The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy

When I first started to read this book I thought that it was supposed to be a stupid funny book, because my dad told me it was written by a guy from Monty Python. Well, it wasn't, and I almost abandoned the book. There are some small parts that are laugh out loud funny, but not much. But I did keep reading it because everyone said that it was good. I am about halfway through, and I don't want to stop reading. It is very good and you get pulled into it. Now I think that the point of this book is just to be quirky and bizarre. Which it mist definitely is. The book started when Arthur was laying in front of a bulldozer so his house wouldn't get run over, when Ford, a longtime friend (who is secretly from a small planet elsewhere in the universe.) convinced him to come get a beer and to get the workers to lay in front of the house. When Arthur asked why, Ford simply said "The Earth is about to explode." So Ford and Arthur went out elsewhere in the universe, were they went through tons of weird experiences including: Being a second a way from dying, woke up in a weird spaceship, Ford reunited with his long lost cousin who is the president of the galaxy and stole the greatest spaceship ever, were part of a high speed chase, and found the greatest and most talked about planet ever. What a two days!
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Shaq Uncut

The book I am reading right now is Shaq Uncut. It is Shaquille O'Neal's new autobiography. I am about halfway through it right now, and so far it has been pretty entertaining. But, like most autobiographies, I am not sure how much is true. One thing that I noticed is that Shaq seems incredibly un-hummble. Every page is like "what was Kobe thinking, trying to be the leader when the big man was clearly in charge?" Or, "35 points and 15 rebounds against Portland, on to the next round." But he forgot to mention that Derek Fisher hit a buzzer-beater and averaged a double double, and Kobe played like Kobe. Some of my favorite parts were when Shaq complained about all the different groups after him. In a Taco Bell commercial, he had to crane his neck to get the tacos and his neck got stuck sideways. So people with a neck syndrome went after The Big Aristotle. In another Taco Bell commercial he bites a taco and his body catches fire. So people with body burns went after him. And as he says, PETA was always out to get him. I think that this is a pretty good book, which is certainly entertaining. I would recommend this to sports fans.

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Loose Balls

Loose Balls is a book by Terry Pluto. It is about the wild life of the ABA. Although it wasn't around for very long, it had its fair share of crazy stories and great players. Many great players/journalists got their start in the ABA. Bob Costas, George Gervin, David Thompson, George Mcginnis, Moses Malone, and of course the high flying Julius Erving. A unique thing about the ABA is that they really infuriated the NBA. They had heated exhibition games and classic bidding wars. The ABA first signed underclassmen, which pissed the NBA off. One thing the NA couldn't match the ABA in was creativity and fun. The ABA had a unique red white and blue ball, a three point line, the first leaugue to have a dunk contest, and they were also the first to have handouts before the game. Another great thing about the league is the stories. Marvin Barnes had superstar talent, but never connected the dots in his head. When his team, the St.Louis Spirits, took a flight that took them back in time(because of time zones) he refused because "I ain't gettin' in no time machine." After Bob Costas made two big blunders in a row, Marvin said "It's okay, I've always been looking for a little white boy to drive me around in my Rolls-Royce." There is also stories of the ABA's famed Dolgoff plan, in which a players salary would be paid over years. All-In-All, there has never and never will be a league that matched the style, flair, talent, passion, and fun of the ABA. About the book, it is great because it isn't typical writing. It is similar to Glory Of Their Times, so the book is all interviews of players, owners, and coaches. This book is an excellent read for anyone who wants to learn about a league that isn't the NBA.

Sweetness

Sweetness is a biography about Walter Payton. I heard about this book because on the cover of Sports Illustrated, there was a picture of Walter that said the hero that now one knew: Sweetness by Jeff Pearlman. Pearlman said he wanted to write about Payton because no one, besides family and close friends, knew the real Walter. Even his autobiography was 40% fiction. But I'm not so sure if he should have wrote this book. Sweetness isn't your average biography. There is no fiction to keep people from knowing the truth about Payton. Do we really need to know about his suicide attempts, or his drug use? If people view Payton as the only athlete to do those things, they'd be wrong. Many athletes have attempted suicide, including flamboyant Deion Sanders. And pretty much every proffesional athlete ever did drugs. 

  When most people think of Walter, they think of an incredible athlete with a great work ethic. But this book reveals the hero of Walter.

