51. Fair Ball

Fair Ball - Bob Costas

I had to take a short road trip a few days ago and threw this book into the CD player for the ride. I am glad I did. Bob Costas would get my vote for Major League Baseball commissioner. I like the way he thinks.

This book was not a bunch of baseball stories turning ballplayers into larger than life heros. This book discussed what Bob would do to fix some of the problems with MLB as he sees it. Well, as he saw it in 2000 anyway.

I liked it. I think his ideas for revenue sharing were sound, though the owners will never go for it without twisting their arms. I think his ideas concerning salary caps were sound, though the players union will never go for it without twisting their arms. Maybe if, like he says, both sides thought of the game rather than themselves it would work.

His comments about realignment were great. Some of the crackpot ideas are just ridiculous. Especially the radical realignment into strict geographical regions. I hate it. I am glad he sees it the same way. Realign into two fifteen team leagues with five per division...Houston moves to the AL West. I get it. I like it.

I love his comments on the wild card playoff spot. I hate it too. It takes so much away from the pennant races in each division. I love the idea of winning each of the three divisions to get into the playoffs with the number one team getting a bye in the first series. All the teams would be busting butt to be that number one team all year long.

As far as the DH? Yeah, there was a time for it. That time has passed. Lose the chump and make the pitchers hit. It adds so much to the strategy of the games. That is what baseball is all about.

He also said something that made a lot of sense concerning a great team compared to a crappy team. It comes down to the same result of a seven game series ending 4-3. If a crappy team adds all the wins after splitting 4-3 all year long you will end up with 60 something wins. Bad teams do that.  If a great team does the opposite and wins 4 of each 7 game series it will end up with 60 something losses. Prescisely what a great team ends up with, 90-100 wins. So, the difference in the best and worst teams comes down to winning or losing ONE game in each series all year long....and that is why the baseball season needs so many games to figure out who really is the best. That is also why the wild card should be eliminated. It allows chump teams a second chance with no risk. Silliness.

I love baseball!

50. Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

My wife gave me this one. I put it to the top of the list for a number of reasons. 1. It happened to be on the same subject we were discussing at church. 2. My wife got it for me. ;-)

The author is correct. Using Matthew 10 as the example of what discipleship is supposed to be he points out how culture, prosperity and materialism have given Americans an "excuse" to avoid being a real biblical disciple. It was fascinating, and I agree.

47. The Highest Treason

The Highest Treason - Randall Garrett

I read this description and was intrigued...

"Set in a future in which humanity’s dream of total equality is fully realized and poverty in terms of material wealth has been eliminated, humanity has straight-jacketed itself into the only social system which could make this possible. Class differentiation is entirely horizontal rather than vertical and no matter what one’s chosen field, all advancement is based solely on seniority rather than ability. What is an intelligent and ambitious man to do when enslaved by a culture that forbids him from utilizing his God-given talents? If he’s a military officer in time of war, he might just decide to switch sides. If said officer is a true believer in the principles that enslave him and every bit as loyal as he is ambitious, that’s tantamount to breaking a universal law of physics, but Colonel Sebastian MacMaine has what it takes to meet the challenge."

It turned out to be a great little sci-fi story that damned socialism and also a severely patriarchal society where women are considered property. It was fascinating to read along as the author pushed further and further into the extremes of the doctrines of the two societies.

I loved it.

46. From October to Brest-Litovsk

From October to Brest-Litovsk - Leon Trotsky

Trotsky was a Russian Marxist revolutionary who was instrumental in the Russian Revolution and afterward. He was a Soviet politician and the first leader of the Red Army.

He wrote this book about the Russian Revolution. It was very interesting to hear the story from the point of view of the revolutionary.

It was not exciting. It was downright boring at times, but those periods were fleeting. Overall it was a decent read that added a little understanding to my history database hidden deep in my brain.  :-)

42. The Adventures of Pinocchio

The Adventures of Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi

This is definitely not your Disney Pinocchio! Yes, Disney adapted the story, so, technically this is the Disney Pinocchio. What I mean is that the story is much different. It is not so kid friendly. It is dark and mean and full of stuff that would never be in a Disney flick.

