The Great Shark Hunt question

It is a compilation of articles, but not from the books you've read, so it'll all be new. Highly recommended.

It is a really good book, though a lot of it is just recycled bits and pieces of his other works. Personally it's not my favourite of Hunter's works, but i still thoroughly enjoyed it.

My favorite of his works. Its a thick book; an engrossing page-turner. Stuffed with all sorts of samples of his writing; covering a wide variety of his adventures and opinions. I feel he was really at his best in shorter works. "Hell's Angels" and "Campaign '72" were hindered a bit by the length they ran to.

'Shark' is memorable because the stories jump so wildly and rapidly from locale to locale.

You must own this book, it is a key element in every HST fan's collection. 'The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved' is one of my favorite HST writings.

It can be hard going if you're not fascinated by American politics of the 1970s.

I really liked this book for things like short car rides, or waiting at doctor's offices, etc.: the short articles give you a good taste of Thompson, but I agree with some of the statements above; i.e., it is not as strong as some of the stuff you mentioned having read already (though it better than Rum Diary, which was a thrown together work, at best).

At any rate, TGSH is classic Thompson when he was still writing instead of being a character in his own life. Well worth the read, just not the best.

when in doubt check it out

I think Great Shark Hunt is absolutely ESSENTIAL for HST fans! It has a huge amount of his best writing from his very best period, and also gives you some of his early work for context!

I was a little annoyed at how the stories were jumbled chronologically so I went back to the index and wrote the page numbers down and read it chronologically. haha

Read them all. Not one of them you will look back on and think 'that was a waste of time.'

Yes, it is a good read.