Home from the hospital

I know what you’re thinking. "I was really hoping I could open up LJ and read something by a guy who’s stuck in the hospital with the flu. Yeah, that would make my day."

Heck, if I wasn’t writing it, I wouldn’t read it.
So, for obvious reasons, including specific details of bodily fluids, follow the cut if you’d like to. . .
If you don’t want too, well, I am home and feeling better.

( Here are the details )

First Two of The Year

Greetings, everyone. I’m Bill from Peabody, Mass., and I have been lurking for a while. I am a 44-year-old high school History teacher who was a newspaper reporter for 10 years before starting teaching. I am sitting here in our front room, which is basically a place with a computer and four jammed bookcases. Yes, I am a reading junkie.

Like many people, I am going to put a twist on my 50-Book Challenge and do it with Sports books. Don’t worry, I read a lot of varied stuff. I will also keep a separate non-Sports list going.

1. I wound up in the hospital with the flu from Jan. 3-7, so I did get a lot of time to read. I thoroughly enjoyed "Open" by John Feinstein about the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, a public course.

Yes, it sounds like a boring premise, but Feinstein is, in my opinion, the premier sports author in the country right now, and there’s a lot of backstory. This is one of the most historic public golf complexes in the U.S. It’s a set of public courses on Long Island, and if we’re willing to spend the time sleeping in our cars to get a tee time, you and I can play the course (you’ll win). It was a dream to do this and very difficult to restore the course. Toss in the fact that Sept. 11 took place nine months before tee-off, and it gets more interesting. The setup, in fact, is 80 percent of the book. Oh, and this is the championship that almost anyone in the country can try out for. Feinstein does a great job with that.

Feinstein is an adroit writer with an eye for detail and an ability to drop funny linrd in without impeding the flow of the narrative. I highly recommend this book.

In fact, I like Feinstein a lot. I recommend "A Civil War," about Army-Navy football, "The Last Amateurs,"about the non-scholarship Patriot League in NCAA Division I college men’s basketball. "The Punch," about Kermit Washington hitting Rudy Tomjanovich and basically ending Rudy’s playing career, looks terrific, too. It’s on my list. He’s also done two other golf books, and a number of college basketball ones, including one about Bobby Knight.

2. The other sports book I read in the hospital was "The Mad Dog 100: The Greatest Sports Arguments of All Time," which was better than I expected. It’s by Christopher Russo, "The Mad Dog," of WFAN, a station I listened to a lot. Very funny, very easy to read. Sometimes, popcorn is good.
Mike is very opinionated and full of himself (but then so am I). We agree more than we disagree. The book is a series of vignettes about "who is the best[insert position, team, etc.],"commentaries on various controversies [put Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson in the Hall of Fame, and a series of "What would happen if The Dog ran this sport?". It is those pieces I really like.

While the Feinstein book is a good story and would be fine for anyone, this one’s for the sports junkie who knows the many names he’s tossing around. Get it in the summer and bring it to the beach.

Have a great day!

I can explain that . . .

I am sorry about the posting below.

It was, obviously supposed to an LJ community (50bookchallenge), not here.

Unfortunately, I cannot drive Semagic correctly without Niki over my shoulder.

Liam