Pinocchio is hung from an oak tree until he dies so a gang of deviant con-man animals can steal his money.

Pinocchio is sold as a donkey to a circus trainer that abuses him until he is lame. He is then sold to a man who tries to drown him in the ocean so he can use his hide to make a drum.

Gepetto is abusive, jailed, and eaten by a huge shark.

The talking cricket (Jimeny in the movie) is killed by Pinocchio when he throws a hammer at the little fella.

Pinocchio is purchased as a slave by a farmer. He is tied to a dog chain outside and is told to bark if some weasels come and try to steal the chickens.

Lampwick is sold as a donkey and works very hard until he dies.

A serpent laughs at Pinocchio's misfortunes in some mud. He laughs so hard his heart bursts and he dies.

Pinocchio finds Gepetto inside a giant shark...which just happens to be asthmatic and has a weak heart so it has to sleep with it's mouth open.

These kinds of things made the story great for me. They are definitely not Disney. There are many similarities and some common story lines, but the book is much much better...for an adult.

38. The Mystery Of The Yellow Room

The Mystery of the Yellow Room: Extraordinary Adventures of Joseph Rouletabille, Reporter - Gaston Leroux   An old mystery novel first published in 1908. Think Agatha Christie who-dun-it detective novel and you will be dead on.   This one is about a crime committed that is impossible to solve, but it does get solved eventually. There is the massive explanation in a court of law to save the day and prevent the conviction of an innocent man...all in the nick of time. Whew!   It was a good story and a decent who-dun-it. I could not figure it out at all.   Once again though, a detraction for me was all the French words and name pronunciations. French really bothers me for some reason. It is probably due to bad memories from Miss Roberts class in Junior High School and not actually caused by anything with a rational explanation. :-)

34. Dracula

Dracula - Bram Stoker

Outstanding!

Although, after loving the buildup...and the chase...and the total suspense of the final showdown... what a bummer that it ended so fast and so easily.

I loved this story, except that poor Lucy got screwed. Other than that it was great. I can't believe I spent 49.5 years having not read this book. Silly me.

32. The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

This was a great book. I loved it. I thought it got a little soap-operaish at times, but other than that it was fantastic. BIG, and fantastic. All the French words made me mad.

22. Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

This is a seriously long book. I was never going to read the written word, so I downloaded the book and listened to it in audio format.

The writing is amazing. The characters are some of the most well defined I have ever encountered. That probably comes easily when you use a zillion pages. I think the reader did an outstanding job with this humongous task.

So, why is it just OK? Because the whole book is just total soap opera. Ugh.

Tolstoy's writing is awesome. Tolstoy's story? I found it laborious and uninteresting. But, I am a man living in 2012.

17. The Cosmic Computer

The Cosmic Computer (Junkyard Planet) - H. Beam Piper

Here is a great science fiction novel first published in 1958.

There are a whole lot of sci-fi/ space novels from around that time. What is different about this one? Well, for one, I REALLY liked it. I think this is just as good as Jules Verne and H G Wells. Yes, it is that good.

I listened to this one on audio. I downloaded it for free. You can try it out on an mp3 player and see what I mean. You can get it here: The Cosmic Computer at Librivox.com

You won't be disappointed.

13. Helen's Babies: With Some Account of Their Ways Innocent, Crafty, Angelic, Impish, Witching, and Repulsive, Also, a Partial Record of Their Actions During Ten Days of Their Existence.

Helen's Babies: With Some Account of Their Ways Innocent, Crafty, Angelic, Impish, Witching, and Repulsive, Also, a Partial Record of Their Actions During Ten Days of Their Existence. - John Habberton

This is a humorous novel published originally in 1876. I like old books sometimes.

It is considered a children's book, but it along the lines of The Jungle Book, Peter Pan or Narnia. Definitely not a child's book as far as reading, but probably pretty entertaining for a child if it is read to them.

This one is about a man who lives in the city who gets a letter from his sister asking if he will spend a few weeks at their country home with her children while she goes on vacation with her husband.

He agrees. The children are five and three year old boys. They are feisty little buggers and get into a bunch of boy trouble. It is quite funny.

Oh, and the uncle falls in love with a country girl and moves to his own little plot and starts a whole new kind of life. Whatever.

It was fun reading this book and living in a different era for a while. The kids had a cart pulled by a goat. What fun that would have been growing up. Darn.

8. Play Ball: A Tribute to Our National Pastime

Play Ball: A Tribute to Our National Pastime

This time of year is hard for me. I am a huge baseball fan and I really miss it in January. Football is OK, but it is winding down as the playoffs proceed. Hockey is ongoing, but it is not a huge deal in the south and is tough to follow here. Basketball, well, I don't like it or care about it at all. NASCAR is just beginning to show signs of life with the very first runs at Daytona. Even that is way too early to give it more than a passing glance.

So, I start looking toward baseball and hope that teams will start talking about the upcoming spring training. Who will be playing where? What are the expectations? But, alas, it is still too early. I miss my game.

I tried to give myself a baseball booster shot by listening to this audio book. Maybe it would help me get through these winter baseball doldrums. It failed to do what I hoped it would. I miss the game even more now that I ended up teasing myself. Can you say "backfire"?

The audio book was cool though. Some pretty famous voices read some of the classic baseball writings. Baseball is dramatic to begin with. These guys made it even more so.

Casey at the Bat was written by Ernest Lawrence Thayer and read by Len Cariou.
Jinxes and What They Mean to a Ball-Player was written by Christy Matthewson and read by Charley Steiner.
Shoeless Joe was written by W. P. Kinsella and read by Grover Gardner.
An excerpt from If I Had a Hammer was written and read by Hank Aaron.

These were just a couple of the classics on these discs. They stirred my emotions with stories of the game I love about the legends of that game.

Damn, I miss baseball.

2. The Thing In The Attic

The Thing In The Attic - James Blish

Another 1950s science fiction novel. Here is the plot description I read about it:

"The Thing in the Attic depicts a very successful seeding project. It tells the story of a small group of intellectuals from a primitive culture of modified monkey-like humans living in the trees of their jungle world. Having openly voiced the opinion that the godly giants do not literally exist as put down in the book of laws, they are banished from the treetops for heresy. In their exile on the ground they have to adapt to vastly different circumstances, fight monsters resembling dinosaurs, and finally happen upon the godly giants — who turn out to be human scientists who have just arrived on the world to monitor the progress of the local adapted humans. The protagonists are told by the scientists that their whole race must eventually leave the treetops to conquer their world and that they have become pioneers of some sort for accomplishing survival."

That is exactly what happened. A quick little read that is full of adventure and danger. Fun again.

87. The Vig

The Vig - John Lescroart

Good cops...bad cops...ex-cons gone straight...mafioso on the take...hot girls wanting to be famous...insurance money...understanding ex-wives...bartender buddies that should have an honorary psych degree...not so perfect goons and hitmen...whoopee!

It was OK. More of the same. No thrill. Just another story. Predictable. Even the best plans are doomed to overlook some minute detail that will unravel the entire plan in very convenient ways. Whatever.

86. Whitewash

Whitewash - Alex Kava

Eh. This was just your average every day run of the mill nothing special but it was entertaining.

The part I found most fascinating was the very idea that organic materials left over from processing plants (chicken heads, etc.) could be turned into oil by accelerating the supposed process by which oil is created naturally. Imagine the potential.

The part I found ridiculous is that they could do the same with hurricane debris (lumber, plastics, metals, etc.).

