BOOKS THREAD

I'm reading "I Had A Hammer," and I just finished the chapter in which Aaron recalls hitting his 715th home run. Some of the hate mail Aaron received was just disturbing, and I didn't realize how many backwards people there had to have been following Aaron's pursuit.

While I'm no Barry Bonds apologist, I asked myself, "If Hank Aaron went through all that, what has Barry Bonds got to be going through?"

 

I wasn't too familiar at all with the story, so I rented the movie and watched it late last night. Not bad but not great, an okay way to waste two hours since I had nothing else going on.

I agreed the love story, if you could call it that, was not only unnecessary but most likely untrue. What girl in 1913 would just blow off her departure for college and then just casually dismiss her father when he protests, especially in oh-so-proper Brahmin New England? What also struck me as odd was how Harry Vardon, who had already won five British Opens and a U.S. Open at that point, was supposedly still being haunted by his childhood tormentors.

I really enjoyed a special feature on the DVD, a lengthy 1963 feature on Francis Ouimet, filmed to mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his Open win, which also coincided with the tournament returning to Brookline for the first time since that win. He was a fascinating and well-spoken man.

 

I'm starting Pearlman's Bonds bio tonight. After I've finished it, I will have read three books this month.

 

Thus bringing the lifetime total to four.

 

I really feel sorry for you. You're a pathetic, small, mean-spirited failure of a person.

 

Let me know how that one is. Finished Game of Shadows and loved it and wondered about this one.

Just finished Michael Connelly's "The Closers." A quick but entertaining read.

Any opinions yet on the new Clemente book?

 

I'm about halfway through the Clemente book and am enjoying it so far.

 

Pearlman's Bonds bio benefits from Game Of Shadows. Shadows explains how and why and when Bonds 'roided up. Love Me, Hate Me explains the path Bonds took to 'roiding up.

 

I wish I was smaller/I wish was a little bit taller/I'd like to be a baller ...

Oh hell, I don't remember the words very well. Someone help me out.

 

I wish i had a girl who looked good i would call her
I wish i had a rabbit in a hat with a bat
And a six four impala
I wish i was like six-foot-nine
So i can get with leoshi
Cause she don't know me but yo she's really fine
You know i see her all the time
Everywhere i go, and even in my dreams
I can scheme a way to make her mine
Cause i know she's livin phat

 

i think i remember several people on this board liking "the late shift" by new york times tv reporter bill carter. it was about the battle between jay leno and david letterman for the tonight show spot vacated by johnny carson. terrific book.

well, carter has a new one out called "desperate networks." i am about to pick it up, but its got great reviews. apparently, the subject matter is twofold: 1) the simiilar battles tv is having with newspapers when it comes to keeping viewers/listeneres, and 2) how hard it was for mark burnett to convince cbs to pick up the show that saved the network, survivor.

 

This was also covered in Disney War which was a terrifc book.