Product Description
Featuring contributions by Dave Barry, Calvin Trillin, Allen Ginsberg, David Halberstam, Jim Harrison, Jack Kerouac, Joyce Carol Oates, S.J. Perelman, Hunter S. Thompson, and a wealth of others, this book comprises a riotous anthology that fully explores the American love affair with the automobile.Amazon.com Review
An anthology of road trip writing, Lindamood's collectionincludes well-known writers like Dave Barry, Calvin Trillen, S. J. Perelman,and ErnestHemingway, plus 30 more, all rambling, philosophizing, riffing andnarrating on the American pasttime of driving. From Hunter Thompson'sdesert drag race ravings to AllenGinsberg's non-driver's plaint about pollution and the end of theworld, you get to see the ongoing automotive love affair through theeyes of writers who know the road. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

not sufficiently focused on USA car culture
I was expecting this to be a collection of articles about the American experience of the automobile:how the industry grew, specific cars that made an impact on the culture, specific people who contributed to the advancement of technology, and well written articles by people who grew up loving cars.Unfortunately, almost none of the articles fit the bill.Many articles deal with South American and European drivers, cars, and history.There are few articles that deal with American car culture. I ended up not reading most of the articles till the end (they were all less than 20 pages long) simply because I had lost interest.The best things about this book are the title and the preface, both written by the editor, who should have written the entire book herself.

Enlightening, Entertaining and Candid
If you are of an autombile mind, then "Road Trips..." is a great book to read while in the coffee shop, waiting for the drawbridge to come down, or just to fill time.It is a collection of short stories from various authors, making it a collage of driving cultural tidbits that inform and entertain.The hardcover edition is nostalgical, appealing--a beautiful, classical cover with natural, thick pages--that made me want to head down to Route 66 from beginning to end, and hit every diner in between.I'm glad to be a part of the American Culture, and especially the driving culuture, as peoples past could not have imagined--nor enjoyed--the thrill at travelling at a mile a minute as easily as putting on your clothes."Road Trips..." is a journey in itself, and I dare not spoil the trip for you.Lindamood did a fantastic editing job by keeping her hands out of the mix unless necessary; she let the writer do the talking.Great reading for all minds over 15 (language).Makes a great gift for the driver in your life.

Road Trips Rocks
This book is a well compiled anthology of porbably the best Automotive writings anywhere.Try it! Also...if you like this you should read her monthly column in Automobile Magazine. ... Read more

Product Description
Outrageous and funny as ever, O'Rourke examines sundry aspects of Western civilization in 21 collected essays. 5 cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

No Matter Your Politics, This Book Will Have You Belly Laughing
This book is a collection of tongue-in-cheek political essays and satires.No one does this quite as good as P. J. O'Rourke except for the late Molly Ivins.

"When I was nineteen, I embarked on the obligatory collegiate flirtation with Marxism and announced it loudly to everyone.Once, when I was home at Christmas, my grandmother took me aside."Pat", she said, "I've been worrying about you. You're not turning into a democrat, are you?"
"Grandma", I said. "Democrats and Republicans are both fascist pigs. LBJ is slaughtering helpless Vietcong and causing riots in America's inner cities and oppressing workers and ripping off the masses.I'm not a democrat!I'm a Maoist!"
"Just so long as you're not a democrat", said my grandmother". (p. x1v)

His essay, 'An Intellectual Experiment', is wonderful.He compares information gleaned from reading an issue of the New York Review of Books to an evening watching network television.It had me in stitches.His conclusions were:

"Whether smart is worse than stupid or vice versa is an important question.Smart means neo-expressionist paintings, which are awful.But stupid means music videos which are pretty awful, too.Ignorance is stupid, but education causes college students.Logic is smart, but Marxism is logical.Smart people don't start many fights.But stupid people don't build many hydrogen bombs. Then again, smart people would never drop one.Or would they?" (p.14-15)

I loved his essays on 'Hollywood Etiquette' and 'The Pick-up Truck".I devour his books.No matter what party line you succumb to, O'Rourke will have you belly laughing.

