Comments: lynne - 2004-08-05 09:23:41 Haha. I have been having those "What would Laura Ingalls think of..." thoughts ever since I first read those books. I actually think that I am perfectly suited for this time. It is a lot easier being a single woman living alone in this day and age than it ever has been. But that doesnt mean that living a more simple life wouldnt be good for me. I am not ready to give up TV but I am getting rid of cable and will just watch DVD's from now on. Maybe I'll use the extra time to re-read Walden. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-08-05 09:29:15 I recently found out that in addition to Walden he wrote Wild Fruits and Faith in a Seed, two collections of natural history writings that I have to keep an eye out for. * * * * * * * * * * * * Vince Prygoski - 2004-08-05 10:33:02 For me it is not exactly "born in the wrong century" but rather "born a bit too late for the era I am very into." That era being the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the hippie counterculture and left of center politics were so prominent. I don't know how many times people have told me I'm stuck in the sixties or something like that, when I mention the latest Dead concert I've been to or the Richard Brautigan book I just read for the hundredth time. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-08-05 10:34:55 Trout Fishing in America! I love those books--have them all! * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-08-05 10:36:45 I can't think of anyone writing anything even remotely like Trout et al these days. * * * * * * * * * * * * Vince Prygoski - 2004-08-05 10:40:09 I am reading In Watermelon Sugar again right now. Kerouac's On the Road is another book I have read so many times I have lost track. Also Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, about the antics of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters! * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-08-05 10:45:25 I reread Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the nth time a couple of months ago--and actually, Electric Kool Aid Acid Test too, late last year--I always enjoy Wolfe (wasn't this his first book)? Like you Vince I also feel a lot of nostalgia for this time period although I only experienced a sliver of it as a tad. * * * * * * * * * * * * Vince Prygoski - 2004-08-05 15:33:07 I think Electric Kool Aid was Wolfe's first book. He does a great job capturing the essence of the times he writes about, another example being Bonfire of the Vanities which really depicts the 1980s yuppies quite well. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-08-05 15:42:31 I loved the shrewd Bonfire and reread it every few years. His latest novel, A Man in Full, didn't have the same pull for me--it is so massive and fairly overwhelming...I got a bit lost in the sheer volume of detail, and it just didn't seem to cohere as well as Bonfire did. Maybe I should try to forge through Man again. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-08-05 16:09:36 and, yes, Wolfe certainly gives an unblinking look at that time period in Kool Aid I think it's pretty balanced--he obviously loves a crazy outlaw like Kesey and delights in the nutty rebelliousness of the Pranksters but sure doesn't shy away from the underside of some of those scenes. It's really a gripping book all in all. * * * * * * * * * * * * add your comment: your name: your email: your url: back to the entry - Diaryland