Literary Las Vegas: The Best Writing About America's Most Fabulous City
Edited by Mike Tronnes

Cha-Ching -- Visiting Las Vegas always reminds me of its fraternal twin, Washington, D.C., because the nation's playground and the nation's capitol have much in common. For starters, both cities are fakes, frauds -- nowhere, phony, made-up towns that, together, constitute the two sides of the American coin: freedom and the pursuit of happiness. But the coin really is a coin, after all, and that's the bottom-line when it comes to Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.: despite their differing outward appearances -- stodgy domes, monuments and museums in one; a gaudy, flashy Strip of brightly lit gambling palaces in another -- and despite the apparently differing pretensions of what each city "represents," both towns are in the same exact business. Namely, taking away your money. Of the two, Las Vegas is simply more upfront about its intentions.