Sharp but Dated
P.J. O'Rourke is what a Republican used to be about--the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.Small government and small industry.Trusting people to take care of themselves without a hovering nanny looking after them.This book serves as a position piece for a party that has been hijacked by forces alien to its foundation.And it's pretty damned funny besides.

It's dated, though.Written a good twenty years ago, it addresses such issues as poverty in Marcos's Philippenes and a constitutional crisis in the Turks and Caicos islands.This isn't exactly front-page material any longer.We get an overview of O'Rourke's beliefs and the source of them, but one wonders what you'd get out of them today.

Sadly, the author isn't as eloquent anymore, nor is he as politically inclusive.He's lapsed into a sad neo-conservative agenda that seems almost antithetical to the contents of this book.But at least, between these covers, we still have the writings of a man who boldly said what he meant and meant what he said.And I'll bet he'll sell you on it too.

Good collection of pieces
So far, I've had the pleasure of being an O'Rourke reader for this one and Parliament of Whores (more will no doubt follow). Republican Party Reptile isn't as good if you appreciate PJ for the way he does a detailed analysis which is still funny and controversial - as Parliament was a very organised, topical book. This one is a bit too much of a random knapsack for that.

That still makes it a great book as his pieces will drive home his views on drugs, politics, cars, drugs, international relations, teenaged girls, crime and fast cars. My favourites were Ship of Fools (a bunch of lefties and peaceniks cruise the Volga in the USSR during the Cold War, PJ is with them), Ferrari Refutes Decline of the West (PJ and boss get to deliver a Ferrari from NY to LA over several days of high speed cross country), Holiwood Etiquette (a great take on the neurosis etc) and How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink (self explanatory I trust!)

So if you want to acquaint yourself with an earlier, more personal PJ, this book is good.

A Great Set of Humorous Essays
P. J. O'Rourke is an incredibly funny writer and incisive commentator on the contemporart scene.This collection of essays, while from a libertarian point of view, should be found enjoyable by all readers.In this book he skewers the Safety Nazis, pro-Soviet visitors to the USSR, the New York Review of Books, horrible Protestant hats, cocaine pirates, and other odd ducks in flight.P.J. O'Rourke is one of the funniest writers around, and I also recommend his PARLIAMENT OF WHORES and GIVE WAR A CHANCE.

Good essays
Most of the essays in this book are as funny and informative as most of O'Rourke's other works, and unlike "American Spectator's Enemies List", the book is well worth the cover price. ... Read more

Product Description
"I wanted to know why some parts of the Earth prosper and others suck", writes P.J. O'Rourke, to explain his two-year round-the-world sojourn in search of the bottom line. In this book, he samples good capitalism on Wall Street and bad capitalism in Albania, with stopovers from Hong Kong to Moscow. ... Read more

Product Description
"Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations" was first published in 1776 and almost instantly it was recognized as fundamental to an understanding of economics. It was also recognized as being really long and as P. J. O'Rourke points out, to understand The Wealth of Nations, the cornerstone of free-market thinking and a book that shapes the world to this day, you also need to peruse Smith's earlier doorstopper, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments". But now you don't have to read either, because P. J. has done it for you. In this hilarious work, P. J. shows us why Smith is still relevant, why what seems obvious now was once revolutionary, and how the division of labour, freedom of trade and pursuit of self-interest espoused by Smith are not only vital to the welfare of mankind, they're funny too. He goes on to establish that far from being an avatar of capitalism, Smith was actually a moralist of liberty. As P.J. says, 'It's as if Smith, having proved that we can all have more money, then went on to prove that money doesn't buy happiness. And it doesn't. It rents it.' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Crude Cut
In its racier days of the 1970's, National Lampoon's was able to publish musings which would draw tremendous public outcry today.Given the opportunity to review some of the toilet humor of this era of National Lampoon's, one should not pass up the opportunity.While some of the selections were a bit too weird for my taste, "Another Dirty Book" is still an amusing read.

