My first exposure to Rush Limbaugh was in my college days. Back then, I was quite the liberal thinker. While I hadn't actually ever listened to him, I knew from news snippets here and there that he was a totally, like, bad person who was a hater of all people and probably puppies and babies, too. Enter Jon. Jon was one of my Latin buddies. We lived in the same dorm, and before class I would walk down to his room to meet him so we could walk across campus together. Each day before class, Jon would be setting his VCR to record Limbaugh's televised show when I knocked on his door.
"Ugh. You watch Rush Limbaugh?!" I asked disgustedly.
Flash forward many a year. I am now married to a man who has listened to Rush for years. In fact, my husband prefers to listen to talk radio while driving instead of be-bopping to music like I do. Suffice it to say that I am now well-acquainted with Rush. My children are Rush Babies. In fact, when my third-born was a toddler we sometimes were saved from sleepy tantrums because he was soothed as soon as Rush's opening music came on the radio.
My opinion of Rush has changed a lot, too. I now realize he is not evil. In fact, I'm a conservative and actually agree with a lot of what El Rushbo says even if I'm not a big fan of the manner it which he says it. I will not, however, choose to listen to Rush on my own because I still prefer music. I don't like his language and sometimes crass way of talking about people. I don't like being bombarded with the negative subject matter of politics all the time. Of course, I know tons of people completely revile the man and tons love him 100%.
None of these opinions matter to me in reviewing his book, Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims. I was excited to have his book to read before I handed it to my boys, but I was disappointed in the book. It wasn't that it didn't have a lot of history in it; from what I've read in other children's book about the Pilgrims, it seemed accurate. It wasn't that the presentation was poor; there were color pictures, and the writing was on pages that looked like old parchment-type paper. It wasn't that it was filled with typos and grammar errors; it wasn't.
It just wasn't one of the carefully crafted types of books that I enjoy reading. The narrative sounded like. . . well, it sounded like Rush Limbaugh. It had his energy and his tongue-in-cheek humor (a little light potty-humor, too, if I recall). It had a not-so-veiled reference to/ advertisement for Limbaugh's iced tea. It had a talking horse as the panacea for all plot difficulties. While informative, I found it tedious.
My sons and husband, however, loved it. They laughed out loud while reading it. Since I didn't read anything too gross or offensive, I suppose I should give my stamp of approval for the book. My boys all gave it a big thumbs up, so I guess I'll begrudgingly do the same. This is, after all, a blog for books boys will like.
Just be aware that this is NOT a literary masterpiece.
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