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Be True to Your School
Today, Bob Greene is a celebrated, nationally-syndicated columnist. In 1964, he was a seventeen-year-old Ohio high school kid. And he kept a diary.
It's all here. The teenage girl who got away. The twenty-seven-year-old woman who didn't. The first beer. The first job. A series of bad haircuts. Friendship and betrayal, griping and groping, a daily account of one boy's struggle -- and all of our struggles -- to forge his way into adulthood with dignity intact, virginity a bad memory, and the day-to-day knowledge that it's not going to get any easier.
"A delightful book, and like the song Greene cruised to that summer, fun, fun, fun." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Everyone who was ever seventeen will love it!" -- Ann Landers
It's all here. The teenage girl who got away. The twenty-seven-year-old woman who didn't. The first beer. The first job. A series of bad haircuts. Friendship and betrayal, griping and groping, a daily account of one boy's struggle -- and all of our struggles -- to forge his way into adulthood with dignity intact, virginity a bad memory, and the day-to-day knowledge that it's not going to get any easier.
"A delightful book, and like the song Greene cruised to that summer, fun, fun, fun." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Everyone who was ever seventeen will love it!" -- Ann Landers
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
About the author
Bob Greene
41 books52 followersRobert Bernard Greene, Jr., who writes as Bob Greene, is a journalist.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
August 2, 2007
This is one of my favorite books to re-read. I read it every few years in order to get that old nostalgic feeling back again, even though this guy was in high school before I was even born and I didn't particularly like high school!
Bob Greene has a wonderful flair for words. When he was in high school in Ohio, he kept a journal for a school class. As an adult, he ran across this journal and made it into a book.
It's filled with his wonderful memories of cruising with his friends, pining over a girl, eating fried clams and drinking milkshakes at the Howard Johnson's, and even having an affair with an older woman. It just evokes simpler times when we ALL were kids before college, spouses, kids, and full-time jobs.
Read it. It's a treat.
Bob Greene has a wonderful flair for words. When he was in high school in Ohio, he kept a journal for a school class. As an adult, he ran across this journal and made it into a book.
It's filled with his wonderful memories of cruising with his friends, pining over a girl, eating fried clams and drinking milkshakes at the Howard Johnson's, and even having an affair with an older woman. It just evokes simpler times when we ALL were kids before college, spouses, kids, and full-time jobs.
Read it. It's a treat.
February 16, 2008
This book is the reason I started keeping a journal in 1989. I thought it was so cool to hear about this kids life through his journal entries. I'm so glad I did it too.
November 6, 2024
My English-teaching predecessor told me to read this book every decade, just to remind myself what it is like to be a high school student. It's funny reading his journal because even though he was a junior/senior in 1964, life is life: he has the same worries, wishes, etc., that teenagers have today. The downfall of the book is simply that real life (which this is) can be fairly mundane and he recorded every single day. At times, then, it can feel a bit ho-hum.
August 13, 2023
An awesome jaunt into 1964, through the diary of Bexley High School Junior-senior Bob Greene. This “slice of time” memoir proves that a diary/journal doesn’t have to be deep or thorough or profound to capture a feeling at a moment in time. In fact, in the brevity of the entires, Greene achieves all of these things. It’s a wonderful time-capsule of the end of an era, and should be read as such.
October 30, 2024
If I didn’t live in the same place as the book, I wouldn’t have finished it. It’s fine enough, an interesting account of teen life in 1964, but really I just kept reading to read about what Bexley was like 60 years ago. Well written though.
September 6, 2022
this was a really good book to pick up & start and stop. just an average good book! :)
March 6, 2013
Bob Green had to keep a diary for a class during his senior year of high school. Decades later he found it, and being the reasonably famous and successful columnist and author that he had become, he turned it into a book.
