Booked

Sixty pages down, who knows how many to go.

I’m taking a quick break from the manuscript tonight (at least for right now….I’m giving myself an hour before digging in again) and figured I’d pass along some quick thoughts from the laptop.

I told myself I wouldn’t make rambling entries about music, movies and pop culture when I started this here blog, but I didn’t say anything about books. So before I reveal my quirk on that topic, let me throw out some quick teasers about a couple upcoming features I’m working on for the Northwest Examiner.

Holding true to the boys of summer, I caught ear that there is a relative obscure Red Sox bar in Northwest Portland. So guess who is going to knock out 1500 words with a review of the old new town tavern?

Who would have thunk it….

After spending nearly five years living in NW Portland two blocks from said Bo-Sox brewery (the exact name being protected to retain interest), I come to find out about the haven only once I’ve moved back to Portland….from a Detroit Tigers fan. Where was I all those years? Was I so consumed with greener pastures in my twenties that I couldn’t saunter down to the local watering hole for a brew, burger and 162 Sawx regular season games (plus postseason) broadcasted on multiple screens?

Guess the old proverb is true.

“It is less painful to learn in youth than to be ignorant in age.”

Nevertheless, the brief history on the Portland bar 2,540 miles from Red Sox nation will be featured in the September issue of the NWE. Stay tuned for a link in the coming weeks.

After that, a trip to the past with Jack Dempsey having put on a thrilling boxing display in Portland during his comeback in 1931 could be in the works for the October issue. More to come on that.

Now back to some page turning.

Anyone who knows me can attest to my appreciation for a good book. But only those who really know me, know I tend to read multiple books at once. Right now it is three.

Read a chapter here. Read a couple there. Read a couple here. Repeat.

I’m not sure when I started juggling reading books. All I know is people look at me like I’m David Blaine trying to woo the masses by burying myself alive when I do mention it. I think it was during college at Portland State. Starting off as a history major, we were required to read and write so much, that digging deep into the inner pages of a book or two or three became the norm for me. It’s been two books at the same time ever since.

Take last month for example: Paul Shirley’s Can I Keep My Jersey?….and The Soul of Baseball  by Joe Posnanski were on the menu.

Before that: James Frey’s Bright Shiny Morning…. and :07 Seconds Or Less by Jack McCallum.

This month it’s remembering David Halberstam: Firehouse and The Summer of ’49….and some research reading from Roger Kahn’s, A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring ‘20s.

Weird right? Sounds about right to me. I’m engrossed jumping from Dempsey and Prohibition to post World War II Boston and New York, to a firehouse that was literally two blocks from my apartment when I lived in Manhattan, and the amazing story of those who risked their lives on 9-11.

I see it as a never ending book buffet. All you can eat.

I always leave full.