2/52: The Rum Diary & 3/52: Education of a Wandering Man

This is the second year that I've engaged in my resolution to read 52 books in 52 weeks...

2/52: The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson, 2/5 Stars
A Twitter friend of mine mentioned this author's name and I had to look him up because I didn't know his work. I was in search of Fear and Loathing, but it was checked out, so I opted for this one instead. Mixed reaction to the book itself. I admire the characters' in their ability to live life on nothing and follow the opportunity... which isn't so different from the life of a hobo, as L'Amour describes it in the following review. Yet, these journalists seem to be in search of a peace that they fail to find, perhaps because they can't quite figure out who they are. I found them just as lost at the end, if not more so, than the beginning, which frustrated me that they hadn't the ability to learn from their ways.

Paul Kemp, the protagonist says, “Most people who deal in words don’t have much faith in them and I am no exception—especially the big ones like Happy and Love and Honest and Strong. They are too elusive and far too relative when compare them to sharp, mean little words like Punk and Cheap and Phony. I feel at home with these because they’re scrawny and easy to pin, but the big ones are tough and it takes either a priest or a fool to use them with any confidence.”

3/52: Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour, 3/5 Stars
This book was added to my list because I recently read Into the Wild, which is the story of a man named Chris McCandless who left all of his worldly possessions to find internal peace in the life of a tramp, Alexander Supertramp, as a matter of fact. He mentioned this book as one of his inspirations. I enjoyed reading about Louis' life as a hobo, and how he took that knowledge and applied it to his eventual life as a writer. In fact, this process of tracking what I read is exactly what he did, except that he often read more than 100 books a year.

A quote of his, “It is important to remember that we are writing about people. Ideas are important only as they affect people. And we are writing about emotion. A few people reason, but all people feel.”

TURN OFF THE DAMN TV & READ MORE!

I'd like to welcome @karriespring, @shelliebeanie, @mh27825, and @sh3n3rd to the quest for 2010! If you'd like to follow our progress, please save this twitter hashtag search, #52bks52wks.

Book #03 = Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour, 3/5 Stars
Book #02 = The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson, 3/5 Stars
Book #01 = Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, 3/5 Stars

See last year's list of 53 books...