Il Basket d'Italia was Jim Patton's first book. Looks like he went on to write a series of mysteries, but this one is about him spending a season (1992-93) in Italy to write about the Italian professional basketball league. With hindsight it's fun to read about Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja, etc. at a time when Europeans were very rare in the NBA, and Mike D'Antoni is a major character.
However, the story is really about Patton's year, and is almost the kind of travel book that Bill Bryson does so well: a sense of the place, a sense of the author, and basketball too.***
Friday, February 23, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
First post
I've always thought it would be nice to keep a log of the books I read. I'm going to try doing it online. Maybe the attraction of technology will keep me going longer than I otherwise might.
I guess I'll also try to minimally rate the books with a star system. I'll never even bother with one star, because I wouldn't finish a book that I'd give that rating to. Two stars will be for a book that's just barely finishable, probably because it's part of a series, or has some compensating strength apart from its plot, character, or writing flaws. Three stars will mean I think a person who likes that kind of book would enjoy it. Four stars are for a book that is very good for it's type. Five stars means I think the book transcends its genre to be among the very good books of any type.
I liked Mike Lupica's Miracle on 49th Street because I am a basketball fan, a Celtics fan, a fan of YA lit, and a father of a teenage girl. ***
Richard Stark is the name Donald Westlake uses when he writes serious crime books. A few years ago I decided I generally prefer my formula crime books to be serious. Stark writes about Parker, a professional thief. This book comes immediately on the heels of Nobody Runs Forever and Parker is in deep trouble in upstate New York. Reliably intense. ***
I'm forty pages from being done with Sebastian Junger's A Death in Belmont. Very solid nonfiction with a personal connection to the Boston Strangler case. ***
I guess I'll also try to minimally rate the books with a star system. I'll never even bother with one star, because I wouldn't finish a book that I'd give that rating to. Two stars will be for a book that's just barely finishable, probably because it's part of a series, or has some compensating strength apart from its plot, character, or writing flaws. Three stars will mean I think a person who likes that kind of book would enjoy it. Four stars are for a book that is very good for it's type. Five stars means I think the book transcends its genre to be among the very good books of any type.
I liked Mike Lupica's Miracle on 49th Street because I am a basketball fan, a Celtics fan, a fan of YA lit, and a father of a teenage girl. ***
Richard Stark is the name Donald Westlake uses when he writes serious crime books. A few years ago I decided I generally prefer my formula crime books to be serious. Stark writes about Parker, a professional thief. This book comes immediately on the heels of Nobody Runs Forever and Parker is in deep trouble in upstate New York. Reliably intense. ***
I'm forty pages from being done with Sebastian Junger's A Death in Belmont. Very solid nonfiction with a personal connection to the Boston Strangler case. ***
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