Books That Journalists Should Read, Absolutely

Slouching Towards Bethlehem  by Joan Didion

This book is on the list of books recommended by members of the CMA listserv as a book that all journalists should read, and I would agree.

I’ve read some of Joan Didion’s most recent books, including the previously reviewed The Year of Magical Thinking, but this is the first one of Didion’s early books that I’ve read. This book is a compilation of essays Didion wrote, mostly about 1960s California.

For those who were children, or rather teens and young adults of the 1960s, this book will remind them of life during the days of drugs, alcohol, rock ‘n roll and free love. Since I don’t really remember those days, this collection of essays gave me another view of the counterculture movement, but what this really gave me was an indication of the lyrical writing style that Didion developed.

While her latest books display a fully developed writer undertaking some of the most difficult subjects anyone has to deal with such as death, dying and the grief process, this book shows Didion in the early stages of her craft but with talent to spare.

Didion’s use of language and style to display tone and mood are superior. Her finely tuned reporting ability gives you the feeling that you are there with her as she interviews Joan Baez, John Wayne and “average” people with the hopes of getting to the heart of life in 1960s America.

This collection gives a great perspective on the history of the United States and the history of a great writer and reporter. Didion shows a keen eye for detail, facts and lyrical voice, providing some of the best narrative writing you will ever read.

A must read for journalists—I’d say absolutely. Unlike the crazy antics and writing of Hunter Thompson, who also wrote about this time period, Joan Didion provides facts and truth, describing the world as it exists and dissecting its meaning, something that all journalism students would be advised to learn.

Up next, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

Books Journalists Should Read, Definitely No, Unless You're a Hunter Thompson Fan

The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson

Disclaimer: I have not watched the movie The Rum Diary starring Johnny Depp.

Instead, I read this book because it was on the list…yes the list of books compiled by members of the College Media Advisers listserv. The list that all journalists should read.

In this case, I’d have to disagree. While The Rum Diary is entertaining, and Hunter S. Thompson is a talented writer, this isn’t a must-read book for all journalists. This book is a loving and longing reflection on a time that was the height of romantic journalism—lots of drinking, hamburgers for breakfast, lunch and dinner, easy, beautiful women who fall for journalists, and party, party, party on the beach. Who wouldn’t want to lovingly remember such a lifestyle? Unfortunately, the glamorized world of Paul Kemp is more Earnest Hemingway than reality. Too bad, because it’s wildly entertaining.

Thompson does work in some gems of writing throughout The Rum Diary. Like this bit on writers:

“Most people who deal in words don’t have much faith in them and I am no exception—especially the big ones like Happy and Love and Honest and Strong. They are too elusive and far too relative when you compare them to sharp, mean little words like Punk and Cheap and Phony. I feel at home with these, because they’re scrawny and easy to pin, but the big ones are tough and it takes either a priest or a fool to use them with any confidence.”

Cuts right to the quick doesn’t it.?

Much of The Rum Diary gives some similar cheap shots at luck, friendship, Puerto Rican media, Puerto Rican police, journalists and flacks. Allusions to famous films, gangsters and lazy natives abound in this thin novel, with ascerbic commentary and booze-filled nights.

If you’re a journalist’s journalist, Thompson provides all of the cynicism and worldly pleasures expected, including a shot of rum with a get-out-of-jail chaser. That’s probably the charm associated with The Rum Diary, and probably one of the reasons that anything by Hunter S. Thompson was included on this list. Some more discerning listers specified Thompson’s Fear and Loathing books. I’ll be reading those next.