Books.

Even though I tend to read more than one book at a time, I occassionally run in to the problem where none of the books I'm readig have captured my interest, and then my reading slows down to a crawl. This has been the problem with my current crop of reading material (and hence my earlier post -- how do you choose the books you read).

Actually, the book about the Globetrotters has really taken my interest in the last few days, and I'm certainly I'll be zooming through it soon. It's fascinating history and social studies. While I grew up in the 60's (an erea not yet covered in the book), I was not aware that the Globetrotters were treated like royalty nearly everywhere, except their own country. While they were used as propaganda the world over to show that "negroes" in the United States were not the victims of racial injustice, the truth was that only in the United States were they still not allowed to check in to certain hotels or eat at certain diners. So far a fascinating, truly fascinating book.

The Mike Lupica book, Travel Team, so far has only gone on to prove my theory that you don't need to be a good writer to sell a book and to have the publisher promote it mightily ... you only need to be famous. If you've ever wondered what your creative writing teacher means when s/he says, "Show! Don't tell!" then read this book. It is slow, dry, and so full of "telling" rather than "showing" that I want to slap the editor upside the head and yell, "What were you thinking!?"