Immagine dell'autore.
5+ opere 135 membri 4 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Comprende il nome: David Kipen

Fonte dell'immagine: By David Kipen - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30785767

Opere di David Kipen

Opere correlate

Il dialogo dei cani (1969)alcune edizioni134 copie
Los Angeles: A Guide to the City and its Environs (1941) — Introduzione, alcune edizioni105 copie
My California: Journeys By Great Writers (2004) — Collaboratore — 56 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Sesso
male
Nazionalità
USA

Utenti

Recensioni

This is a book I’ve been waiting my whole life for. A book I would’ve wanted to assemble myself if I had the time and motivation. Nothing would make me happier than pouring over diaries and journals every day, highlighting particular entries that caught my interest and showing them to others in hopes that they, too, would find them funny or sad or just…interesting. David Kipen did just that.

It doesn’t matter if you’re not madly in love with Los Angeles like we are. You can still enjoy this book. There are plenty of entries by people who couldn’t find anything good to say about L.A.

Kipen said he got the idea for his book from Teresa Carpenter’s [b:New York Diaries: 1609 to 2009|13129522|New York Diaries 1609 to 2009|Teresa Carpenter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1333578858l/13129522._SX50_.jpg|18305616]. So see? It doesn’t matter that I’ve never even been to New York. I want to read it because I like history, biographies, journals, diaries, letters, and reading blogs (LOL). You can enjoy reading Dear Los Angeles for the same reasons.

Do you like disappearing down rabbit holes? Ohmygosh, I sure do!!! Books like Dear Los Angeles lead me down lots of rabbit holes. Take this entry for example:

June 2, 1930 - The Zep [pelin] goes home tonight, with Lady Drummond Hay, Karl von Wiegand--all the same passengers they always have. They ought to change the cast on that thing. People will get the idea that it can't haul anybody else. -- Will Rogers

(Hmm...will we be saying the same thing about billionaire space vehicles like Unity, New Shepard, and Dragon?)

Anyway, I know what the Zeppelin was, but younger people today might not so there’s an additional rabbit hole for them to go down. I also know who Will Rogers was because I’m interested in Hollywood history and I’ve hiked on what used to be his ranch. LOL

My rabbit hole was finding out who Lady Drummond-Hay and Karl von Wiegand were. (British Journalist and Senior correspondent respectfully)

I also like books like Dear Los Angeles for their various quotes and words of wisdom, like one from award-winning author/playwright, William Saroyan in 1936 who says that if you want to be a good writer, you must take a brisk walk to the Pacific Ocean every morning. If only we could, Bill, if only we could.

In the back of the book are two very handy features. An index to the pages where you can find each person’s diary entries and an “About the Contributors” section so if you’re wondering who the heck somebody is, you can look there and find out.
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Jinjer | 2 altre recensioni | Aug 12, 2022 |
This book has an unusual layout: there is an entry for every day of the year, but the *year* the entry is from varies from 1542 through 2018. The entries are chosen from letters and diaries. Each one is a statement about life in Los Angeles at the time. Some are from Catholic brethren who are bringing religion to the west. Some are from politicians. Some are from famous writers drawn to LA to write scripts for Hollywood. The samples may be from Gold Rush days, the Golden Age of Hollywood, the Depression, or recent days.

I have seen quite a few complaints about the format, but I really liked it. I might be bored with a time in history or with a specific writer’s work, but given a piece only a few pages long, I will read it, and learn something. I also found it very interesting to see opinions not meant for public consumption, but for only the writer’s closest friends or relatives. What I thought would have made the book better was pictures. The last 150 years –the era from which the majority of entries are from- have been documented by photography, and that would have brought things to life more. Four stars for a quick, fun read.
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lauriebrown54 | 2 altre recensioni | Nov 20, 2018 |
I received an early version of the book via NetGalley.

Kipen approached the history and development of Los Angeles in an intriguing, unique way: day by day. The book is essentially arranged like a daily devotional, with each day containing diary entries written about or in Los Angeles anywhere from 1542 and 2018. At first, I found this non-chronological approach to a big jolt. The entries, most of them a few sentences or a paragraph or two, can jump from 19th-century soldiers describing their ride to the Menendez Brothers trial to a 1930s Santa Monica beach party. After a while, though, I fell into a groove. Many of the authors have entries across the year, and I found it fun to follow along with the lives.

Here's an example of the diversity:

- "People in LA are deathly afraid of gluten. I swear to god, you could rob a liquor store in this city with a bagel."
- Ryan Reynolds (2017)

- "Last Saturday I was driving through the mountains near Los Angeles and through orange groves. The groves are now in blossom and the odor is almost sickening it is so strong. You can usually smell a grove about a mile before you get to it."
- Valerie Belletti (1925)

- "I went today to visit an old Spaniard from Spain who had some American papers, also some books from whom I learned a little more of the Spanish language."
- Henry Standage (1847)

Most of the entries are quite G-rated, though there's one author, Theodore Dreiser, whose regular entries are a catalog of his sexual escapades with his wife. They were so different from the others that they tended to take me aback. Still, they do add to an overall view of Los Angeles and its denizens.

This is a fairly long book that took me several weeks to get through. Because of the nature of the entries, it doesn't lend itself well to sitting and reading for hours straight. This is a good book to read in little spurts--or go through it like a devotional. If you have any interest in Los Angeles, this is a fantastic book that does a beautiful job of showing how the city has developed over the centuries.
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ladycato | 2 altre recensioni | Nov 1, 2018 |
Interesting book but Kipen didn't go far enough. I thought that this book would be more comprehensive about writers and their contributions. I would have preferred more about how writers are important and the famous lines that make the movies memorable. Kipen, just started then just decides to let someone else do the heavy lifting and go deeper in the subject it is his idea, sad
 
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foof2you | Sep 5, 2016 |

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