The Book Shopper

Autographed Baseball (Books)

 

Last year, my book friend Dave in Seattle sent me a personally autographed copy of Luke Salisbury’s The Cleveland Indian: The Legend of King Saturday (Black Heron Press, Seattle). Each spring I try to read at least one baseball book to mark the beginning of the new season (last year it was Robert Coover’s  The Universal Baseball Association). Salisbury and I are connected by two degrees of separation as we both were contributors to the now defunct baseball literary review, Elysian Fields Quarterly.

Originally published in 1992, The Cleveland Indian is a solid historical novel and centers around the King Saturday, a Native American who played for the Cleveland Spiders in 1898 and is based on the real life Penobscot Indian Louis Sockalexis.  The story is told from the perspective of a Harvard educated Harry Harrison, who admires Saturday’s athletic prowess and keen sense of “hustle.”  (The phenomena of Saturday’s athleticism reminded me of Bo Jackson’s incredible 1989 season with the Kansas City Royals.) But the book is more than just a glimpse into old timey baseball – though there are insights to all time greats John McGraw and Cy Young -- there is love, murder, and several underlying political messages. Not only are there examples of racism, but the book reminds us of U.S. hegemony that dates back to the Spanish American War.

 If you interested in used baseball books, check out Books Again in downtown Decatur.  According to owner Jim Adams they’ve recently required some autographed books via Atlanta Braves trainer, Dr. John Cantwell. Included in the Cantwell collection is autographed copy of Henry Aaron’s Bad Henry (1974) autographed by Aaron himself. There are also signed copies of Coach John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success: Building Blocks for a Better Life (2005) and Sir Edmund Hillary’s School House in the Clouds (1964). (Photos courtesy of Books Again)

While I was visiting with Jim, he also pulled out his latest major acquisition, an autographed copy of Martin Luther King’s Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. Albeit, this is not a baseball story, but those interested in American history cannot help but being in awe when seeing this autographed book.

 

Literacy Numbers for Knoxville

Earlier this week I was back in sunny Knoxville as a guest of a book group that had picked The Book Shopper: A Life in Review as their April selection. One topic of discussion was literacy in the United States and I presented some figures, which people (even myself) found hard to believe. With this in mind, I double-checked my source, Chris Hedges’ The Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009, Nation Books). Here’s the passage:

In the United States, there are 7 million illiterate Americans. Another 27 million are unable to read well enough to complete a job application, and 30 million can’t read a simple sentence.  There are some 50 million who read at the 4th or 5th grade level. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate – a figure that is growing by 2 million a year. A third of the high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives, and neither do 42 percent of college graduates. In 2007, 80 percent of the families in the United States did not buy or read a book. (p.44)

   Hedges documents his sources and given his scholarly pedigree, I feel fairly confident in using them. Empire is a concise, riveting, and sobering book about our shift from a literate culture to an image based culture. This was also a topic of discussion at the Knoxville book club.

  I appreciated being invited to be with this group and so was my publisher Paul Dry of Paul Dry Books. The next day I chatted with Paul and he was unfazed about my stories of how people purchased the book (stores, online, library sale discards). Paul believes the way books are ultimately sold is by word of mouth. People rarely recommend books they haven’t read and having twenty people read The Book Shopper is good for the book’s life span. To show his appreciation Paul wants to offer members of the group a 30 % discount (shipping is always free) on any book they order from Paul Dry Books. You can use the discount code SHOPBOOKS at checkout.

Join MARTA Book Club #5

 

For those unfamiliar with the club, MARTA book club is a loose, very loose, confederation of people who read while riding the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s public transportation.  There are no meeting times, no organization, no t-shirts, and no special fares.  Very convenient. The only requirement to be a member of MARTA Book Club is to read a book while riding public transportation.

Newspapers do not qualify and those with Kindles and other electronic reading devices are not welcome (because how in the hell am I supposed to figure out what you’re reading if I can’t see the book cover!)

What We Are Reading: Here’s a list of what Atlantans are reading since my last MARTA posting:

 Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis

Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Juices Teas & Tonics by John Heinerman

Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse by David W. Orr

Devices and Desires (Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries, No. 8) by P. D. James

The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks by Randall Robinson (two sitings)

The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham

1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) by David E. Garland

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Atlanta’s A-List Book Club is discussing this book on May 24th.

Night's Pleasure by Amanda Ashley

Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem. Stay tuned a review of this book is coming to this blog.

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer. While in Decatur on April  9th promoting her new novel about the crisis surrounding teenagers, Imperfect Birds, Anne Lamott gave kudos to Krakauer.  My takeaway from Lamott’s 90 minute lecture and reading was that parents of teenagers should lock up their children until their neo-cortexes fully develop.

Poison & Golf

Yes, they seem unrelated, but they both are at least noteworthy:

Last week, I attended Deborah Blum’s reading of her new book The Poisoner’s Handbook at the Decatur Public Library.  For those who like forensic crime stories, you may want to check out Handbook. Blum, a Pulitzer prize winner, gives an historical account of two early pioneers of forensic science chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler and their trailblazing adventures in New York City circa 1918.

Blum assured us that even though there is a lot of information about detecting poisons from arsenic to carbon monoxide, specific recipes are not included. After sharing stories from the book, Blum spent 30 minutes fielding questions from the audience of about fifty attendees. Some of the discussion shifted to toxins in food and home products. Blum keeps an extensive blog on related topics including her experiences with Georgia moonshine. 

With respect to golf, I read David Fulmer’s review of Steve Eubank’s book To Live & Die in Dixie about the 1921 murder of golf pro J. Douglas Edgar (not poisoned – punctured femoral artery) on the streets of Atlanta.  The review ran last Sunday in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Usually book reviews in the AJC are a little thin, but Fulmer gave specific criticisms of the book (a trace of venom, perhaps) and I appreciated seeing some depth in the book review section.