Random Numbers

In between work and sleep I have found barely enough time to read Going Rogue: An American Life, but I have finished the first capter and have a few thoughts.

The first thing I noticed is that, while the book has only six chapters, each chapter is divided into several sub-chapters.  If Sarah Palin or her publisher had wished, this book could have had bulked up the table of contents easily, if deceptively, by indexing all the sub-chapters as chapters and labeling each chapter as parts.

The first chapter deals with Palin’s growing up in Alaska and the life that shaped her personality and philosophy.  It is a pretty good read just for the insight into the world she was raised in.  Alaska is still in many ways a place where one does for oneself or does without.  The basic frontier attitude that has little use for the social climber, the parasitic mooch, or the slick get rich quick artist is very much prevalent in this chapter.

The Heaths built what they had from their own work and expected their kids to continue building, and they seem to have got what they expected.  This chapter says, “This is who I am,” to me.  You ca tell from this chapter that Palin really loves her parents, hunting, being outdoors, and pushing herself to the limit.   It is the journal of someone who is unafraid of a challenge and knows how to use her strengths to her advantage, even when she doesn’t realize she has those strengths.

So far, this book is a page turner and very much readable.  She mixes her basic political philosophies with the personal anecdotes to help me understand the why of her positions as much as what those positions are.

I have been working at my real job on 12 hour shifts so my time for reading is limited.  I’ll have my thoughts on the next chapter tomorrow morning.