Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride

” I would feel really trapped in this life if I didn’t know I could commit suicide at any time” – Hunter S Thompson

I have been an avid reader all of my life and many times I have turned people on to the writing of Dr Hunter S Thompson, when  people ask me What “Fear and Loathing in Las vegas” is about or what kind of books did Hunter S Thompson write I am reminded of  a line from a Jimmy Buffett song “Don’t try to describe the ocean if you’ve never seen it”  It works both ways too how would you describe Hunter S Thompson to someone who has never read him?

His writing is just one of those things that simply defies description, you have to read it and even then you either get it or you don’t.

I would say the documentary on his life “Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride”  describes him perfectly.  If you knew Hunter or were a reader there is nothing in this documentary you don’t already know, but if you were new to Hunter and were curious about the man this documentary does the damn near impossible it describes him perfectly.

To call Thompson a literary genius is selling him short, he was also intensely moral and was a brilliant social observer. Few people in history have single handedly created a genre of writing, Thompson did.

Every generation should read it, study it, because there is so much more to it than meets the eye, it gets into your head and it influences you.  Only three books have ever done that for me, the Bible, Atlas Shrugged and Fear and Loathing.

Watch the doc, but better yet pick up Fear and Loathing, or Campaign Trail,  or his most daring: “Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs”

And go from there.