The Kitchen Readings: Untold Stories of Hunter S. Thompson

The Kitchen Readings: Untold Stories of Hunter S. Thompson
Publisher: Harper Perennial | ISBN: 006115928X | edition 2008 | PDF | 304 pages | 2.24 mb

Warning!*
This book contains the following:
Unsafe use of powerful firearms in combination with explosives
Cultivation of illegal crops
Impressionable minors being exposed to illicit activities
Piloting of automobiles under impaired conditions
Transporting large sums of cash across national borders
*Stunts performed in this book were undertaken by professionals. Do not attempt them at home.

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
According to the couple of old Woody Creek buddies of Hunter S. Thompson's (aka Doc) who compiled this ramshackle selection of anecdotes about the gonzo practitioner, the kitchen at Doc's was the favored place for conversation since the living room had devolved into a squalid, fetid, pigsty. Thompson's legend as a fire-breathing, vituperative hellion had spread far and wide—due in no small part to his own self-promotion of it—but many old-time residents of the Colorado mountain town where he holed up for several decades were fiercely protective of their resident hell-raiser. That attitude is clearly represented by this book's pair of authors, an artist and a sheriff, who relate numerous tales of paranoid and wanton destruction (often involving cocaine, firearms and too many glasses of Chivas) with the same indulgence one reserves for a dangerously eccentric relative. The book keeps the stargazing to a minimum and mostly presents Thompson the man—one who was fortunate he could write because he comes off here as pretty useless at day-to-day life. The authors recount everything from Thompson's invention of shotgun golf to the reason he needed all those peacocks around. While Cleverly and Braudis try to puncture the media myth of Thompson the Indestructible (on his aborted attempt at covering Vietnam, they sardonically note that he seemed to only like danger when he was the most dangerous person in the room), it's a gentle ribbing; we should all have friends as generous and forgiving as Thompson clearly did. (Feb.)
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Review
"A pleasant addition to Thompsoniana." -- Kirkus Reviews

"A tale of the smart, amusing and passionate soul behind the Gonzo mask....a must read." -- Loren Jenkins, Pulitzer Prize winning journlist and Senior Foreign Editor for National Public Radio

"Parlor gossip with a Gonzo twist. It’s an essential installment in the Hunter figure legend that continues to grow. -- Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and editor of the Hunter S. Thompson letters collections THE PROUD HIGHWAY and FEAR AND LOATHING IN AMERICA.

"This book is hilarious and heart-breaking and hard to put down." -- William McKeen, author of OUTLAW JOURNALIST and HIGHWAY 61

"This is the real Hunter S. Thompson. No friends knew him better than Cleverly and Braudis." -- Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of EINSTEIN: His Life and Universe