant in the Weekly Geeks phenomenon, I hereby point you to the official blog/site for this week’s topic.   Weekly Geeks 2010-07:  Commenting.

Care’s Commenting Policy

I, Care of Care’s Online Book Club, hereby encourage comments to my posts and agree to being enthusiastically appreciative when I read said comments.   I promise to attempt to respond here  - usually in a “Reply” right after the comment, and via email (when I especially want the commenter to know of my response).    (I do wonder if anyone ever comes back and reads my replies – besides Valerie and Jeanne.  *wink*)

I also hope to offer a quid-pro-quo visit at your blog if you comment here and if the energy connection works out, may it be the beginning of a beautiful online bookish relationship.      Alas, I regret that I cannot visit everyone every day.   (I so miss the early days of discovery…)

I believe blogging IS some kind of energy connection and some bloggers light up different frequencies encouraging more connectedness.      It’s just what it is.      I do not subscribe to any thought-camp that the book blog world is clique-y  yet I do acknowledge some groupiness which hopefully isn’t a word as emotionally charged (negatively, perhaps) but do think that we get ourselves into circles that overlap and collide depending on mood or activity or energy connection and now I’m just getting wierd so I’ll shut up.    But really, it’s true – there are some bloggers I get SO THRILLED when they comment here and there are some blogs I read a LOT but never comment.   IT JUST IS WHAT IT IS.

I try to maintain a positive attitude here and love to encourage my own sunny disposition.  I will delete any spammy comments, any RUDE comments, and any negative irrelevant comments.    This happening is extremely rare.   I really think the only negative comment I’ve every received was from someone aghast and appalled that I didn’t go all gaga for Twilight and now that I read it again, it’s not even that bad…

My WordPress platform is WONDERFUL in that it traps any suspicious spam comments so it is easy-peasy to just ignore or delete or whatever.     I do sometimes, again – rarely, have to rescue a legitimate comment from the spam-catcher.    A few comments go to a pending status so they are easily addressed and sent to appropriate comment-happy status or the rubbish bin.

I rarely get author comments.   Dead authors tend not to visit my blog which is one good reason to read classics.   Or maybe I read authors that are too-popular and don’t have time to bother with bloggers?    Or I don’t say much comment worthy.   (*cough, cough*)   I was very excited to have the translator of Steig Larsson’s debut The Girl With the DragonTattoo visit – very cool!

When I first started blogging (it was a ‘life’ blog), I stayed exclusively in the WP world which is awesome and easy to develop a circle of friends.   WordPress has a button to click where you can see all the comments you’ve left at other WP blogs and quickly jump back into a conversation.     But once I started blogging about books, I found out that other platforms existed;  that blogger/spot was dominant (and SO HARD to comment on posts due to word verification and all the boxes and extra submits required to fillout) and that there was no way except to remember to go back and check if the blogger responded to your comment.      [And now everyone seems to be self-hosting (neither here nor there) - but I do like the ability to click and get email response track.    But I rarely do it because I don't want my email clogged  up.]

Did I get off-track?  I was trying to say that when I discovered Weekly Geeks, I was SO VERY EXCITED!!!    It was my first ‘group’ thing to participate in and when Dewey came by and left me a comment – a thoughtful, helpful, meaningful comment – I was just so happy with my choice to blog about books and be a part of the community.   Thank you Dewey for Weekly Geeks!

But the POINT OF ALL THIS IS and I know Dewey would agree with me…     We (it’s not just * I *, is it?) must do a good better job at visiting the other participants and creating that dialogue.    Please don’t just write your Geek post and sit and wait for others to visit.  GET OUT THERE and say something/anything and have fun with it.  I need to be better at this…   I do appreciate Weekly Geeks for getting me to visit new and different and not the same ol’ (wonderful) blogs and bemoan the high count of unread posts in Google-Reader.    Thank you for keeping it fresh and not routine.