The first selection is titled "Obligatory Sex Scenes" in which classic works of literature are updated for modern audiences with character appropriate raunchy sex scenes."What Evey Girl Should Know" is the birds and the bees talk as given by boys with an agenda.It may be the highlight of the collection.Another selection for which I will withhold the title seems a parody of Kafka's metamorphisis.In this selection, an adolescent girl awakens to a new set of equipment.The story is named for the new "equipment".

Some of the stories just seemed to be more off-color than funny.At times, I think the goal was to shock more than entertain.Still, the collection of short stories has entertainment value. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

the kernel of truth makes this corn worth popping
I purchased a copy of this book when it was first published and laughed myself silly over and over again...what makes it so funny?It perfectly captures the absurdity of yearbooks of an era long gone by: group class pictures taken at such a distance as to render the faces tiny specks with names like "Lotta Zits"; pictures of teachers in their classroom situations: the shop teacher smiling widely at the camera next to a student whose face wears a very surprised look because lower down in the picture his fingers have been separated from his hand by the band saw they are ignoring while the picture is taken! The fun goes on and on--a description of the class trip to D.C. wherein the author takes every opportunity to use the adjectives and adverbs based on the school's mascot the kangaroo. And who could forget the mottoes accompanying the Senior Pictures:the leering face of the school "bad girl" over the phrase "I guess I missed that period!"I haven't seen this book since I loaned it to a friend in the early 1980's yet the material is fresh in my mind. Please, please bring the book back into print so that we fans can share it with a new generation.

All Time Comedy Sensation
I've had at least a half-dozen copies of this Yearbook over the years and they've all been swiped.Thankfully, it looks like we'll soon have it in print again!

This is easily one of the funniest books I've ever seen in my life.Meticulously fashioned after a real yearbook (right down to the ads and classmate autographs), the National Lampoon yearbook is a comic masterpiece to be enjoyed over and over again.
I'd read that it was so successful that Hollywood wanted to make a film of it, but the Lampoon humor was a little risque for a high school setting.So they moved it to a college setting and that's how we got ANIMAL HOUSE.
Fans of ANIMAL HOUSE will spot familiar names in the yearbook: Larry Kroger, Coach Vernon Wormer, etc.

I can't wait until I get another copy--and I'm hanging on to this one!
Definitely CHECK THIS OUT!

The funniest thing I've ever read!
If you have any knowledge of the sixties then this book will have you crying and your sides will ache from all of the laughter. I have shown my old copy to a half dozen people and everyone of them had the same reaction. You can read this book for weeks and still discover something new each time.

BACK IN PRINT
This book will be republished in fall 2003 with an addendum - where are they now? I can't wait...

Please Reprint!
Will the world listen to the plea of thousands and reprint this masterpiece of 60's parody!!!I cannot face the future without seeing Ms. Armbruster one more time!Also, I need to see the Dacron, Ohio newspaper parody too!Please, dear lord, to see the joy in my teenage children's eyes as they read these wonders for the first time would hearten my soul forever!!! ... Read more

Product Description
A satirical guide to how to behave in today's complex world of shifting values and social uncertainties, by the author of "Republican Party Reptile: The Confessions, Adventures, Essays (and Other) Outrages of P.J.O'Rourke". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Help for the Rest of Us
Appropriate dress and which type of wine to drink with chicken is something that baffles those of us who aren't privy to actually having somewhere to go that we need to be dressed appropriately for.I found thisbook extremely enjoyable for a fun read that doesn't require too muchthought.I especially enjoyed the sections on "The HorribleWedding" and "Travel Etiquette".It is possible to jumparound the book and read at your lesiure which makes it an ideal book toread while waiting in lines or driving.Maybe Modern Manners II willtackle that subject. ... Read more