The best portrait of Qadhdhafi that I have read is a chapter in Ghazi Al-Qusaybi's Al-Wazir Al-Murafiq. Qusaybi (who died recently) was a talented Saudi intellectual with great literary skills. He received a PhD in sociology in the 1960s and then started a career of serving House of Saud. He held several ministerial posts and felt strongly about Palestine. He was mistreated by the royal family and yet he remained loyal. When you server House of Saud (or any of those lousy governments) you squander your talents and then you lose them.