I know, I know – I am now out visiting all of you and I’m hoping I will be able to let you know I was ‘there’; coming up with something meaningful and thoughtful to comment.☺

Wow – this post ended up a lot longer than I expected…    I was thinking that it might be accurate to say that I sometimes think there are three kinds of comments; so to make it easier for y’all, here’s your multiple choice offering:     If you are here and want to acknowledge that you’re here – a show of support, if you will, then type “A”.     If you have something to say and will just burst if you don’t share your thoughts, then type “B” – and your must-express thought, of course!    And, if you disagree (really, I don’t often find the blogging world to be all that disagreeable, do you?), type “C” and tell me where I’m wrong-thinking.

Recap:    A – I’m here!   You Rock!   Tiddlypom!!

B – I got something to say:   ________

C – Yea, but…

HAPPY WEEKLY GEEKS!!

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Copyright © 2010. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Mini-thoughts   The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, 2010 Bantam Books Trade Paperback Edition (orig copyright 2009), 370 pages.

“UNLESS SOME SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM LIE,
WHO CARES FOR ALL THE CRINKLING OF THE PIE?“

- William King, The Art of Cookery (1708)

Just so you know, I will not be reviewing this book here.   In this post…   NOT a review.

And, I’m OK with that because I have decided that I am not and do not want to be a book reviewer.     I prefer this blog to be a place where I talk yap about the books I read and —   actually I prefer 1)  you either already know about the book and/or have read it already, too.   OR 2)  you prefer not to know anything whatsoever about it but just want me to tell you YES!  READ THIS!  or NO!  DON’T BOTHER!!

Well, if you checked box #2, I won’t be telling you yes nor will I tell you no.

Cuz it depends.

I read this because it has been well received in book-blogosphere and had a precociously smart and clever girl for protagonist.    [I really read this because it has PIE in the title.]     My friend loaned it to me.      I appreciate the cover; relevant to the story and such a pretty green.

It’s good.   I enjoyed it.   It’s a mystery – crime thriller.    It’s smart*.     Characters are terrific.     I really loved that the author is 70+ years old and this is his first novel.   It won an award for debut mystery books (the Crimewriter’s Association Debut Dagger Award).     That’s just cool.   Congratulations Mr. Bradley!

This satisfies the FOOD category of the What’s in a Name 3 Challenge.

RATING:  Three Pie Slices – of Custard Pie.     if you like coconut:   Amazing Coconut Custard Pie Post

Please, if you want to read other blogger thoughts, click on a few of these links:    Fyrefly’s Books – includes a great paragraph discussing YA merits, Lesley’s Book Nook, Bending Bookshelf, Shelflove, Book-A-Rama, Save Ophelia, Necromancy Never Pays,  and the link to Fyrefly’s Master Search…

*   A BIG Thank you to Wordlily for word definitions – I needed to prep/study….   HERE and HERE.

Honestly, I dislike series books and will not likely read the next one which happens to be out very soon: The Weed That Stings the Hangman’s Bag.  Perhaps I’m not in such a plot-driven mood?   I’m missing Virginia Woolf but don’t have anything in house;  however, I have found solace in the book I just picked up Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy.    It’s quite lovely.

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Copyright © 2010. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Wordless Wednesday

Copley the Lobster in the IKEA Cafeteria

Photo taken by Dawn of She Is Too Fond of Books

Typhoid Mary

Thoughts   Typhoid Mary by Anthony Bourdain,  Bloomsbury 2001, 144 pages

MOTIVATION:    I can’t remember when I saw this title and knew I wanted to read it but it has been haunting my tbr for awhile now.   Recently, it popped up available on my Amazon Wishlist from no longer being “out of print.”    I purchased.

I read this for the NY Challenge because the setting is NYC and Long Island and for the Women Unbound Challenge.

FIRST SENTENCE:

“It was August 27, 1906, when at the rented summer home of Charles Henry Warren and family in Oyster Bay, Long Island, the Warrens’ youngest daughter became ill with what was diagnosed as typhoid fever.”

WHAT’s IT ABOUT:    Bourdain takes a look at the notorious Typhoid Mary and how she could know or not know she was a carrier of a dangerous illness and still continued to work as a cook.

WHAT’s GOOD:    I actually hear Bourdain’s voice in my head as I’m reading and this is ok.    I like that he approached this project with a focus of how he might relate to Ms. Mary Mallon and her career as a cook.    This is the enjoyable aspect of the book.

