Whew! It took me over a year to make it through Col. Cooper's 702-page collection of the first nine years of his newsletter. Written like a blog long before there ever was such a thing, each issue of Gunsight Gossip was a collection of short articles on issues of interest to the Col. He covered everything from history and politics to culture, linguistics, humor, and of course many aspects of firearms and hunting.
Gargantuan Gunsight Gossip covers 1981 through 1989, and it was quite the trip down memory lane to read his commentary on issues that were prominent as I was becoming politically aware in middle and high school: apartheid, the contras, political correctness, Panama, SDI, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and more. In retrospect he seems quite accurate in his understanding of the issues and challenges, and I found myself nodding in agreement throughout most of the book.
Probably the most challenging aspect of reading this collection was that it was rare to get more than half-way through a chapter before I had to run to the computer and Google for more info on an interesting topic. I must have spent as much time learning more about the topics he mentioned as I did actually reading the book. Fortunately the blog-style of writing made it easy to put the book down and pick it up later without losing continuity.
My journey through the Gossip archives isn't finished, however; there's a second volume that weighs-in at over 1,100 pages and covers 1990 through 2000. (Man, the first volume was uncomfortable enough to hold up while reading!) I still need to finish Atlas Shrugged first, though, and I ended up starting Lucifer's Hammer last weekend since it was more convenient to carry while I was traveling than either Gossip or Shrugged. Nice problem to have!
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