And what a book it is. For those of us of a certain age, it really resonates, and is the closest we will ever get to time travel. Details and people differ, the situations aren't EXACTLY the same, but the mood and tone and sense of innocence and confusion and excitement and wonder and fear and invulnerability that are all intertwined in high school are so universal that the differences sort of fade away.
Somewhere, the introduction I think he says, as the adult Bob Green, that discovering this diary was like finding "time preserved." Almost all of wish we had done that, but fortunately there's this book that almost does it for you. And in this case, almost IS enough. If the book doesn't make you feel 17 again, there's something wrong with you!!
Might be out of print, but it is well worth searching for.
And what a book it is. For those of us of a certain age, it really resonates, and is the closest we will ever get to time travel. Details and people differ, the situations aren't EXACTLY the same, but the mood and tone and sense of innocence and confusion and excitement and wonder and fear and invulnerability that are all intertwined in high school are so universal that the differences sort of fade away.
Somewhere, the introduction I think he says, as the adult Bob Green, that discovering this diary was like finding "time preserved." Almost all of wish we had done that, but fortunately there's this book that almost does it for you. And in this case, almost IS enough. If the book doesn't make you feel 17 again, there's something wrong with you!!
Might be out of print, but it is well worth searching for.
January 9, 2013
This book is a diary of 1964 recorded by Bob Greene during his senior year in high school in Bexley, OH. Witty and amusing, it contains many personal anecdotes that have a universal flavor of high school back in the good old days.
Girls! Mainly striking out.
Tests. Barely scraping by.
Homecoming. Got a date!
Tennis. Pretty good player.
In this book, a diary entry mentions a visit to a record store where Bob bought a new Jan and Dean vinyl. A few years after the book was published, in the early 1990's, a backup singer for Jan and Dean's touring group noticed that entry in the book, and gave Greene a call.
Bob was invited to attend a Jan and Dean concert and view it from backstage. When the musicians started singing the tune Bob had bought 30 years before, his inviter motioned him to join him on stage and chime in. That led to a 15 year gig touring and singing backup with Jan and Dean! That incredible story is detailed in Greene's wonderful book "When we get to Surf City."
Girls! Mainly striking out.
Tests. Barely scraping by.
Homecoming. Got a date!
Tennis. Pretty good player.
In this book, a diary entry mentions a visit to a record store where Bob bought a new Jan and Dean vinyl. A few years after the book was published, in the early 1990's, a backup singer for Jan and Dean's touring group noticed that entry in the book, and gave Greene a call.
Bob was invited to attend a Jan and Dean concert and view it from backstage. When the musicians started singing the tune Bob had bought 30 years before, his inviter motioned him to join him on stage and chime in. That led to a 15 year gig touring and singing backup with Jan and Dean! That incredible story is detailed in Greene's wonderful book "When we get to Surf City."
May 5, 2021
This was interesting just as a historical document. I kind of wish there had been more context, like a section at the end where the author had reflected on what he wrote and maybe told us what happened to some of the main "characters"
May 12, 2008
Bob Greene, the author is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, so we know the man can write, and these are his high school memoirs. It's a nice light, relateable read.
June 6, 2009
This book inspired me to write in a journal, every day, for one year.
January 4, 2011
love it...I didn't put this book down, I read it cover to cover in one day...cool stuff
September 3, 2019
This book spurred me to keep my own daily journal which now spans 35 years and counting. Thanks Bob Greene!
January 17, 2025
Any Similarity Between This Book and Bob Greene's Actual 1964 Diary Is Purely Coincidental
I love Bob Greene but didn't really like this book. But that's on me because I went into it expecting a cross between Dobie Gillis and Happy Days, all told to a bouncy Beatles soundtrack. Turned out to be more a cross between American Graffiti and Porky's (with a dash of The Graduate). There was a bounty of Beatles tunes referenced, however, among many of the other AM radio hits of the era playing over WCOL.