WHAT’s NOT so GOOD:    Not that I have checked the facts, but others have complained that this was dismally inadequate in the research.   The World’s Fair mentioned as being in the wrong year/city, etc.    SO, it might be a little akin to relying too trustingly on a Wiki article.    I realize and appreciate the sticklers for accuracy, but I didn’t let it get me down.      Could it be classified as Pop-History?

JUSTIFICATION for the WOMEN UNBOUND Challenge:    Bourdain gives us some background into immigration at the time Mary would have come to America.   He also explores what was called then ‘the NEW Woman’ and how Irish Women, specifically those that entered the service professions, were particularly keen on independence and making their own way — surviving and thriving.

We are introduced to Dr. Josephine Baker – a pioneer in medicine/public health for her day and gender.   Dr. Baker is actually the person who first brought Mary in to test whether or not she was a typhoid germ carrier.    This ‘bringing in’ was not an easy task and gives the reader the best insight into the long fight to keep Mary out of the kitchen.

The power structure of the Health Department was such that NYC was able to incarcerate Mary for years without official charge nor jury.   Bourdain has an entire chapter speculating on Mary’s skills and also guesses her motivations and thoughts – little survives on her background but newspapers of the day sensationalized her story.     She seemed to have a knack for employment;  her ability to find jobs which must have meant that she was likely a very capable  cook – especially considering the craziness of high society menus that were being served to impress.

If you like Bourdain, you might like this short foray into the life of an interesting woman and the times she lived.   Does he defend Mary and her actions?    No, but he is sympathetic to her plight.    If you are a stickler for thoroughness and objectivity, skip it.

RATING:   Three slices of pie.    (with NO scoops of ice cream!   Ice cream is likely to be the food you’d eat and thus catch this deadly disease if Mary worked in your kitchen…)

Other REVIEWS:

Age 30+ has a short, informative and personal review.

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Copyright © 2010. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Anyone interested in the Oscars?

I’m just going to ramble here.    Happy Monday!

First, I’m excited to note that I will be meeting Dawn of Too Fond of Books today for coffee, cinnamon rolls and lingonberries at the Boston area IKEA.   Copley will be in attendance, as well.  Expect photos.

Second,  I have an idea and not sure how to introduce it but maybe bold-on is best…

Anyone interested in playing Twitter Oscar Bingo with me?

I got the idea for the Bingo part from a blog that a friend in KCMO emailed me about and since I don’t have any IRL friends who would likely want to come to my house to watch the big show, I wondered if any of my TWIT friends would want to play.     The origin of the Bingo idea is credited to Jess, the creative genius at How About Orange and the post where she offers up Bingo cards is from last Friday.   <— click on that line to learn more.

MY IDEA is this:   the first 1o people who want to play shall leave me a comment here [and then an email so I can have your snail mail address] and I will send out the cards (actually 8×11 piece of regular copy paper…) and then we agree to twitter our shout outs during the Academy Awards on March 7th.

Whaddya think?  

I can probably have a prize of chocolate cranberries since I live in the cranberry capital of the world.   (I know it’s debatable but so what. Wiki says so…)

I just think it might be fun to sort-of kind-of watch the Oscars with somebody since I’m sure the Hub will toddle off to bed to watch Food Network while I stay late to watch the whole darn thing on the big screen.

Third – I will be the one who gets to recommend a book for the April Book Club and I want to read a book that has had a movie adapted so I’m gathering a list.   Anyone know of something good that will be rentable by April?    I already know that I want to have choices of Up in the Air and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee story (anyone SEEN that one?)   and maybe Children of Men by PD James.   Perhaps Inkheart?…

Fourth, books!   I received a few books in the mail this past week.

Typhoid Mary by Anthony Bourdain (finished it yesterday!)

Chow Hounds by Ernie Ward, DVM

Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk

and

Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (not in time for photo)

SO,

If you want to play Twitter Oscar Bingo – let me know!   Only the first 10…

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Copyright © 2010. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Paper Towns

Thoughts   Paper Towns by John Green, Dutton Books 2008, 305 pages

MOTIVATION for READING:    I finally read this for the last year’s Dewey Challenge (along with Looking For Alaska (my spoiler-full review here) and The Abundance of Katherines (not yet read but I do own and am looking forward to it) but didn’t get to it until now.    A big thank you to Nancy the Bookfool for sending me this.

