A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow: An American Hitchhiking Odyssey

by Tim Brookes

Book Overview

A noted cultural critic and NPR essayist offers a lively and provocative account of his hitchhiking odyssey across the United States, documenting his experiences along the way and reexamining... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0792276833
• ISBN13: 9780792276838
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Adventure Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.1" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining but did miss the spot at times

To summarise, an entertaining read over about 2 weeks worth of pre-sleep reading. As a fan of road-trip-esque books, I was looking forward to this jaunt around the country. Brooks has an entertaining style of writing that, for the most part, was clear and understandable. His research and fact-finding is a little ropey, naming Keystone, Wyoming as a chapter when in fact Keystone is in South Dakota for example.Sure he didn't exactl hitch all the way but give the guy credit, he sure did hitch a lot of the way. If you can get past the errors, you'll be left with an enjoyable read.

A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow

Very entertaining!! After 25 years of the same old same old, Tim Brookes decides to revisit his past, and hitch-hike across the country and back, the same way that he did in 1973 when he was just 20 years old. Some of the random encounters he has leaves one to wonder, are we really in control, or is there something out there that pulls people to each other. A great book all around!

Quite entertaining!

I brought this book with me on a long car trip and found it ideal reading, and very interesting and well-written. The author hitchhikes (mostly) across the U.S.A. after doing same some 20 years ago in his hippie days. He has some anxiety but finds his fears overblown. (Truthfully, this kind of book really, really, really makes one want to chuck everything, the house, the mate, the kids, the job, and just hit the open road. I mean this.) He meets kind and interesting people, too. I would compare this book to the writings of Bill Bryson, though without Bryson's humor. I only wish the book was longer!

Stick Your Thumb Out

Often the biggest risk facing summer travels is whether to pick up that lonely hitchhikcer standing on the side of the road. With so much fear built into the idea of hitchhicker, it is hard to believe that you can still make it across this country on with the help of others.