A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley by Neal ThompsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I remember reading the Ripley's Believe it or Not cartoons in the Sunday comics and being fascinated and amused by the exotic things he discovered around the world.
What I didn't know then was that he was a journalist, started out drawing baseball characters, and was even a semi-pro baseball player! He was also a self-centered, arrogant, womanizer. Though I don't think I would have thought highly of him if I knew him, the fascinating story of his life kept me interested.
Those were interesting times, especially for Ripley, a Sinophile who watched the countries he loved fall into communism or be destroyed by wars. I think that hearing about the world events as Ripley would have seen them is what kept me interested. I barely remember a lot of my history classes, but I do remember thinking that my college history class was the best because the instructor spoke of how people were affected, how they felt, what it meant to their lives. Thompson makes not just Ripley come alive, but the world around Ripley come alive.
I enjoyed the audiobook edition, though I first thought that the reader was a little dry. Thompson's writing was solid enough so that I was able to visualize the scenes as they read and eventually started to like the delivery of the narration. It was as if the voice came from the times the author described.
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