[updated:   I forgot!   This qualifies for Bart's Bookshelf's Twenty Ten Challenge!   woo hoo.]

WHAT’s it ABOUT:     High school senior boy who is not of the ‘in’ crowd has crush on girl-next-door, who of course is in the ‘in’ crowd.   They had been friends when they were primary school age, but — their last adventure together was long ago.     Then, three weeks before graduation, she taps him for a middle of the night escapade and the next day, she’s gone!.    (wait – is that a spoiler?    oh well.)   The rest of the story is how our boy attempts to find her or at least discover WHO she is.

WHAT’s GOOD:     Oh, what fun reading a John Green book can be!    I enjoy the style, the humor, and the lovable smart geeky characters.   I love that the kids break the rules yet still respect their parents (most of the kids, anyway).    I love reading what the kids are studying (Ovid, Moby Dick, calculus, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass…).   I am impressed with Green’s masterful re-creation of the high school scene.   And setting!    Green is also very clever about pulling in interesting facts and creating ‘place.’     I loved how simple the concept of ‘paper towns’ was used as a rather complicated theme.

WHAT’s NOT so GOOD:    I both loved and not quite so loved how similar this book was too Looking for Alaska. (see paragraph above.)    but still, I’m giving this 4 pies to LfA’s 5 pie rating.    Only a case of sophomoric letdown?    If I had read this first and then LfA, would I still like Alaska better?   Don’t know and can never know, I’m feared.

FINAL THOUGHTS:   I do think Green is a helluva writer and am looking forward to TAoK.   I hear it has some mathematics in it — OOOOooooooo, I love the maths.

RATING:   4 pie.

.

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Copyright © 2010. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Blogger Convention

I’m very excited to announce that I will be attending the Book Blogger Conference in NYC the day after Book Expo America, which happens to be in May.

AND, that I have found a book set in NY that entitles me to accept  the challenge sponsored by FizzyThoughts:   Typhoid Mary by Anthony Bourdain.

TEN THINGS I LOVE ABT NY/C

10.   NYC is  a fascinating city.

9.  NYC is where I spent a fun day with my friend JL – who is an excellent tour guide, btw.

8.  NYC is where the Book Blogger Conference is.

7.   I’m going to the BBC in May.

6.    I’ve run out of things.   I didn’t spend enough time on my one half day in NYC to know or remember or list anything else…

5.    It was a bit of a whirlwind day.

4.  We had great weather, what with it being December.

3.  Nice December in NYC during Christmas was very nice.

2.    The Charmin Bathroom was hilarious.

1.  I enjoyed it enough to know I need to go back.

So now, the to-do list creating and crossing-off to get ready for a return visit to NYC may now commence:

1.   Re-order blog-cards that show more branding (which means the PIE, yes?  but that means I have to draw a new one because the pixels aren’t right and I can’t get the file I do have to upload to the card making company…, so consider that step 1a.)

2.  Buy train tix – I’m thinking of hitting town around noon on Thursday – anyone else going to be at Penn Station about that time?

3.  Figure out non-wrinkly packable attire for this thing.   Ugh, what shoes!?   I need new shoes.

4.   Decide if I want to take my good camera or light simple easy one?

5.  Remember to turn texting on with my cellphone carrier otherwise, I expect the phone bill to exceed the hotel bill!      Have phone numbers already stored and ready.

6.  Visit other attendees blogs.    Meet my roomies online before I have to share a small space with them!!!      Too late – I’m committed and they will just have to put up with me.  (actually, I’m a great roomie:  cheerful, respectful, easy-going and I won’t hog the bathroom.)

7.  Prepare a blog post for my time away that reflects well on me.    (why does this one make me laugh?    any suggestions?!)

OOOOOoooooo!! I’m getting very excited for this.

Benny & Shrimp

Thoughts   Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti/translated by Sarah Death, Penguin Books 2009 (originally pub’d in Swedish 1998), 209 pages

MOTIVATION for READING:   I purchased this book.   The Bookies – my In-Real-Life book club – chose this for February discussion.

FIRST SENTENCEs:

Who stands up for the dead?
Looks after their rights,
listens to their problems,
and waters their potted plants?