I admit I quickly grew weary of Bob's pining after various girls, his algebra struggles, and endless tennis practices. I found myself skimming through days at a time. But then would come upon entries that intrigued me, like Bob's watching old movies on the Late Show or catching The Rogues, a one-season 1964-65 show I never heard of until this book, which is surprising since it starred David Niven, Gig Young, and Charles Boyer.
I would have enjoyed comparing Bob's actual 1964 diary with Be True to Your School. I think the similarities would be coincidental at best. I'm guessing the original diary served only as a springboard for this expanded and revised version. "Inspired by a true story," as they say in the movies.
Bob mentions comic books only a couple times in passing, which was disappointing as 1964 was a high point in the Marvel Age of Comics. And I strongly suspected the story of teachers arranging for two feuding students to duke it out after school with boxing gloves was lifted wholesale from Flash and Petey's pugilistic misadventure in Amazing Spider-Man #8 (Jan 1964).
Bob does mention having original art of Superman by one of the artists of the comic book. I wondered if that art was by Greene's fellow Buckeye Joe Shuster, Superman's co-creator. Wow, what a treasure that would be.
Letter jackets and the social cachet they brought was a foreign concept to me outside of TV and comics books (Flash Thompson wore his proudly). By my own junior-senior years of 1984-85 they had fallen from the heights of school hallway fashion.
Bob and his friends sure ate out a lot and I wondered where they got the money. Same for all the records they bought. I mean, did any of them work? Get generous allowances? It seemed they cruised the streets of Bexley endlessly when not practicing their guitar plucking. Or "dialing for cake." I liked the cake dialing and thought wistfully how caller ID put the kibosh on that quaint tradition.
Something totally absent from the book is religion. Even Christmas is devoid of even a hint of the holy. Wake up, open presents, go to the Toddle House for lunch. Sad.
JFK's assassination was a fresh event and Bob wrote a one-year anniversary column for the paper that I wished were reprinted here as an appendix. LBJ's election got a one-line afterthought on November 3. Maybe Bob was a Barry Goldwater booster since he and a friend went and saw old AuH2O in person on January 11.
Bob all but certainly retconned in a number of references to the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. They came across as virtue signaling before that was a thing. Political goings on and world events rarely intruded on Bob's bustling Bexley life, so these sprinkled-in references came across as so many false noses stuck on the narrative. (Oops, poor word choice since I forgot Bob's sensitive about his pronounced proboscis, once likened to Ringo Starr's!)
There's a lot of prescient material here, from Bob's first visit to Chicago with his father and finding the Windy City "really scary." A decade later he'd be as closely associated with that toddlin' town as Mike Royko. Bob's work on the school paper led to a gig on the Citizen-Journal. I always loved newspapers--it's where I first encountered Greene's column, after all--and I enjoyed the newspaper-centric entries, such as the one detailing his being sent on a fool's errand following a false lead that the exonerated Sam Sheppard was in a local restaurant.
Bob mentions The Front Page as a play; the classic Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedy movie about 1920's Chicago newspaper was still a decade away, but I'm confident Greene saw and loved it as he named his young romantic interest "Lindy Lemmon" in the book, even winking at the reader as her first name is that of a popular 1920's dance.
On that note, also prescient was 16-year-old Bob's dating a 13-year-old girl, which made me wince thinking of how decades later a pretty young face led to Greene's fall from grace (from his publisher, not his loyal readers!).
As loyal a fan as I am of Bob Greene's work, I am just not a fan of this book. I felt it was overweighted with horny teenage longing, boozing, and cringey sexual talk and escapades that detracted from the squeaky-clean nostalgia trip I anticipated. But I can't really blame Bob for not writing the book I wanted. I did greatly enjoy the parts I enjoyed. There's something in here for everyone who lived through 1964 or wish they had.
I love Bob Greene but didn't really like this book. But that's on me because I went into it expecting a cross between Dobie Gillis and Happy Days, all told to a bouncy Beatles soundtrack. Turned out to be more a cross between American Graffiti and Porky's (with a dash of The Graduate). There was a bounty of Beatles tunes referenced, however, among many of the other AM radio hits of the era playing over WCOL.
