Recently I read something that stated that while many good books were being written today few of them would be around and read 20 years from now. Everybody was Kung-Fu Dancing by Chet Flippo is a book that I believe has survived that test of time. Published in 1991 and sitting on my shelf after having been purchased off of a clearance shelf who-knows-how-many-years-ago I found great delight in reading it.

Flippo is a journalist who has primarily covered the music industry, with occasional dabbling into other aspects of entertainment, such movies and literature. He has written extensively for Rolling Stone, where he worked for a number of years and his articles have also been published in many other magazines. This book is a collection of diverse pieces he wrote for those publications, primarily from the late 70's and into the mid 80's.

The book is arranged in a thematic fashion, structured around the four cardinal virtues and the seven deadly sins. For each of the virtues and sins there are 3-4 pieces of Flippo's writing where that particular virtue or sin is on display. I was somewhat familiar with several people who are written about and only barely aware of others but I found the entire collection of essays to be both fascinating and engaging. As a journalist Flippo is adept at finding out what drives a person internally and he excels at bringing that out in ways I found to be compelling. Everybody was Kung-Fu Dancing was a good book to read once and my copy is now headed for the thrift store. Perhaps it will be a thrift store near you, where you'll find that you got much more than your money's worth. ( )