One of the great joys of baseball, particularly for British fans keen to learn as much as possible about it, is that the sport has been the inspiration for countless wonderful books. The quality of writing about baseball probably surpasses that of any other sport and the only problem is knowing where on earth to start!
One of the reasons why I moved to this domain back in April was that I wanted BaseballGB to be more than just a blog. I wanted to create a few “resource” features that were not dependent on current affairs and could be built up over time to form a substantial reference section. Book reviews were one of the first things to come to mind.
My plan is to read (well, in several cases re-read) and review a book every week over the off-season, which would take me to about twenty reviews by the time the 2008 season begins. Although I haven’t published any yet, I am on schedule, with four books already switched from the “to read” pile to the “read” pile. I plan to publish the first review, a look at Robert Creamer’s seminal biography of Babe Ruth, on Wednesday and for no particular reason I think I’m going to stick to Wednesday being “book review” day. Hopefully everything will go to plan and twenty reviews will be published by April next year (maybe more? we’ll see) and from that point onwards I will aim to add more reviews on a regular basis. If I read a baseball book, and it’s rare that I don’t have one on the go, I’ll write a review and publish it here.
Of course, book reviews are no exact science. They will represent my personal opinion and your own reviews of these books (plus recommendations of similar titles that other readers and I might enjoy) are more than welcome. By April 2009 (which seems a long way away right now) I aim to have published over fifty substantial book reviews which, along with your comments, should be a useful resource for newcomers to the sport as well as established fans who would like a bit of guidance on what to read next.
It’s difficult to overstate just how much great baseball writing is out there for us to enjoy and the list of must-reads seems to get bigger every year with hordes of new candidates being published. Best get on with reading then!
