Literary Las Vegas: Linda Chase

It may be packed with more than 200 pages of photos of Las Vegas from the Strip to the surrounding desert, but Linda Chase's "Picturing Las Vegas" is more than just a picture book. Chase, an author who grew up in Las Vegas, fills her pages with history, stories and trivia spanning from the city's early history to today.

Excerpt from "Picturing Las Vegas"

In May 2000, Las Vegas marked its centennial with a sixty-five-ton cake. Delivered on seven flatbed trucks, assembled in an airplane hanger (sic), and iced by a legion of volunteers, this towering confection was a fitting tribute to a city that, for the past fifty years, has reveled in excess and over-the-top spectacle.

If size matters, then Las Vegas had much to celebrate. In 2005, it was the fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States, with more than a thousand new residents moving to town each week. Tourism was at an all-time high, and new, even more lavish hotels were being built at a frenzied pace.

Las Vegas is, as UNLV historian Hal Rothman noted, "a hard town that will make you pay for your inability to restrain your desires."