I admit I quickly grew weary of Bob's pining after various girls, his algebra struggles, and endless tennis practices. I found myself skimming through days at a time. But then would come upon entries that intrigued me, like Bob's watching old movies on the Late Show or catching The Rogues, a one-season 1964-65 show I never heard of until this book, which is surprising since it starred David Niven, Gig Young, and Charles Boyer.
I would have enjoyed comparing Bob's actual 1964 diary with Be True to Your School. I think the similarities would be coincidental at best. I'm guessing the original diary served only as a springboard for this expanded and revised version. "Inspired by a true story," as they say in the movies.
Bob mentions comic books only a couple times in passing, which was disappointing as 1964 was a high point in the Marvel Age of Comics. And I strongly suspected the story of teachers arranging for two feuding students to duke it out after school with boxing gloves was lifted wholesale from Flash and Petey's pugilistic misadventure in Amazing Spider-Man #8 (Jan 1964).
Bob does mention having original art of Superman by one of the artists of the comic book. I wondered if that art was by Greene's fellow Buckeye Joe Shuster, Superman's co-creator. Wow, what a treasure that would be.
Letter jackets and the social cachet they brought was a foreign concept to me outside of TV and comics books (Flash Thompson wore his proudly). By my own junior-senior years of 1984-85 they had fallen from the heights of school hallway fashion.
Bob and his friends sure ate out a lot and I wondered where they got the money. Same for all the records they bought. I mean, did any of them work? Get generous allowances? It seemed they cruised the streets of Bexley endlessly when not practicing their guitar plucking. Or "dialing for cake." I liked the cake dialing and thought wistfully how caller ID put the kibosh on that quaint tradition.
Something totally absent from the book is religion. Even Christmas is devoid of even a hint of the holy. Wake up, open presents, go to the Toddle House for lunch. Sad.
JFK's assassination was a fresh event and Bob wrote a one-year anniversary column for the paper that I wished were reprinted here as an appendix. LBJ's election got a one-line afterthought on November 3. Maybe Bob was a Barry Goldwater booster since he and a friend went and saw old AuH2O in person on January 11.
Bob all but certainly retconned in a number of references to the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. They came across as virtue signaling before that was a thing. Political goings on and world events rarely intruded on Bob's bustling Bexley life, so these sprinkled-in references came across as so many false noses stuck on the narrative. (Oops, poor word choice since I forgot Bob's sensitive about his pronounced proboscis, once likened to Ringo Starr's!)
There's a lot of prescient material here, from Bob's first visit to Chicago with his father and finding the Windy City "really scary." A decade later he'd be as closely associated with that toddlin' town as Mike Royko. Bob's work on the school paper led to a gig on the Citizen-Journal. I always loved newspapers--it's where I first encountered Greene's column, after all--and I enjoyed the newspaper-centric entries, such as the one detailing his being sent on a fool's errand following a false lead that the exonerated Sam Sheppard was in a local restaurant.
Bob mentions The Front Page as a play; the classic Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedy movie about 1920's Chicago newspaper was still a decade away, but I'm confident Greene saw and loved it as he named his young romantic interest "Lindy Lemmon" in the book, even winking at the reader as her first name is that of a popular 1920's dance.
On that note, also prescient was 16-year-old Bob's dating a 13-year-old girl, which made me wince thinking of how decades later a pretty young face led to Greene's fall from grace (from his publisher, not his loyal readers!).
As loyal a fan as I am of Bob Greene's work, I am just not a fan of this book. I felt it was overweighted with horny teenage longing, boozing, and cringey sexual talk and escapades that detracted from the squeaky-clean nostalgia trip I anticipated. But I can't really blame Bob for not writing the book I wanted. I did greatly enjoy the parts I enjoyed. There's something in here for everyone who lived through 1964 or wish they had.
