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    Better than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie
    Better than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie
    Better than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie
    Audiobook7 hours

    Better than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie

    Written by Hunter S. Thompson

    Narrated by Scott Sowers

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Since his 1972 trailblazing opus, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, Hunter S. Thompson has reported the election story in his truly inimitable, just-short-of-libel style. In Better than Sex, Thompson hits the dusty trail again—without leaving home—yet manages to deliver a mind-bending view of the 1992
    presidential campaign—in all of its horror, sacrifice, lust, and dubious glory. Complete with faxes sent to and received by candidate Clinton's top aides, and 100 percent pure gonzo screeds on Richard Nixon, George Bush, and Oliver North, here is the most true-blue campaign tell-all ever penned by man or beast.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 12, 2012
    ISBN9781470327736
    Better than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie
    Author

    Hunter S. Thompson

    Hunter S. Thompson was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. His books include Hell’s Angels, Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72, The Rum Diary, and Better than Sex. He died in February 2005.

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    Reviews for Better than Sex

    3.5/5

    182 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A later entry in the gonzo oeuvre of Hunter S. Thompson and while there are some funny (and scathing) lines and images, he seems to have lost his mojo somewhat. Better Than Sex starts in the wake of the 1992 US Presidential election which saw Clinton win the Presidency and Thompson remembers the 1972 Presidential election when a certain young Bill Clinton apparently did a horrific job organising the Democrat electoral strategy in the Texas precincts he was in charge of.Thompson's writings meander around a few topics and never loses an opportunity to kick Nixon, although he seemed to think Bush/Cheney was far worse.
    • 3/5
      This is Hunter Thompson's coverage of the 1992 U.S. Presidential campaign and elections, with some flashbacks to his own 1970 campaign for Sheriff of Aspen County in Colorado.As usual, he jumps right in as a participant as well as a reporter, so nothing he writes is even remotely unbiased, an lots of probably fictionalized incidents. In this case, he brings a group of Rolling Stone editors to Little Rock to meet with Bill Clinton and from there on refers to Clinton's campaign as "we" including himself and continually gives them advice on how to beat Bush.The book is filled with written narrative, including many tangents into other subjects, plus lots of pages of faxes sent back and forth between him and his editors and him and Clinton's campaign.Between the middle and the end he contradicts himself, as to whether the Republicans will stop at nothing for Bush to win and later that the Republican leaders threw the election, since the economy was bad and times were bad and they wanted a Democrat in the White House for four years to take the blame so they could come back stronger in 1996.Some things he wrote were certainly dated, knowing now how the 1996 and 2000 elections turned out, and knowing Clinton's later scandal in the Oval Office, although Thompson practically predicted that...At the end is a late addition to the book, Thompson's vicious, nasty obituary of Richard Nixon, who died after he finished the book.Overall it's entertaining, almost like being in the campaign, but not nearly as good as his 60's and 70's work, including his campaign classic "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 1972".The last page of the book is a fake newspaper clipping "Dr. Hunter Thompson announced to a cheering crowd of editors, brokers and elite political professionals in Chicago today that 'politics is not better than sex'".
    • 5/5
      “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”The title of this book refers to the author’s addiction to politics, and this time around he’s deep into the 1992 presidential election. George H.W, Ross Perot, and of course, Bill Clinton. He skewers all of them, and continues his strong hatred of Nixon, which is ironic of sorts, because Nixon is dead by the end of this book, and Hunter has this, amongst other things, to say about the former president, "Nixon will be remembered as a classic case of a smart man shitting in his own nest. But he also shit in our nests, and that was the crime that history will burn on his memory like a brand. By disgracing and degrading the presidency of the United States, by fleeing the White House like a diseased cur, Richard Nixon broke the heart of the American Dream."Thompson also says this about “... the “Regan Revolution,” which ushered in eight years of berserk looting of the federal treasury and the economic crippling of the middle class.” “That was the feeding frenzy of the New Rich,...” Man, I wish Hunter was around now in the disastourous era of Trump. He'd be amazing, and a much needed voice on insanity in this horrible time of U.S. history. A president worse that Nixon? Boy, would HST have a field day!Interestingly, I read the first 200 pages of this book while the “Race for the White House” documentary on CNN was on the large screen television in the lobby of the DoubleTree Hotel in Rohnert Park. Many of the faces mentioned on these pages flashed on the big screen as I read. It was weird. And right. Dang Hunter, I wish you were here right now. We still needed you.“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”Ye gods.
    • 4/5
      Went back to the well of HST. It's Clinton time again and HST did Bill back in the last century with this book. HST would have been with Trump this time around, both of them spouting and mouthing off.

      I have aged (maybe HST as well, now that he is long dead in Colorado) And can only take him in small doses. It took a month to read the book. Probably took him a week to write it, the week spread out between drinks and drugs and guns. But it gives an inside view to the damage done to all by letting assholes run the world and journalism too.
    • 5/5
      The Basics

      A non-fiction (well mostly) account of the 1992 presidential election. With emphasis on Thompson’s perspective.

      My Thoughts

      I’m not a politically-minded person. I know no one likes to hear that, and I don’t like saying it, but I’ve never really understood having an obsession with politics. Even Thompson, in this book, bemoans the fact that it’s an addiction he’d like to kick. Really it’s because it’s depressing, and I think Thompson got to the root of another reason why politics doesn’t sit well with me: the illusion of control. In so many words, he says that, and I realize that’s some paranoid fodder right there, especially when you take the fact that Hunter said it into account. But it feels true to me.

      That’s why this book appealed to me. A big part of it anyway. Because I feel like it got to the root of why the subject kind of unnerves me. Also, it was hilarious and very readable. And even the portions where you find yourself asking, “could it have really happened that way?”, and then answer yourself with, “probably not”, it’s so entertaining. Maybe Clinton didn’t howl like a mad beast right before shoving his face into a basket of fries like a starving dog. It still creates a mental image I’ll never unsee, and that’s very funny to me.

      It’s full of faxes and letters he sent to politicians and celebrities and friends that are all exactly what you’d expect from him. I giggled a lot. If you want a 100% accurate portrait of events as they transpired at that time, read a history book. If you want Thompson’s unique stamp (and if you have a fun bone in your body, you do), then read this.

      Final Rating

      5/5
    • 3/5
      The 1992 Presidential Election, through the inimitable Thompson haze. And Bill Clinton, Governor of Arkansas won a plurality of the popular vote, and a big Electoral College advantage. He was the first successful Democratic candidate since Jimmy Carter. Ross Perrot, a very rich man got nearly 19% of the popular vote after an eccentric campaign, taking off for two weeks in the middle. The incumbent, George Bush I was a heavy favourite at the start of the race. Hunter was the man for covering this contest.
    • 1/5
      Whats better than sex then Hunter? UM POLITICS.No it isn't politics is boring.OH YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT Did you just think up a good title and not a good book?WELL I SUPPOSE BUT ITS NOT LIKE I CAN GO ON AND ON TALKING ABOUT DRUGS ALL THE TIME, I AM A PROPER JOURNALIST YOU KNOW, AND THERE ARE SOME FUNNY BITS IN THERE, TOO.Yeah I liked the Bill Clinton bit.YEAH I THOUGHT I WAS WEIRD.