You’ll have to be on your guard!

WHAT it’s ABOUT:   Two lonely people meet and despite their contrasts in lifestyle, they begin a relationship.   Benny, age 37, is a farmer working so hard to keep his family business afloat after his parents deaths and Shrimp (real name Desirée) is a recently widowed librarian with a more modern style;   they first meet in a cemetery, on the bench near the graves they visit.   It is obvious from the start – just by looking at grave marker styles that these two will clash.   But fall in love they do and it’s a fun ride.

It’s a story of give and take.

WHAT’s GOOD:    I enjoyed the change of pace and style and humor from the recent books I’ve read – very refreshing and charming.    I finished the book (and wrote this review) on the most fitting of days – Valentine’s Day!   It’s a love story.

WHAT’s NOT so GOOD:   This certainly is not the kind of book that demands attempts at analysis (Virginia Woolf?) but it was comforting from the first few pages to realize that Mazetti will keep the tension going, the humor sparkling, the love building.      Because this is a translated book (and will assume translated well*), I did have to confront a few cultural references – and actually I’m very glad to do so and enjoy such pushes to learn about other places.   I looked up the recipes and a bunch of stuff for this review:   What is ‘ling’?  (some kind of cod dish that is traditional Holiday fare.)   Could I find the Swedish Princess Cookbook?!  nope – sad;    who is Niki de Saint Phalle?  (she’s actually French)  Can I locate a painting by Carl Larsson?

This reminds me almost of Norman Rockwell but the Arts & Crafts movement Larsson is associated with would be more reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright, perhaps?

Shrimp’s idea of what the inside of Benny’s house SHOULD be like.  p.81:   

What about poetry by Gunnar Ekelöf?    What blurbs I did find say he is Sweden’s first surrealist poet.    The little bit from the book, p. 142:

“The natural world replete with love and death around me…”

When I was struck by  the universal theme of Give & Take, I was enthusiastically grabbed by the idea and could see it in all the relationships in the book.    I felt so proud of myself and was too quick to imagine myself dazzling my Bookie friends with my insight.   HA!    Even Mazetti states this in the words of the nutty coworker, page 102:

She had no friends.  ”I’ve never been interested in making any,”  she said matter-of-factly.  ”It only leads to all that tiresome give and take.  You never have any freedom.”

Oh, I am having too much fun** with this…    I made a poem from the mood suggesting qualities from just one paragraph – does it work?  or was it heavy-handed?   [From page 100.]

Listless, dragged.
Hat pulled down / hands thrust deep
Climbed cautiously, came trudgingly, jumped nervously;
Put down / stood there.    Tense.

I found this image from googling "typical Swedish farmhouse"

And what happened to the cemetery beginning?   do we go back to it!?     Yes, but that would introduce a spoiler…     But that warning at the beginning should have been a better warning to me.

[Honest Revelation...   I wrote most of this post before I was done with the book and it didn't end like I expected it to.   I was afraid I would have to totally rewrite this!   but revisiting it 24 hours after the 'scene of the crime', I am glad to admit that it's OK, this post is fine.    But boy-oh-boy, was I thrown for a loop!      Now that I've had time to think it through, it's just fine...]

I really enjoyed writing this post. I am looking forward to discussing this with the gals. One more question or observation: Despite thinking at one point that once again, the heroine has the brilliant but a bit messed-up sidekick buddy (Märta  was cool), I doubt anyone would attempt to make a movie of this only because ‘they’ would cast actors TOO PRETTY and it would just miss on that account alone.  I just know they would mess it up.   Could I be wrong?  tell me if I’m right…   Surely this international bestseller would fall flat on the big screen, do you agree?

RATING:   4 PIES;  I enjoyed this one.  Do they make lingonberry pie?    Why, yes.  Yes, they do:  

* Except that Shrimp takes Benny’s truck back into town but they keep calling it a car thereafter.    I’m from the midwest – you do NOT confuse a truck with a car.  Ever.

** I should have known better.

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Copyright © 2010. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Weekly Geeks 2010-6 ROMANCE

This week’s geek is all about the romance!    ♥ Click this line for the official Site for Weekly Geek 1020-6: Romancing the Tome.