March 18, 2023
The book is a memoir of the author's teenage personal, family, and school life during 1964. He discusses his many adolescent romances, his first bumbling sexual experiences, his relationships with his family and friends, etc. The book is insightful and amusing at times, and the author is good at conveying his feelings of confusion and angst. For those who attended smaller suburban high schools in the early 1960s the book will undoubtedly revive many memories. For those like myself, who were in high school in later years, in my case the early 1970s, the author's experiences will seem somewhat foreign. The author himself recognizes that the early 60s were the calm before the storm and does not pretend to make his story a universal one. I did enjoy the references to specific things and events of the time (Lark cigarettes, Contac, the Beatles, Pabst beer, the Dave Clark Five, Thunderbird automobiles, etc.), most of which I recall well, but I also found the book tedious at times. How far will I get with Mary? Outside her bra or under it? Does Judy really like me? The tennis coach is a jerk. How do I avoid a hangover from drinking too much beer? These issues and dilemmas become repetitious after a while. I'd recommend the book to those who came of age during the early 60s and to those who were younger at the time but had older siblings (my situation), but not so much to others. The latter will find it quaint and at times rather silly. It definitely was a simpler time.
January 11, 2023
I am from the class of 64 in a college town in Indiana so the story is one I lived myself. I don't have my diary but if I did it would surely be the female version of the same day to day events. We always knew as girls that the guys just didn't understand us, and sure enough, they didn't. Driving aimlessly appears to not just have appealed to my group of friends. One difference is apparent throughout: girls don't dare eat as much as Bob and his friends did when they were together. We'd have a diet coke; they seemed to often consume four or five meals. Thanks, Bob, for the trip down memory lane.
July 5, 2020
Twas almost as if pussydestroyer himself 69 was watching his dog shit out a picture of his dogs ass. It gave me aids and blinded PD69 eternally. This is devistating to the human race.This book is like evry other shit book PD69 has read. PD69 OUT. Disclaimer: PD69 thinks all copys of this book should be burned to save people from this horrific creation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 3, 2026
Great and easy read. it was very fun to see how the life/thoughts of a 17 year old from 1964 compare to my own experience in the 2010s-2020s. lots of things are different, but there are more similarities than one would first think.
October 18, 2017
#91 of 120 books pledged to read in 2017
May 18, 2018
A Diary of 1964.It took me back to my High School days.
March 15, 2019
I loved it. The book reminded me of “Happy Days”. Growing up on a farm I did not have the social life these kids had. Knowing someone mentioned in the book piqued my interest.
March 28, 2024
Great for anyone who graduated from high school in the mid 60s. Brought back lots of memories.
January 2, 2025
Every time I read this, it transports me back to my high school days.
April 20, 2026
This is a perfect look into 1964. What a time that was!
May 23, 2018
Rose-colored look at high school in 1964, through the eyes of a pretty average kid with an eye for detail and the occasional pithy description.
I first discovered this as a journal example that I could read to seniors in order to help them make their own journals more interesting. The book turned out to be a huge hit, and with some exceptions, I often found I had read a good bit of it to the classes by the time May rolled around. It's a great story, not so much because it chronicles a pretty commonplace (and thus touching, warm, funny, and dangerous) junior and senior year, but because of the larger context. This is an excellent history of the advent of the Beatles, of rock-n-roll, long hair, car stereos (the boys wire a turntable to their car battery and think they've struck gold), and many other cultural and political issues afloat in 1964.
My favorite line comes early in the book:
"This morning when I woke up, 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand,' was playing on the clock radio. It's by the Beatles, that group from England that was written up in Time magazine last year. I think it's gonna be a hit."
