Don't Know if Anyone Else is Interested in This...

...but I was.

He does The Voice.

I Was Wrong

So very, very wrong.

Bookses

The last seven books I've read:

The Wisdom of No Escape, by Pema Chodron -- Didn't really do it for me. I have friends who dig her a lot, but I don't think I'm unhappy enough to get into her stuff.

The Big Bam, by Leigh Montville -- This one's good. First significant bio of the Babe since the '70's.

The Miracle of Mindfulness, by Thich Naht Hanh. He's a wonderful little man, but I'm beginning to recognize that I like him better than I like his books, which all start to sound the same once you've read enough of them, which I think I have.

The Luckiest Man, by Jonathan Eig -- Eig's no Montville, but we were overdue for something fresh on Gehrig. It's good.

The Only Game in Town, by Fay Vincent -- Yeah, that Fay Vincent. It's his version of Ritter's The Glory of Their Times, which is a classic and required reading for baseball fans. It's good. Oral history of baseball according to ten retired ballplayers, some of whom you've heard of, some of whom not. It's good to get this stuff recorded before all these codgers die off. (Bob Feller bugs me.)

Rabbit is Rich, by John Updike -- I liked it, (Mike did not). Updike's good. I'm eager to get to this before long.

My Team, by Larry Dierker -- I like baseball. I like lists. Baseball lists are the best kind of list. There's stuff he's on crack about, but it was fun.

Currently: The Presidency of James Monroe, by Noble Cunningham. Better than Madison. Gotta take 'em one at a time.

By the way, Lance Parrish, One of My Guys, shows up very favorably in both Dierker's and Vincent's books. I knew it wasn't just me!

Where's Noel?

Very few of you beside my mother will get this, but the first four e-mails in my inbox are from:

**John Deiter
**Rob Knapp
**Tim Stehle
**Andrew Gill

Trippy.

Every Once in a While...

...I read stuff like this.