♥ ♥

I could easily reference the book am currently reading but since I still have a few pages to go (and my review is already half written!)  I’ll save that for later this week – maybe tomorrow.

Rather, let’s look at the prompts, shall we?   And bounce them against my recent reading experiences.

• What literary couple is your favorite?
• How do you define romantic literature? Does it always involve sex? or the hint of sex?
• What author/s do you think writes romantic scenes particularly well?
• Do you have a favorite romantic scene in a book?
• Do you find you read romantic literature at certain times of the year?
• Tell us your favorite romantic quote.
• Do you have some favorite romantic poetry?

Literary couples…. I have a page that lists all the books I’ve read since 2007;  I see that I don’t make a habit of reading romancy books.    I just finished The Princess Bride, so I could bring up Wesley and Buttercup as a literary couple.    And Benny & Shrimp – from my current book of same title.     But the majority of the (wide variety of?) books I read are not the usual boy and girl (or boy or unearthly creature or…) meet and fall in love stories.

But what about Mrs. Dalloway – almost a love triangle in that one what with Mrs. D thinking about the passion she decided was too scary and chose safety and security instead.     We could really tear into the marriage of Mr. & Mrs. Ramsey in To the Lighthouse - I do think they loved each other very much.      As You Wish was a teenage romance, I guess, but it didn’t captivate me.    But the one in The Vintner’s Luck sure did!    the featured couple in this was a vintner and his angel.   Yes, a real ‘with wings’ immortal angel.     There’s that unearthly creature.    Actually, As You Wish was between a girl and an wish-granting genie. And one of the most famous literary couples make an appearance in Pride & Prejudice & Zombies!!!  more unearthly  (nonhuman) creatures once they got bit.  HAHHAHAHHAA!

You have to go all the way back to August last year – I read 3 books in a row that could be dumped into some kind of romance category.  Forced maybe.   Yep, REALLY forced.     But, I’m already bored with this so I assume you are, too.     Looking back, I do see a few books that featured marriages that fell apart but this isn’t a post on divorce.   I’ll move on.

How do I define romantic literature? and does it have any s-e-x?     Hmmmmmm.  The sex stuff in a book usually doesn’t bother me.    Some of the interactions in Benny & Shrimp are actually laugh out loud funny.     It was only inferred in My Sweet Charlie – oh but wait a minute.   Would we describe Marlene and Charlie as a couple?   or did they only become friends? Truthfully (and sadly), I don’t think the hero and heroine in this one every made it to that stage in the relationship – I’ll just ruin it for you and say this book ends tragically.    Or does it?   Perhaps the love and understanding here would be able to live on and actually change the world.      And I’m way off track.

THAT helps me clarify my thoughts on romance and love in a book.    I want to read about ♥ heart-to-heart ♥ connections and transformation.     It all depends on the mood I am in how that connecting needs to be described.   It’s been a long time for me to read that kind of book (doh).

The rest of the prompts… I can’t answer the rest of these, so this looks like a good place to wrap it up.

♥♥♥  Happy Valentines Day!  ♥♥♥

.

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Copyright © 2010. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Preview: Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72

Preview   Fear and Loathing:  On the Campaign Trail ’72 by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Grand Central Publishing First Paperback Printing 1983 (originally published 1973), 508 pages

Part 1: Kim’s Exploration of the New Journalism Movement.

The following should be considered Part 2.

I am reading this for my John Cusack Reading Challenge (and Kim is reading for the Sophisticated-Dorkiness-Quest to be a well-informed reader/writer/critic of journalism.)

Where I am in the process so far:        Kim and I have not formally set a time table but I’m already on page 129.     I was already starting to jot down a plethora of notes and questions that I thought it might be a good idea to study up on who the main players are and get a grasp of what the political climate was when Mr. Thompson decided to write this book.     To say I started blind, is not an exaggeration.    I was in First Grade in the Fall of 1971 (Kim wasn’t even born, if I assume correctly based on where she is on the educational-path.)     Only a few names are recognizable and I wouldn’t attempt to win any guessing games if pressed for more details.    This is my attempt to give myself a better pre-understanding;  to ‘set the stage’ not only for myself but for Kim and anyone who wasn’t around for the 1972 American Presidential Election.   If you don’t care, believe me – I won’t be offended if you skip this post and wait for something more fun!

