altlovesbooks
Good but not great/5 stars. I'm a huge fan of the microhistory genre, and I felt like this particular take on the history of the American road trip was way too broad/meandering. I loved the bits about the actual road trip, the history of, what things sprung up alongside the roads as a result of what changes, those parts were really interesting. I also learned Betty Ford was a CB user, who used the handle 'First Mama". Kinda love that.
What didn't work for me as much were the other tangents, the ones only peripherally related to road trips. For instance, while I enjoy video games and arcades, the history of arcade cabinets in hotels was kind of out of place. There's several rabbit holes that, while interesting in their own right, don't seem to quite fit here. Another thing that you will either like or not is that the author uses his own experiences as a kid on road trips with his family as segues into the various topics. While the (sometimes lengthy) anecdotes are funny, it sort of lent this microhistory a bit of a memoir feel, when all I wanted was to get back to the history topics.
So, again, good but not great. Nice little audiobook, but I probably won't revisit it.
Good but not great/5 stars. I'm a huge fan of the microhistory genre, and I felt like this particular take on the history of the American road trip was way too broad/meandering. I loved the bits about the actual road trip, the history of, what things sprung up alongside the roads as a result of what changes, those parts were really interesting. I also learned Betty Ford was a CB user, who used the handle 'First Mama". Kinda love that.
What didn't work for me as much were the other tangents, the ones only peripherally related to road trips. For instance, while I enjoy video games and arcades, the history of arcade cabinets in hotels was kind of out of place. There's several rabbit holes that, while interesting in their own right, don't seem to quite fit here. Another thing that you will either like or not is that the author uses his own experiences as a kid on road trips with his family as segues into the various topics. While the (sometimes lengthy) anecdotes are funny, it sort of lent this microhistory a bit of a memoir feel, when all I wanted was to get back to the history topics.
So, again, good but not great. Nice little audiobook, but I probably won't revisit it.