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scottjbaxter's Reviews (585)
Frank DeFord's book gives a look at what he considers the founding of modern baseball with the New York Giants in the first decade or two of the twentieth century. I have mixed feelings about the book because it had many enjoyable incidents and I feel like I learned a good amount; at the same time, DeFord tends to ramble and swithc without warning from journalistic to the vernacular. Here was my favorite line from the book:
[h.L.] Menchen held no more regard for McGraw's occupation [baseball]. "I hate all sports," he once wrote, "as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense."
[h.L.] Menchen held no more regard for McGraw's occupation [baseball]. "I hate all sports," he once wrote, "as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense."
I really enjoyed reading Pinkwater's book. It was one of Michal's favorites in second grade and he did a class project about it and I was curious to read it ever since then. Like all of Pinkwater's books, this one is filled with an absurd sense of humor as, I think, the following passage illustrates:
"But how do you get squared off goldfish?" he asked.
"Of course! My secret! I do this: I put the little baby goldfish in a medium sized tank. All around the tank I put beautiful oil paintings of the bottom of a lake. The little baby goldfish is very stupid. He doesn't know they are only photographs. Also, when he bumps into the glass walls of his tank, he can't understand that it is glass -- so he forgets about it. Fish do not like to think about things they can't understand. So! Thinking the tank is as big as a lake, the goldfish begins to grow. He gets so big that his sides are touching the walls of the tank. Soon he grows to fill the corners. To make the top of the fish flat, I turn him over every so often. Presto! A square fish. The only thing I have to watch out for , is that the fish will displace all the water in his tank and suffocate. When the fish is nice and square, I put him in a nice big tank, with other nice fishes, and his is very happy."
"but why do you want them to be square?" Arthur asked.
"Why? Why? Because they are easy to stack when the are that shape, you silly boy!" Professor Mazzochi shouted.
And so on...
"But how do you get squared off goldfish?" he asked.
"Of course! My secret! I do this: I put the little baby goldfish in a medium sized tank. All around the tank I put beautiful oil paintings of the bottom of a lake. The little baby goldfish is very stupid. He doesn't know they are only photographs. Also, when he bumps into the glass walls of his tank, he can't understand that it is glass -- so he forgets about it. Fish do not like to think about things they can't understand. So! Thinking the tank is as big as a lake, the goldfish begins to grow. He gets so big that his sides are touching the walls of the tank. Soon he grows to fill the corners. To make the top of the fish flat, I turn him over every so often. Presto! A square fish. The only thing I have to watch out for , is that the fish will displace all the water in his tank and suffocate. When the fish is nice and square, I put him in a nice big tank, with other nice fishes, and his is very happy."
"but why do you want them to be square?" Arthur asked.
"Why? Why? Because they are easy to stack when the are that shape, you silly boy!" Professor Mazzochi shouted.
And so on...
I read Coben's book not looking for great literature, but a time passing thriller. I suppose it was that, but color me unimpressed. The plot was ok, but I kept waiting to encounter a paragraph, or even a sentence that impressed me so much I just has to copy it down. That moment never came. I also read the book since I felt obliged to read something New Jersey based now that I have lived in this state for over a year. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the descriptions were so generic they could have been about just about any suburban community in the United States. I have read better books.