Added in 2018----
I just read this book all the way through, and I swear it was for the first time. In spite of the many passages I had read to various classes, there were many, many things I read for the first time. It was interesting to see more of the story fleshed out, but (speaking of flesh) I was thankful I did not try to read all of it (or assign it to students). I remember the one or two kids each year who found copies and read the whole book--those kids would always come to me and want to discuss other girls, other romances in the life of the young narrator, and I never had much to say.
It was interesting to finally read all of that.
Oddly, I read the book straight through, but could not find the part about wiring a turntable to the car battery. One of my favorite passages! How could I have missed it? I think I misplaced a bookmark, and knowing the story as well as I do, I didn't realize anything was amiss.
I first discovered this as a journal example that I could read to seniors in order to help them make their own journals more interesting. The book turned out to be a huge hit, and with some exceptions, I often found I had read a good bit of it to the classes by the time May rolled around. It's a great story, not so much because it chronicles a pretty commonplace (and thus touching, warm, funny, and dangerous) junior and senior year, but because of the larger context. This is an excellent history of the advent of the Beatles, of rock-n-roll, long hair, car stereos (the boys wire a turntable to their car battery and think they've struck gold), and many other cultural and political issues afloat in 1964.
My favorite line comes early in the book:
"This morning when I woke up, 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand,' was playing on the clock radio. It's by the Beatles, that group from England that was written up in Time magazine last year. I think it's gonna be a hit."
Added in 2018----
I just read this book all the way through, and I swear it was for the first time. In spite of the many passages I had read to various classes, there were many, many things I read for the first time. It was interesting to see more of the story fleshed out, but (speaking of flesh) I was thankful I did not try to read all of it (or assign it to students). I remember the one or two kids each year who found copies and read the whole book--those kids would always come to me and want to discuss other girls, other romances in the life of the young narrator, and I never had much to say.
It was interesting to finally read all of that.
Oddly, I read the book straight through, but could not find the part about wiring a turntable to the car battery. One of my favorite passages! How could I have missed it? I think I misplaced a bookmark, and knowing the story as well as I do, I didn't realize anything was amiss.
June 24, 2013
"Chuck Shenk and I cruised all day; for a few hours this afternoon we watched the Browns and the Packers on TV, but most of the day we just drove around Bexley. He did a great thing with his car. He got a portable record player, put it on the front seat and somehow ran a wire through the dashboard and connected it to the battery under the hood. We took a copy of 'Little Deuce Coupe' with us and played it for four hours straight as we cruised. For the first time, we don't have to listen to what WCOL plays -- we can listen to whatever we want to."
.
"When my clock radio woke me up this morning, WCOL was playing a new song called 'I Saw Her Standing There.' It was by the Beatles, that group from England that got written up in Time magazine last year. This was the first I had ever heard them sing. The song sounds like it's going to be a hit."
.
"There's a new Beatles record on WCOL -- 'She Loves You.' Tonight I hooked up our family's Wollensak tape recorder and sat by the radio for two hours waiting for it to come on. It finally did, and I got it on tape. I've been playing it over and over all evening."
.
"When my clock radio woke me up this morning, WCOL was playing a new song called 'I Saw Her Standing There.' It was by the Beatles, that group from England that got written up in Time magazine last year. This was the first I had ever heard them sing. The song sounds like it's going to be a hit."
.
"There's a new Beatles record on WCOL -- 'She Loves You.' Tonight I hooked up our family's Wollensak tape recorder and sat by the radio for two hours waiting for it to come on. It finally did, and I got it on tape. I've been playing it over and over all evening."
June 16, 2016
In 1964, future journalist Bob Greene kept a diary, detailing his life from January through December, a time when he was 16 and 17 years old, a Junior and Senior in high school. He had been told that it was a good habit for writers to follow, so he gave it a try. Lucky for us. Be True to Your School is an authentic and amazing time capsule, capturing in great detail the year that the Beatles descended on the United States and changed the face of music (and the hairy heads of enthusiasts) forever.