October 1964

David Halberstam is the author of this book, and he is my favorite author. One of the things I like about him is that in each chapter he writes about one player in depth, and writes about there road to where they are now. When he does this, you really get a feel for the players, but you also read about exciting seasons for both teams. Once you get to the World Series, he describes each game in-depth, but I like when he does  this because it's not just a boring game in the dog days of summer, but the World Series, when games are always exciting. This series had everything, including Mickey Mantle's walk off home run, to Bob Gibsons incredibly play on the mound.
   If I were to read a baseball book written by Halberstam, were he talks more about the players, or a book were it's more about the whole team, like Jeff Pearlmans great book The Bad Guys Won, I would probably  read a Halberstam style book. But if there was a team as insane as the Mets in The Bad Guys One, I would read one about the entire team.

The son of neptune

This is a very interesting book because it's an intireley different series than the lightning thief, but it has some of the same characters and problems. this is the second book in the second series, and in the first book, Jason, a hero from an unknown roman camp comes to camp half-blood and virtually replaces a missing Percy. In the second book, we meet an unknown Roman camp thats going crazy over the missing Jason, but when Percy arrives he goes on a quest with misfits Frank and Hazel to save, well,the world. They need to be back in four days,and if they don't the camp will be overrun by monsters, and it will be the beggining of the end. Some of the similaritys beetween the two books is that both Jason and Percy lose their memories. This can be very stressfull to read because you just want to yell at Jason or Percy because they're so close to find something out, but they can't remember. But I guess that this is good or else it would be to easy for the two camps to unite and defeat Gaea, the earth goddess who's planning to control earth. At the end of the book camp half-blood comes to help the roman camp, and then there's a cliff hanger.

The Machine

The Machine by Joe Posnaski

I know That my last blog was also a baseball book, but right now I'm in a phase where all I read is baseball books. The last 6 books that I've read have all been baseball books, but I,ll read something new soon.
Anyway, The Machine is about the 1975 Cinncinatti Reds (a.k.a the big red machine.) The thing I love about this book is that unlike the Boys Of Summer, a much more famous baseball book, you really get to learn a lot about the players, after the first little bit, a felt like I personally knew all the greats on this legendary team. In the beginning of the '75 season' the Reds do not start off good at all. In fact, they were under .500 in late may. Hall of fame manager Sparky Anderson was not pleased at all. But he knew his four great players would come through for him. During spring training, the first thing he said was: "You four are royalty, (pointing to hall of famer Tony Perez, the best catcher ever Johnny Bench, all time hit leader Pete Rose, and 2 time MVP Joe Morgan) and the rest of you are turds." This was slightly unfair, considering Ken Griffey, future MVP winner George Foster, and Don Gullett, who in Sparky's mind would be one of the greatest pitchers ever if he stayed healthy. One day Don was on the mound for the Reds, and a come backer struck him in the hand. He had broke a bone, and was gonna be out for a while. You think this would make Sparky really mad, especially because he had a history of throwing tantrums. Apparently his friend"Bubsa" thought the same, so when Sparky was all Mr. happy, he was confused. What he didn't know was that Sparky had invented the modern bullpen, and changed the game forever.
During the two months that Gullet was gone The Reds went on an absolute tear. Ken Griffey hit great, Sparky's least favorite player, John Yuckovich got sent down, George Foster got in the lineup, The four non- turds hit like crazy, and Sparky pulled pitchers after any minor error. When Don got back the Dodgers were down by 20 games and completely out of the race. The Reds steamrolled the Pirates to get to the World Series in the first round of the playoffs. The surprise Red Sox met the machine to set the stage for the greatest World Series in the history of the game. The series had it all. Dramatic home runs, clutch hitting, and just drama. The BoSox didn't score in the famous incident when the runner on third misheard his third base coach, which led to a blunder that almost cost the Sox the game. Carlton Fisk was cold and tired, so when he led of the bottom of the twelfth and crushed a ball heading foul, he waved frantically for a it to go fair. And miraculously struck the foul pole. After the game, everyone acknowledged that this was the greatest game in history.
In game seven Pete Rose is furious. He's playing on the greatest team ever assembled, and they are losing to a bunch of losers. How can his team of losers can't win the world series. In the sixth inning they're losing 3-0, but the big dog, Tony Perez hit a home run. Then in the ninth, Joe Morgan ripped the game winning RBI, and three outs later the machine won the world series. Sparky built his team like a machine, when America was long hair and mustaches. In the end, the team with so many great personality's won the wold series, and cemented there place as the best team in baseball history.





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