Unabomber: The Secret Life of Ted Kaczynski

Rating:
Summary: Unabomber book offers an intriguing perspective on Kaczynski
Review: "Unabomber: The Secret Life of Ted Kaczynski" was a thoroughly engaging and enlightening read from start to finish.

Authored by Dave Shors and Chris Waits, the book examines Kaczynski's 25 years living in Montana as a true 'mountain man'. The text reveals, among other things, the fascinating details of Kaczynski's encampments, secret cabin, and buried muinitions cashes on Waits' heavily-wooded land.

Offering a glimpse into the mind of the Unabomber are excerpts from his journals. These meticulously kept (and often eloquently written) pages show the reader a man technologically paranoid and vengeful and, at the same time, in love with and in awe of his natural surroundings.

I highly recommend this intelligent and exciting book to anyone in search of first-hand insight into the life and mind of Ted Kaczynski.

Rating:
Summary: Ted K. in Montana, from the inside
Review: Aside from the obvious interest Mr. Waits attracts by virtue of having been TK's only real friend (and the man who, completely unwittingly, provided shelter, instruction, and supplies that made the bombing campaign possible), he's also a bred-in-the-bone Lincoln local who knows the town, the landscape, and its history intimately. He's also a terrific nature writer--through him, I could not only see and imagine the land, but also feel the texture of the life, from the point of view of a man who can, for example, see a trail scar on a tree and not only name the tree and its history but tell you the exact age of the scar. He's a man with formidable tracking abilities and intelligence whose sweet and accepting nature kept him in denial, for 20-some years, that his friend the eccentric hermit could be up to no good. A surprisingly engaging and interesting account: I couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: No Excuse for Ted
Review: but hey, this Chris Waits is a fascinating guy. Made for interesting reading and emphasized how the rich yuppies are really messing up the great wide open spaces.

Rating:
Summary: No Excuse for Ted
Review: I learned a lot about Ted Kaczynski from this book. I thought the author tried to make himself the hero of the story. He helped the FBI with certain aspects of the case. Midway through the book, it was no longer about Ted but about the authors involvement in the case. I wanted more info on Ted and less information on the authors's grandstanding.

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Summary: Want a book about Unabomber or the Author?
Review: See the title? Well with this book you get to know an awful lot (repeatedly) about how the author new the forests betterthan the unabomber...ad nauseam. This is a book about the author, about 85% and very little about Ted Kaczynski. When you have tired for the umpteenth time of how but for the author we may never have found "Ted's Secret Cabin" you will have to seek out other books to find out about the unabomber.
Is it me but why have the last two books I bought from American authors (last one supposed to be about Tim McVeigh) all about themselves and not the subject matter? Very very tedious book and to be avoided if you want to know much about the unabomber but great if you want to learn how skillful and terrific the author is.