Skip to main content

"Columbine," by Dave Cullen

I hope soon to interview Dave Cullen, local reporter, whose book on the Columbine High School shooting is based on "hundreds of interviews with most of the principals, examinations of more than 25,000 pages of police evidence, [and] countless hours of video and audiotape." I just finished it last night. It's a harrowing book, vivid and thought-provoking. We've contacted him for our "Authors @ Douglas County Libraries" Internet video series, and he seems willing. What impresses me most about Cullen is that he never takes the easy option. All parties -- evangelical churches and families, angry parents, SWAT team members, the media, and even the killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, all come under consideration in a way that is both dispassionate and compassionate.

15 people died at Columbine (including Harris and Klebold). Twice that number were injured. But the plan was considerably worse. If the bombs, made and planted, had gone off as intended, the death toll could have been 500 or more.

Highly recommended -- the definitive book on the tragedy to date.

Comments

Unknown said…
You might want to consider the "other" definitive book, Jeff Kass' Columbine: A True Crime Story, a victim, the killers and the nation's search for answers
Jamie said…
Thanks, Jeff, I'll do that. starviego, this book actually does a good job of explaining a lot of the inconsistencies of eyewitness accounts, including the maintenance worker on the roof, and the fact that the killers took off their "dusters" as they moved through the building, creating the impression of more people. The link you provided doesn't really give a coherent alternative. Most of the comments are addressed in Cullen's book.
Dave Cullen said…
Thanks, Jamie. Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate that, and I'm looking forward to the interview.

Popular posts from this blog

Uncle Bobby's Wedding

Recently, a library patron challenged (urged a reconsideration of the ownership or placement of) a book called "Uncle Bobby's Wedding." Honestly, I hadn't even heard of it until that complaint. But I did read the book, and responded to the patron, who challenged the item through email and requested that I respond online (not via snail-mail) about her concerns. I suspect the book will get a lot of challenges in 2008-2009. So I offer my response, purging the patron's name, for other librarians. Uncle Bobby's wedding June 27, 2008 Dear Ms. Patron: Thank you for working with my assistant to allow me to fit your concerns about “Uncle Bobby's Wedding,” by Sarah S. Brannen, into our “reconsideration” process. I have been assured that you have received and viewed our relevant policies: the Library Bill of Rights, the Freedom to Read, Free Access to Libraries for Minors, the Freedom to View, and our Reconsideration Policy. The intent of providing all tha...

Installing Linux on a 2011 Macbook Pro

I had two MacBook Pros, both 13" models from late 2011. One had 4 gigs of RAM, and the other 8. Both of them were intolerably slow. In the first case, I wound up installing CleanMyMac , which did arcane things to various files, and put up alerts to warn me about disappearing memory. But it made the machine useable again, albeit not exactly speedy. I changed some habits: Safari as browser rather than Firefox or Chrome. I tried to keep tabs down to four or five. The second Mac had bigger problems. Its charger was shot, but even with that replaced, the battery tapped out at 75%. More importantly, the whole disk had been wiped, which meant that it wouldn't boot. Recently, I had downloaded a couple of Linux distributions ("distros") on USB drives. Elementary OS 5.1 (Hera) was reputed to be a lightweight, beautiful distro that shared some aesthetics with the Mac OS. So I thought I'd give it a try. Ahead of time, I tried to read up on how difficult it might be to...

The First Year: 5 strategies for success

[The First Year: 5 Strategies for Success, 1 of 8] Over the past several years, I've had the pleasure of coaching several new public library directors. For a  variety of reasons, many directors are stepping into the role for the first time. Often, particularly in smaller or more rural libraries, they haven't even had a lot of supervisory experience. I tell new directors that the two big advantages of confidential access to someone who has walked in your shoes is that (a) you can ask the questions you might feel embarrassed to ask your board or staff, and (b) you have the advantage of someone else's mistakes. To be clear, everybody makes mistakes. It may be the most powerful learning tool we have. But I've thought about my mistakes, and I can help you identify the old ones, and with luck, make new ones. There's no good reason to make the same ones! I believe that there are five key constituencies the public library director must satisfy:  your boss  (usual...