But aside from the history, what is breath-taking is the extent of hormonal overload in the relationships between the boys and girls in this time of intense transition. The world had been changing prior to 1964, but this book captures the reason for the sexual revolution in all its glory.
From his father's constant sniping of "get a haircut" to his teasing ex-girlfriend, from their constant cruising for girls, to his almost affair with an "older woman" of 27, this diary always delights and takes the reader directly into the heart of a magnificent time, now long gone.
Highly recommended for both Adult and Young Adult readers.
But aside from the history, what is breath-taking is the extent of hormonal overload in the relationships between the boys and girls in this time of intense transition. The world had been changing prior to 1964, but this book captures the reason for the sexual revolution in all its glory.
From his father's constant sniping of "get a haircut" to his teasing ex-girlfriend, from their constant cruising for girls, to his almost affair with an "older woman" of 27, this diary always delights and takes the reader directly into the heart of a magnificent time, now long gone.
Highly recommended for both Adult and Young Adult readers.
February 16, 2012
It has been a long time since I have completed a book. I think I may have just burnt myself out reading so much the first half of the year. Then again, I think I was using it as an escape mechanism. I have finished one other book besides this one. I will have to find it document a review.
BTTYS was written in 1964, well for the first time. It was a diary kept by the famous Bob Greene, who has a column that was read in over 200 newspapers. I use the past tense due to the book being published in 1987, so Bob could have moved on to other things. I recognize him from the book cover.
Anyway, what fun to read about the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, the Rolling Stones, his first drink, his year of non lettering in tennis, his pursuit of freshman (and younger) girls, his constant haircuts, his first copy boy job...well, it was just a magical book and anyone living in that time period should love this book.
It is the innocent time that most of us Baby Boomers experienced.
BTTYS was written in 1964, well for the first time. It was a diary kept by the famous Bob Greene, who has a column that was read in over 200 newspapers. I use the past tense due to the book being published in 1987, so Bob could have moved on to other things. I recognize him from the book cover.
Anyway, what fun to read about the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, the Rolling Stones, his first drink, his year of non lettering in tennis, his pursuit of freshman (and younger) girls, his constant haircuts, his first copy boy job...well, it was just a magical book and anyone living in that time period should love this book.
It is the innocent time that most of us Baby Boomers experienced.
December 14, 2015
I believe this was the first book I bought and read that was written in English. As a college student learning English in Japan, the diary format made it easier to read and it also kept me curious about the life style of America. (although the story was staged 25 years earlier from when I found this book in 1989ish).
After reading this book, I started to keep a journal in English and developed my love for writing as well. Little did I know I ended up majoring in journalism once I got to California. It's also funny how I ended up coming to Chicago where the author was the columnist for Chicago Tribune for a long time, ha!
Anyway, the book was basically a memoir for the author. Yet a girl in Japan still enjoyed reading about the American life in the 60s through the thoughts of teenage boy.
After reading this book, I started to keep a journal in English and developed my love for writing as well. Little did I know I ended up majoring in journalism once I got to California. It's also funny how I ended up coming to Chicago where the author was the columnist for Chicago Tribune for a long time, ha!
Anyway, the book was basically a memoir for the author. Yet a girl in Japan still enjoyed reading about the American life in the 60s through the thoughts of teenage boy.
March 29, 2016
Bob Greene was a newspaper columnist in Chicago when I lived there in the 80's. This memoir was published in 1987, and is based on a daily diary Greene kept during the entire calendar year of 1964, when he was a junior and senior in high school in Bexley, Ohio. He was inspired to keep the diary by a speaker at a high school press convention he attended. It proves to be a precious time capsule of highly detailed memories of suburban high school life - anxieties over grades, girls, putting out the high school paper, good times playing sports, drinking beer, hanging with his best buddies, cruising around town. I wish I had done a similar exercise myself when I was in high school or college, because looking back at it is like reliving those days in all their glory, boredom and youthful angst. A unique and truly cool book!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews