[Boomer]

I have a real thing for Carl Hiaasen.

When his books hit, I throw all caution to the wind. To hell with the library's hold list. I don't do hold where Carl is concerned. I rush to the bookstore where I grab the brand new hardback, even before it reaches the bestseller list. I fling a piece of my retirement money at the clerk and I run home, as fast as I can, clutching Carl to my heaving bosom. And once I am back home, I just vant to be alone until I have read every word.

The new one is here. The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return To A Ruinous Sport.

It's Hiaasen on golf. He gave the game up for 32 years. He's back.

If you are having an affair of any kind (love, love-hate, just plain hate) with the game of golf, this book will make you laugh out loud. That's what I have been doing.

I have been a fan of Hiaasen's fiction for years. Stormy Weather is the first one I read and it's still my favorite. It's about a Florida hurricane. That's the book where I first met Skink, the wonderfully insane, sweet savage ex-governor of Florida.

But back to the new one. It is nonfiction. And I have to do a disclaimer here. Hiaasen gets a little political, for a page or two, here and there. :yikes: Just close your eyes for that part if you need to.

And he talks about TV. Yes, indeed he does. Remember the book is about golf. Hiaasen is awful at the game, so he says. So about TV, he writes...Only briefly do I try to imagine what it would be like to spend my final days on earth among 100,000 aging but feisty golf fanatics. Where in Dante's elaborate infrastructure of Hell would such a place fit?...

Hiaasen goes on to write...The Villages is surely the place to be if your dream is to drop dead in your FootJoys...

It seems that those commercials on the Golf Channel gave Hiaasen the same impression that they gave so many of us who are not good at golf or who do not golf at all.

If you want to read what else he says about TV, but you don't want to buy the book and the library list is long already, you could go to the bookstore and just read page 24 and the top of page 25.

So there's my review. Such as it is.

I know that I have, here on TOTV, in posts past, confessed my love for Charles Kuralt and for Judd Hirsch, but only as Alex on Taxi. But I have to tell you true. There is another. Carl. That man can turn a phrase.

Boomer

[REDCART]

But can he turn a phrase as well as Village Kahunna?

I'vr read Hiaasen'w Strip Tease, which of course had nothing to do with that fine art.

[Boomer]

Oh gr,

Now, you have made me laugh out loud, too. --turned a few phrases of your own, something tells me.

--about your one choice from my main man Hiaasen's work -- Strip Tease, huh. You were not judging a book by its cover were you?

Boomer

btw, Does anybody know anything about Tim Dorsey? His new book is Atomic Lobster. My daughter told me about him today. She said he is close to Hiaasen in writing style and that he also writes about Florida. I just looked him up. -- looks promising.

To me Hiaasen's fiction is Florida meets Fargo.

[graciegirl]

OH BOOM. It is 5:00 A.M. and I am gonna drive over to Barnes and Noble in my nightie and wait until it opens to get that book.

The only vice that is still alive and well in my aging soul is my lust for literature. I am a thrifty person (some call me tight) and the only place I could max out my credit card is at the book store.

You are aiding and abetting my awful habit.

But I still think YOU turn a phrase as well as Laura Pulfer if not better at times.

This is one Villager who has not golfed since he was a teen. >


I will have to check out pages 24 and 25 as you said though. Just because those are really cool numbers. :joke:

The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return To A Ruinous Sport http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/bo...=1&oref=slogin

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

OH BOOM. It is 5:00 A.M. and I am gonna drive over to Barnes and Noble in my nightie and wait until it opens to get that book.

The only vice that is still alive and well in my aging soul is my lust for literature. I am a thrifty person (some call me tight) and the only place I could max out my credit card is at the book store.

gg,

I know exactly what you mean. A bookstore is my crack house.

Boomer

[Boomer]

Tal,

I just clicked on your link to the NYT interview with Hiaasen about his new book and I read it all. Thank you for the connection.

and about those two pages --

I realize that, in the span of things, not a lot people read what I wrote.

But even so, I am glad that nobody knows who I am. My goodness. I might have to worry all day.

What if some angry bookstore manager came after me because people were coming in and just reading pages 24 and 25? -- and spilling coffee all over those two pages. OH NO!

Come to think of it though, maybe that B&N there in TV should just bookmark those two pages about TV in one copy and put it out in their coffee shop. Might sell a few books or at least some coffee.

Oh well, I do so digress. Digress I do so do.

Anyway, thanks again, Tal. I loved the article.

Boomer

I do that a lot in bookstores. Just read pages around 24 and 25 or some combination of the above as well as thumb through some books looking for those numbers. I do buy books too on occasion.

The trick it seems is to get something you are going to purchase and have it in your hands while you go browsing.

Check out page 485 of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

[Irish Rover]

Thanks for the tip Boomer. I'm also a big Hiaasen fan and have read just about everything he's written. If you like mystery with a Florida setting, try some of Randy Wayne White's stuff. Ex navy seal/spook posing as a marine biologist. There won't be any literature prizes sent his way, but the books a filled with memorable characters and they are entertaining. OK, I'm off to buy Downhill Lie.
Thanks again

[Boomer]

Tal,

I also read in bookstores all the time. -- for a couple of reasons. If it's a new author to me, I need to know that I like their style before I buy the book. And I also need to make sure the font is friendly to my aging boomer eyes.

And they really don't mind readers among 'em. They know most readers will buy.

I took a side job in a bookstore once. I thought the employee discount, 40% in those days, could support my habit. Hah! I ended up owing the bookstore money at the end of the week.

The only worse fate I could meet in a side job would be to work in a really, really good ice cream store.

I observe human nature when I am in bookstores. Bookstores are meetmarkets, too. It's fun to watch the dance that goes on throughout the rows and rows of shelves. And I have noticed that in the really big bookstores, the courtship rituals are influenced by the book interests according to the sections.

And I intended to log out an hour ago and get out of here for now. And then I started to digress. But I will stop -- for now.

To those who might be reading here, be careful at the bookstore -- or not.

Boomer

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by Irish Rover

Thanks for the tip Boomer. I'm also a big Hiaasen fan and have read just about everything he's written. If you like mystery with a Florida setting, try some of Randy Wayne White's stuff. Ex navy seal/spook posing as a marine biologist. There won't be any literature prizes sent his way, but the books a filled with memorable characters and they are entertaining. OK, I'm off to buy Downhill Lie.
Thanks again

IR,

Thanks for the rec. Sounds like my kind of book.

-- about those literature prizes...

Prizes? Prizes? Dun need no steenkin' prizes.

Boomer

:edit: Re. the edit: I just became obsessed with trying to fix my accent. It's not workin' for me today. I gotta get out of here. I may be descending into madness. -- once more.

Originally Posted by Boomer BeBack

IR,

Thanks for the rec. Sounds like my kind of book.

-- about those literature prizes...

Prizes? Prizes? Dun need no steenkin' prizes.

Boomer

:edit: Re. the edit: I just became obsessed with trying to fix my accent. It's not workin' for me today. I gotta get out of here. I may be descending into madness. -- once more.

I often think I am descending into madness. :joke:

[cabo35]

More really funny golf books by Rick Riley who for many years wrote for Sports Illustrated. A book critic declared his works average three laughs per page. His golf books:

Shanks for Nothing

Missing Links

Who's your Caddy

[Boomer]

cabo, three laughs per page -- sounds like good stuff. And I really like the titles.

Hiaasen refers to other writers within this book. His good friend David Feherty has a big part. Hiaasen says Feherty's column for Golf Magazine is "refreshingly blunt and occasionally raunchy." He also mentions Feherty's novel A Nasty Bit of Rough as being hilarious.

Feherty got the honor of doing the back cover blurb. Hiaasen may owe him though. Feherty invited him to tag along at the Bridgestone Invitational where they watched Tiger play up close.

One of the things I found funniest in the book was all the stuff that Hiaasen was desperately buying from infomercials that promised to improve his game. I wonder if any golfers in TV are wearing something called a Q-Link.

When it comes to my own game, all I can do is laugh. There is no hope whatsoever.

Boomer

[beady]

Haissen is my newly found favorite author:

Boomer, I just loved Stormy Weather and Skink is one of my favorite characters.

Do not play golf so I am not sure I would get the humor in the new book. But I know someone who loves Haissen and play's golf ,so he's getting "The Downhill Lie" for his birthday.

Thanks for the review.