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

[liz_marcs]

Heeeee!

See the title? What author wrote it? Can you tell me what book it came from?

I bet I'll be able to count the number of people on one hand who'll be able to answer either one of those questions.

(Hint: It's from the same book where this quote appears, "We can't stop here. This is bat country!")

I can't tell you how many local indie books stores I tore apart looking for books by this author over the past two weeks. He's all but disappeared off the shelves, even though they're starting to reissue his books in high-quality, hardback bound versions.

[Oddly enough, going to big-box bookstores is actually inconvenient for me because I'd have to go out of my way to get to them.]

Finally, I gave up and have turned to Amazon. I've received the first installment on my order in the form of two hardbound books, one of this lent me the title of this post. *cackles* I can't wait to crack the spine.

You know how in college some people memorized On the Road? Or American Psycho? Or Slaugherhouse Five?

I memorized several books by this author, including the book that lent me the title of this post (it's the first line in the book, in fact).

However, I don't have too many works by this author anymore. Why? Because every time I lend of his books out, I never get them back. I've lost so many due to "borrowing" that I'm down to two of his later (and lesser) works.

I am in the midst of rectifying it even as we speak....

*eyes special edition hardcover of a certain, heavily illustrated book about Hawaii*

Day-um. I think I'm gonna have to ask someone to buy me that for my birthday or Christmas.

And I am never, ever, ever lending books out by this author again. Unless the borrowee signs a promissory note. In blood.

Wheeeeee! I am so excitedly happy. Now I have to resist opening up either one of my books while I'm still at work.

Comments

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

My attorney tells me it is "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" - x Raoul Duke.

Now I'll read the rest of the post...

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Hunter S Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

(Using the icon with another cranky old guy who wrote for Rolling Stone once in a while).

My "Never get them back" list? Ken Kesey, Tony Hillerman, John McPhee... I've never bought any HST- I read all his stuff in the original periodicals, usually.

Julia, those were the good old days, man

[butterflykiki.livejournal.com]

*cackles* Hunter S. Thompson, Gonzo journalist, inspiration for Duke!

I really do have to see "Fear and Loathing" with Johnny Depp sometime soon.

[redbeardjim.livejournal.com]

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

[dreamerjules.livejournal.com]

Haven't read the rest of the post yet, but had to answer the questions.

Hunter S. Thompson. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

I have read the book, seen it adapted on stage in Chicago and seen the Bill Murray verison called Where the Buffalo Roam, but not the verison with Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro. Actually, I got the book at an airport swap desk after seeing the play.

Good choice.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Yay!

To this day his description of Circus, Circus keeeeels me. I can re-read it for hours.

Sadly, I didn't get Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 in time for the election. (Also waiting for: my replacement copy of The Great Shark Hunt and...a special treat...Screwjack.

But I did get Hell's Angels as well as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas today, too.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Technically I had to Google, because I was having a total mental block, but I was like, "That book with Las Vegas in the title! I totally know this!" I imbibed familiarity with that quote from my dad at some point -- though I've never cracked open the book myself. (I wrote BtVS fic (http://bigdirty.livejournal.com/8888.html) in which Oz references that line.)

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Before my time for reading the originals in RS, I'm afraid.

What's really hilarious is that Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas were both required reading in the Boston University journalism degree program. For serious.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

When I hitchedhiked across the USA, I was reading Hunter Thompson - a collection called "The Great Shark Hunt", I think (it was twenty five years ago!).

I read On the Road when I got back.

Hunter Thompson is sorely missed!

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I tried watching "Where the Buffalo Roam" once, and I couldn't do it. I love, love, love, LOVE the book.

I was too afraid to go see the Johnny Depp version. I heard it's good, but my unholy love for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas makes me leery.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I met Kesey when I was a kid - his family stayed with mine for a few days when he was over in the UK publicising "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test".

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I will have to post my traditional Hunter S. Thompson quote tomorrow (I do it on every major election day). It's from Hey, Rube which I think is his last published work (or at last one of his last works).

The Great Shark Hunt is one of the books I'm replacing.

I am soooooo asking for the "Curse of Lono" for my b-day though. There's this gorgeous addition with all of Ralth Steadman's color-plate work that's almost $40. Want. Want. Want.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

This makes me happy. A lot of people know where this is from.

It makes me very, very sad that the indie book stores all looked at me like I was nuts (or asked "Who?") when I was hunting for Hunter.

[harmfulguy.livejournal.com]

I suspect you've vastly underestimated the portion of your readership familiar with HST's magnum opus.

There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge...

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

My love of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (as well as Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72) knows no bounds. None. Among my favorite books, right here.

Wait...there's a stage version of the book? *boggles* I can't even imagine that...

Then again, I didn't like the Bill Murray movie, and I'm too afraid to see the Depp version...despite my equally unholy love for Benicio del Toro

[bellatemple]

I'm on that hand, honey, before I even finished reading the subject line.

Though admittedly, I did spend a moment thinking it was from Camper Van Beethoven.

"Remember," she says, "I'm holding you responsible for all of this."

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Yes...I suspect I have. *grins*

This makes me feel better, though. I can't tell you how many blank stares I got when I was haunting the local indie book shops over the past few weeks trying to find Thompson's oevre.

It was very, very disheartening...

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm not crazy!

*does happy dance*

Have I mentioned my Thompson hunt has been very discouraging in the meatspace book stores? For surely it has.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

At least you knew where it was from. And that the book existed.

There are indie book stores where they'll give you a blank look if you ask for this book. The only one where I didn't get a blank look was an indie book store in Newton, and even then they didn't carry Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

[soundingsea.livejournal.com]

Wait, there are people who didn't devour Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? Are we sure they aren't mythical?

[butterflykiki.livejournal.com]

Heeee. I really need to read that one, it's been ages and ages since I read any of his stuff. And maybe pick up a best of Doonesbury collection too, just to see Uncle Duke in action.

[bellatemple]

Which is funny, 'cause I used to see his stuff everywhere.

I've had some of the same trouble hunting down Ginsberg and his contemporaries, of all things. Then again, I'm possibly one of the only ones of my generation actively trying to hunt down non-Kerouac Beat-lit for fun. And I despair at how many of my peers blink absently at me when I bring up PKD.

[starbuck-a-dale.livejournal.com]

LOL it's blatanty Hunter S Thompson from 'Fear and loathing in Las Vegas'

[hilleviw.livejournal.com]

If it's any comfort, remember that Depp and Thompson became very close friends over the making of that film, and that Thompson himself was delighted with it. (Bearing in mind he had a perverse enough sense of humor that he might have loved it for dreadfulness.)

[hilleviw.livejournal.com]

Come to Northern California, sweetie. I will take you to City Lights. You will browse happily ever after.