Recommended Reading

Yeah, sometimes I read books. Especially now that I’m finished writing mine. Here’s a couple good ones.



What I don’t know about baseball would fill Fenway Park, and yet I couldn’t put Michael Lewis’s best seller down. For one thing, the guy can write, which is always a nice thing when you’re dealing with a book. For another, my long-dormant interest in the sport was re-awakened last fall when I foolishly got sucked into watching the post-season Red Sox, and I’ve been following them pretty closely this year (which will no doubt be rewarded with inevitable crushing disappointment).

My understanding is that most of the baseball establishment hates this book, what with its unabashed enthusiasm for these newfangled statistics suggesting that getting on base and not getting outs are the most important factors toward achieving a win. See, to an ignoramus like me, this seems like common sense, but I guess on some level it makes the game less fun for some folks, since the teams that subscribe to the Moneyball approach discourage stuff like bunting, sacrifice flies and stealing bases. (The old school philosophy is to regard these things as “productive outs” if they result in players advancing the bases or scoring. The new school says they’re not worth the trouble. At least, that’s my feeble understanding.)

Anyway, whether you agree or disagree or don’t even care, Moneyball is a great read, with plenty of fascinating digressions into the cult-like world of hardcore statistics freaks and an account of the major league draft that’s as suspenseful as a book by that really good suspense writer whose name eludes me at the moment.



I’m in the middle of this one now. I’m a big fan of the Altman film, so this is kind of a schizoid reading experience for me, as Philip Marlowe keeps bouncing back and forth between being a Bogart tough guy and more of an Elliot Gould schlub. In my mind, if not actually on the paper. Some evocative writing on 50’s L.A. here, though.

Next up, Tony Soprano’s homework: