i hate reading books because when i'm reading an enjoyable book, i can't put it down. when i put it down i can think of nothing other than returning to the book. it's ridiculous. reading gets hold of me like some powerful drug and i'll do anything to get more of it. i have no idea why this is. and i hate that i'm powerless to stop it.
this will come as a shock to no one, but books are different than movies and tv shows. admittedly, i love watching tv. and i understand how tv works. for the most part, it's a serialized thing. the idea of waiting another week for another episode is the way things work. it's part of the convention of dramas and sitcoms. i'm okay with that. yeah, i love a "real world" marathon as much as the next guy does, but that's an indulgence i can live without. and movies, well, movies rarely run longer than two and a half hours. i don't mind sitting in a movie theatre for that amount of time. i'm not capable of reading a book in two hours.
this weekend i read moneyball by michael lewis (who is married to tabitha soren!). i didn't want to stop reading. the story it tells is one of those stories that is told best in book form. if it's turned into a movie, i can't imagine how it's going to become more exciting. it's a book about numbers and strategy. it's a book whose structure examines the oakland a's during the 2002 season. lewis had great access to general manager billy beane. and the book is fascinating! it seems to describe a time and place that won't be replicated. i don't know enough about baseball to truly understand everything, but i feel like once the majority of baseball owners and general managers start doing things beane's way, the playing field will change. if everyone's acting the same way, there won't be any inefficiencies in the market to exploit. accurate representations of players skill and value to a team will only become more so. i'm sure there are a million discussions on the web about this. and because it's the internet, i'm able to begin tracking them down. a quick search leads me to a few posts from a month ago by the stats guru at baseball musings. he pointed to this article in the new republic by aaron schatz. unfortunately, it's subscription only. the baseball musings site has a good excerpt and also offers a few opinions. both posts are worth checking out:
What if Everyone Played Moneyball?
What if Everyone Played Moneyball, Part II
it's only been within the past few weeks that i've started thinking about baseball in this manner, but i can really see the fun that dan and jamie have had playing rotisserie baseball all these years.
and that's one of the best things about picking up a book. it puts your head somewhere else. if you're reading something you're interested in you can totally remove yourself from whatever is going on around you. it's incredibly fun. and whenever i pick up a good book, that's what i do. and there's often that unexpected feeling of finishing a good book. you feel like you know more. you feel like you can finally begin having a conversation about a certain subject. obviously, not all books lead to new revelations about life, but the ones that do are better than the best tv shows and movies in the world. i can't wait to figure out what's next on my reading list.