So, what it came to was that the company producing this new oil was having to pay for the chicken heads and stuff because fertilizer companies wanted that same stuff. There was cost involved. On the other hand, due to numerous hurricanes, the government was paying 50 dollars per ton for someone to haul stuff away. So, the corporation that spent billions on inventing and building this plant and making it work so that the country, and the world, would not be dependent on Middle East oil fields, was suddenly so short minded that they took shortcuts that they knew would put dioxins into a river...just to save a dollar short term.

I think that is ridiculous. A corporation invested billions. Now the author wants us to believe they would not refine the process for what they said would be two more years in order to recycle the debris waste safely? That is insane! No corporation is going to risk billions in order to save a few hundred thousand. Especially when they were just about to be awarded a contract that gave them exclusive rights to supplying the Department of Defense.

They threw away a future. They discarded an awesome invention and MASSIVE profit potential in order to save a dollar right now? Totally ridiculous.

Other than that, it was not bad, except that maybe there were too many characters and different story lines that just happened to all coincide in the end and make a nice neat little package. Yeah yeah yeah.

85. Crisis

Crisis - Robin Cook

A medical thriller that I listened to making trip to and from work. It kept me interested, but was less than thrilling. I had a suspicion that the cause of death would be from the pills given by the doctor. It sucks when I figure it out so early.

What really bugs me is that the doc had some guys come in and rough up his own kids in their home. What a douche!

83. The Land That Time Forgot

The Land That Time Forgot - Edgar Rice Burroughs

I loved this book. It mixed modern technology (kind of) with the world of dinosaurs and cavemen. What a riot.

The book was published around 1916. A World War I German U-Boat (submarine) ends up in a fantastical world somewhere in the South Pacific where time has stood still.

It is a fantastic read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I listened to this one on my MP3 player during a recent road trip. It passed the time and kept me awake and alert while driving. Much better than listening to crappy music on the radio.  :-)

74. Why We Suck

Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid - Dr. Denis Leary

What a pissa! This dude cracks me up.

This book reminds me of conversations with Billy and Brian Skidmore or many other friends from Long Island.

It is what it is.

73. Long Time Leaving

Long Time Leaving: Dispatches From Up South - Roy Blount Jr.

A liberal southern democrat who has lived in Massachusetts and New York compares where he came from with where he is. It is kind of funny at times. It rambles on and on at others.

I loved the comparisons of people's viewpoints and ways of life.

Blount lost me about half way through when he started these long dialogue discussions between William Faulkner, Shakespeare and Mark Twain. He didn't get me back when he spoke of Ray Charles or other singers. I totally lost interest for that whole section of the book. It was probably about half.

But, overall he had me chuckling.

I have heard Roy Blount Jr somewhere before. I did this one on audio and read by the author. I know that voice. I wonder from where.

72. L.A. Outlaws

L.A. Outlaws - T. Jefferson Parker

This is a fun crime novel. Exciting and action packed. An LA County Sheriff with unwavering integrity. A beautiful dark and mysterious modern day Robin Hood type outlaw running around LA. She just happens to really be an award winning history teacher in the LA Unified school district, a single mom, and the last person anyone would suspect...except of course the super duper copper.

The book is no big thrill. The bad guys are bad. There are crooked cops to help them be even badder. There are ties to MS13 which gives things a more vicious feel. The "real" bad guy likes to hack people up with a machete that shoots shotgun shells. Yeah, whatever.

One of the best parts of this book was the cars. Allison Murietta, the "outlaw" bad ass, just happens to love boosting awesome rides. She not only steals them, but is a real car enthusiast. I liked some of her descriptions of the cars.

The ending was terrible. Talk about the worlds longest feel-good do-good wrap up. Everything ended happily. The cops relationship with his dad. The cops traumatic experiences from his Iraq war experiences. The family history. The kids are all cared for. blah blah blah blah... come on... and the option for a sequel was left glaringly open.

Like I said, it is just another crime story. In fact, there is probably nothing new here at all. I still enjoyed it. It required no thought at all. That was nice for a change.