Recreation & Risk


Out now! • Bill Childs • Carolina Academic Press


  • Glenwood Caverns: No second venue change

    I’m genuinely surprised this case hasn’t been settled yet. Plaintiffs sought to move the case out of Garfield County (where Glenwood Caverns is located) due to local good will and the like. The judge denied the motion. (Plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in Denver; at defendants’ motion, it was transferred to Garfield County.) Chapter Nine of…

  • Coney Island

    The book grew out of a course I taught that was framed by Action Park, the infamous New Jersey attraction where “you [were] the center of the action!” But the real home for anything about amusements—is Coney Island. There’s a reason these are among the first words in the Introduction to the book: We start,…

  • “For some reason, the modern person doesn’t understand that.”

    The Lakeside Cyclone is a favorite ride of mine; there’s a reason it’s on the cover of the book. I worked half the summer of 1997 in Denver (on the Terry Nichols defense team) and spent several lovely evenings at the neon-filled park in a Denver neighborhood. I was back a few years ago, working…

  • Now on Amazon too!

    If you prefer Amazon, the book is available there now too. The list price is cheaper from the publisher but there’s shipping and stuff. Unfortunately, it won’t be on Bookshop.

  • Available!

    Looks like Carolina Academic Press has turned on ordering for physical copies! Amazon also has a page up for it, but you can’t order there yet.

  • A couple updates

    First, the book is at the printers now so will hopefully be available to order very soon! I also submitted the final of the teacher’s manual (which will be delivered in PDF) so that’s all sorted. Second, I went to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park—which features prominently in chapter nine—today, and discovered the first update for…

  • Done, for real. Almost.

    The book is off to the printer, and Carolina Academic Press has updated their page for it to say it’ll be out in June. With all the opening stuff, index, etc., it’s right at 400 pages. List price will be $65 for the hard copy and $52 for the e-book, which seems modest for a…

  • The Cover!

    Gosh, I love this. It’s not quite final, but close. The folks at Carolina Academic Press are so great.

  • Page proofs!

    I didn’t expect getting the proofs to be quite as exciting as it was. But that…that’s neat! Looks like the book will end up being 376 pages, slightly more than my math had indicated. It all looks excellent; the good folks at Carolina Academic Press do their jobs well! Now, I have to go through…

  • Book submitted.

    I submitted the manuscript for Recreation and Risk to Carolina Academic Press today. It’s 126,180 words, which should come out to around 250 printed pages. It’ll be available for adoption in time for fall 2024 and I hope some professors do so!