But fun, it is – I am most happy to report that the reading is zooming along quite speedily, despite not really knowing who is who and all the times I have to stop and write down a question.

WHO/WHAT – Kim does a great job explaining who Thompson is and why he wrote this, so start there.  I won’t repeat it.

but I will expound a bit:     Thompson wrote on the campaigns of Nixon and the hopeful Democratic challengers for Rolling Stone Magazine and these articles were combined to create this book.    It is chaptered by time, usually by  month, but some months are broken up.   It covers his reasons for joining the various campaign trails, through primary states, the convention, the election and after.      For everything that follows, I referenced Wikipedia almost exclusively – which is to mean that it can’t be trusted?   I don’t intend to go into depth; bear with me.

HISTORICAL EVENTS

1963-68:   When President Kennedy was shot and killed in 1963, Lyndon B Johnson assumed the office of US President.    He then won the 1964 Election and served to 1968.    He chose not to run for another term due to turmoil within the Democratic party and the escalating Vietnam War.

June 1968:  Robert Kennedy assassinated.   He possibly would have been the leading Democratic candidate for the US Presidency in the 1968 elections.

1968:  Republican Richard Nixon wins the Election;   Hubert Humphrey (Lyndon’s VP and a Senator from Minnesota) was the Democratic candidate.   George Wallace, Alabama Governor, ran as an Independent.

1972:  Election – Nixon wins second term (to read abt the whole thing, click this line); George McGovern (Senator from South Dakota) was the Democratic candidate.

BIG PLAYERS
NIXON, Richard  - Republican.   US President seeking re-election in 1972.    Click here for more on his terms of service posted at the Nixon Library website.

The Dems:
MUSKIE, Edmund – Democrat, Governor and Senator from Maine, candidate for president 1972 – a frontrunner for the nom in August 1971.
McGOVERN, Geo. – When front-runner Muskie didn’t show as hot as expected in the NH primary, McGovern was the next big choice.      He ran on a platform of withdrawing from the Vietnam War.
HUMPHREY, Hubert – Ran in 1968 but just couldn’t pull in enough support to win the 72 Democratic National Convention.
WALLACE, Geo – won 42% of the vote in the Florida Primary, but….   Went back to being Gov.
McCARTHY, Eugene – Challenged Johnson back in 1968 for the Democratic nom which resulted in Johnson bowing out but Robt Kennedy had most support and then he was killed but somehow Humphrey got the nom.     I think.   The sequence and timing of that is off but so shows the political whims of popularity in politics!    (Do not confuse with Joseph who was extremely anti-communist and died in 1957 – different guy)
CHISHOLM, Shirley – NY Congresswoman – First major-party black candidate for the presidency.

OTHERs?
Clifford Irving? – an author who wrote a ‘fake’ autobiography of Howard Hughes
Tons and tons of names that I don’t even know if should follow-up on…   So I won’t.

MY JOTTED DOWN NOTES & Qs

“I feel like I’m reading a Vanity Fair article – tons of references I suppose I should know and the author assumes I do.  But all very playful, sarcastic and somewhat snobbish.”

Most of my scratchings request clarification of the above who and when stuff.   But Thompson does like to use the term ‘waterheads’ which I am unfamiliar with.   It is similar to ‘knucklehead’;  so I get it…

“Objective journalism is a pompous contradiction in terms.”

p. 48

We are in for a wild ride.   I intend to enjoy it and not get too upset with what I don’t know.   But if it strikes me, I will jot down notes and collect them here – or will if they continue to interest me at that time I finish the book.

AND, for your musical enjoyment, I thought it might be fun to find a hit song from 1972 – I thought I would see a few more political ones but perhaps they weren’t pop or HIT enough to claim the billboard top spots, so I choose this:  LEAN ON ME.

I have a memory where I met the songwriter of this song at a Lutheran Youth Convention;  I would have been in High School.  HOWEVER, the research is telling me that Bill Withers authored and performed this and yet, I recall the guy saying he was a Kindergarten teacher!   I can’t verify this…

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Copyright © 2010. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.