I have this thing called The 20% Rule when it comes to reading books. That is, if a book hasn’t grabbed me and sucked me in by the time that I get 20% of the way into it, I will abandon it and move on to something else. I rarely have to enforce it, but it’s latest victim was Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi.
Bugliosi was the prosecutor who put Charles Manson away in prison, and the book is about the case and clocks in at around 500 pages. I quite enjoyed the opening of the book, Bugliosi’s description of the crime scene was chilling and graphic, but after that I kinda got lost in the maze of names and locations. Not being overly familiar with the case, it started to make my eyes glaze over. I began to think about all the other books I could have been reading, and so I found myself less and less into it. Not being engaged in it, I decided to shelve it.
I was hoping the book would give me background information and explain things in an easy to digest way, much the same as A Thousand Lives did regarding the events surrounding Jonestown. I think however the book assumes you have a base knowledge of the Manson story, and as I don’t, then maybe one day when I have familiarised myself with the case I will come back to Helter Skelter.
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