July 25, 2011

Summer Reading

Looking for a good book to settle down with in front of the air conditioner this summer? Something not just historic but pre-historic? A true story that is stranger than fiction? I have the perfect choice for you! Newly released this spring is "Boneheads: My Search for T. Rex" by Sausalito based author Richard Polsky.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you that I know and like Richard Polsky and he kindly gave me a copy of this book. He is probably best known as an art world writer with two well received and very engaging non-fiction works to his credit "I Bought Andy Warhol" and the sequel "I Sold Andy Warhol (too soon)". Richard had mentioned that he was working on something completely different but I was not prepared for "Boneheads" when I picked it up on a recent afternoon when the mercury was well above 90.

It turns out that Richard, beside being a contemporary art aficionado, has long been fascinated with dinosaurs and having reached a crossroads in his personal and professional lives decided to pursue a life-long desire to search for the Holy Grail of paleontology, a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. In this quest, Richard takes us on an adventure covering territory from the Badlands of South Dakota to the annual Gem, Mineral and Fossil convention in Tucson, Arizona. We meet characters such as Maurice Williams who discovered Sue, the biggest T. Rex skeleton to date, Henry Galiano owner of Maxilla & Mandible, a fossil store in New York, not to mention the self-declared "Fossil King", Bob Detrich. And we share in Richard's highs and lows as he attempts to crack the inner circle of this rather eclectic group of dinosaur hunters or "Boneheads" as they are affectionately known.

I am not going to tell you what happens in the end, but I will promise a few hearty chuckles along the way. Who knew antediluvian pursuits could be so very entertaining!

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