Hunter S. Thompson defines everything good about journalism, despite extreme subjectivity, rampant decadence and pure mania. There's strange power in words, how Hunter seems more trustworthy than any other piece of longform work out there. The last writer who had this impact on me was David Foster Wallace, due to how his extreme maximalism and constant introspection created the illusion that he was right there talking in your face. Well, while David Foster Wallace manifests himself as that philo...

A little tedious. I think I've overdosed on Thompson. I thought some of his usual outrageousness was out of place and read like he was trying to hard to be crazy. A few good essays. I especially liked the one on Jean Claude Killy.

This is one for the fans only. Rambling essays on topics no one could possibly care about now. And Nixon, Nixon, Nixon. We get it Thompson, he was your nemesis. I got to about page 250 and couldn't take any more. His style may have been revolutionary and new in the 60s and 70s but now it's just irritating, and unnecessarily long-winded. The tangents he goes off on! Mentions of stories but no actual story. And more than anything, it was just tedious. Yawn.

Gets bogged down with minutiae at points, but then this is where we often find some of HST's keener insights re: sports, politics, and everything else, after all the bullshit has been laboriously shoveled, scraped, and swept away. Quite a lot to wade through, but if you're anything like me, you'd probably rather hear it from a drug-addled maniac with no claim to objectivity than some shill for the New York Times.HST was a remarkable thinker and writer, not only for pioneering a whole new form of...

I stayed away from Thompson for a while, due to an impression I'd developed in part from a comic book I read as a kid called Transmetropolitan (which featured an ostensibly Thompson-like protagonist) and in part from the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, that his writing was cartoonish, overly preoccupied with trying to be funny, and basically not serious. I would say there are a few pieces here that really do fit that description ("The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved", supposedly th...

THE GREAT SHARK HUNT: Gonzo Papers, Volume 1, Strange Tales from a Strange Time by Hunter S. ThompsonOne of the best. An absolute must for every American, let alone Thompson fan - or journalist for that matter. The following are a list of the articles from it that I have read, along with commentary and favorite quotes. ARTICLESThe Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and DepravedA Southern City with Northern ProblemsFear and Loathing at the Super BowlJacket Copy for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savag...

Oh, where is Thompson when you need him most? Would he ever have a field day with Trump's narcissism, Russian erosion of the Democratic process, people's publishing EVERY aspect of their lives on social media and THEN claiming intrusion, and the collective assault on "killing the messenger" when anyone tries to take stock of the situation in any meaningful manner. Seig Heil. With all of that in mind, I was recommending to my two sons (21 and 18) that they get their heads around Thompsons's insig...

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” This collection of HST articles from the 1960s and 70s primarily focused on politics and sports, but it also touched on damn near every topic imaginable, including—thank god!—some of his hilarious (mis)adventures with outrageous amounts of highly illegal substances. While it contained quite a few intelligent insights and arguments, the real joy of reading this lunatic—at least for me—is to take a ride on his incomparably weird and manic wavele

Readers who only know of Hunter S. Thompson from his acid-washed hunt for the American Dream in one of this countries most deranged metropolitan wastes will find a different sort of Hunter here. Given the man's talent for spectacle, pomposity and grand acts of destruction, it's easy for people to forget that before he was a legend, Hunter S. Thompson was a talented and capable journalist- one of those rare souls who was perfectly able to capture the flavor of the 60s zeitgeist, both its rapturou...

"If I followed my better instincts right now, I would put this typewriter in the Volvo and drive to the home of the nearest politician -- any politician -- and hurl the goddamn machine through his front window ... flush the bugger out with an act of lunatic violence then soak him down with mace and run him naked down Main Street in Aspen with a bell around his neck and black lumps all over his body from the jolts of a high powered "Ball Buster" cattle prod.But old age has either mellowed me or b...

I came into reading this really long Thompson collection somewhat accidentally, but it shows that he is an extraordiary journalist with a convincing desire to pursue greater truths - an impression that really outshines the whimsical, drug-obsessed icon that he has been reduced to by the culture at large. Most of this book is about his experiences covering Richard Nixon and, given that we are at the height of another excessively arrogant conservative regime on the verge of self-destruction result...

It captures the zeitgeist of the USA during the Vietnam years as well as anything I can think of. As Gonzo journalism I am putting it on the literature rather than the non-fiction shelf which is contrary to the zeitgeist of the era when it appeared.The quality of the pieces is highly unequal. I found that "Fear and Loathing at the Kentucky Derby" was absolutely dreadful despite the fact that he used the same formula to brilliant effect in his book on a drug-soaked excursion to Las Vegas. His art...

A great collection of articles from one of, if not my favourite writer. Collating a swathe of work detailing twenty years of his career, The Great Shark Hunt offers some of the best Hunter S. Thompson articles to date. From The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved to excerpts from his time covering the rise and fall of Richard Nixon.We get a feel for his prose, his characteristics and his anecdotes, all of which are tremendous offerings of a drug-addled creative with venom in every word he ty...

This is the true Hunter S Thompson. Building his legend writing about whatever they throw at him and making it his own. It's easy to forget that despite his public persona, Thompson was a tremendous WRITER who could draw many emotions out of his readers. A personal favorite of mine and a book I never tire of.

This is a must-read collection of Thompson's work from his prime in the mid-60s through late 70s. It collects, as no other volume does, his writing about the Brown Power movement that his friend Oscar Acosta was part of, his trials and tribulations with Richard Nixon (outside of the campaign in '72 and including Watergate), and the various fragments, features, and figments that came together to be Gonzo journalism.Unlike Generation of Swine, Kingdom of Fear, Songs of the Doomed, and Hey Rube, th...

Behind the Fear and Loathing mystique, the drug addled, booze soaked, outlaw idolized by millions of stoned wannabe authors was an incredibly funny and gifted writer. This is one of those hefty tomes that you can dip into virtually anywhere and find something worthwhile. There is some brilliant stuff about the 1968 election, the political conventions, Richard Nixon, some solid international travel writing, and a particularly hilarious piece on a world class skier. Don’t do drugs kids, but someti...

"Oscar was one of God's own prototypes-- a high-powered mutant of some kind who was never even considered for mass production. He was too weird to live and too rare to die-- and as far as I'm concerned, that's just about all that needs to be said about him right now." -pg 515No matter what trip HST is on I thoroughly enjoy the experience of him taking me along. This frenzy was a pleasure to read & envisage regardless of what percentage mixture Gonzo to Degenerate we get. Many famous characters g...

A collection of Hunter's Best work that stands on its own. It includes excerpts from some of HST's longer works (Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, The Hell's Angels, etc.) and reprints of some of his incredible essays. Hunter Thompson's view of the world always contained a combination of moral outrage, amazement and sardonic humor but his eloquence and integrity made each essay a treasure. It seems strange to associate integrity with this writer considering his reputation but Thompson alw...

The STOP SMILING Downfall of American Publishing Issue dedicates 40 pages to an oral history of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, which includes interviews with collaborators and friends such as Ralph Steadman, Craig Vetter, wife Anita Thompson, PJ O'Rourke, and more. About the issue, Slate media critic Jack Shafer wrote, "Stop Smiling's oral history of Hunter S. Thompson bested Rolling Stone's similarly constructed special issue about the Doctor in every way.

There he goes!Some kind of high powered mutant, never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live and too rare to die. The life and times of Hunter S Thompson, a very powerful energy that transcended class, structure, logic, reality, sense, senselessness...This compilation is vast and diverse in content and structure of writing and thinking. You really get a sense of being part of the thought process in every statement and obscure tangent throughout these articles. Coined the term gon...