Why I Love Reading: How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball

For those of you that don't know, I am a die hard New York Mets fan. I love baseball and following my team throughout the year. It's not my favorite sport to play but there's something indescribably great about watching it, especially at the park. So for Emlyn Chan's Books That Made You Love Reading Challenge, in honor of baseball coming back, I re-read possibly my favorite picture book from when I was younger, How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball by David Shannon.

It hasn't been too long since I've read this one, it's the only picture book that has stayed with me throughout college and afterwards and there's a reason. The story is great, if short. It starts with the tale of Boss Swaggert, a ballplayer who gets booed off the field and turns to finance. Bitter, he works and gets baseball outlawed arguing that ballplayers make too much money while people starve. But when he does, spring never comes back. No baseball, no spring. It's a sad time. Then Georgie is born and the only thing he can say is old illegal baseball terms. "Batter up!" instead of "I'm ready." "No hitter!" instead of "look out!" This all leads to Georgie eventually having a three pitch showdown with Swaggert to get baseball back or go to prison forever!

Boss Swaggert

As a kid, the story is just fun. The big evil man outlaws baseball and the kid saves the day! As an adult though, it's amazing to see the political themes at work in this story I first read when I was six. The communist overtones are fairly obvious, Boss Swaggert even looks Russian. They've taken the money from the rich (ballplayers) and distributed it to the people except that everyone is miserable now. From the 'Factory Police' to the Radbourns standing in lines, it's easy to pick out the Soviet comparison.

What's interesting though, is how these themes are very true and yet take on a whole new meaning 18 years after the book. In the times of Occupy Wall Street and the 99%, it seems even more plausible than it would have in the '90s for something like this to happen. All it would really take is one frighteningly persuasive person.

In the book Boss Swaggert buys up lots of newspaper, radio, and TV stations where he talks about destroying baseball and during one speech has a line "Let's tear down the ballparks and build factories instead. Then everyone will have jobs!" Completely different ideology aside, I couldn't help but think of Rush Limbaugh as I read this part. All it really would take is one properly placed, well spoken extremist to do something like outlaw games if it meant more jobs for people.

If you haven't read Georgie Radbourn, I can't recommend it enough. Pair with Field of Dreams, a hot dog and a beer for true baseball excitement. That line started as a joke but it actually sounds like an amazing day... I'm gonna go to the grocery store.

The Hobbit: Or a Review That Will Go There and Potentially Back Again

To recap: this year as part of a challenge from Emlyn Chand I'll be reading twelve books from my childhood and reflecting on how it's a different experience years later. Really it's just a good excuse to read some books I haven't read in a while and blog about 'em.

Well, anyway, the first book I went with was The Hobbit, which I first read in the 6th grade and haven't read since. This was in no small part influenced by seeing the trailer for the new movie. That trailer is unreal and after I saw it, I realized I couldn't remember most of the actual plot details from the book! So, with my fancy new Kindle, I downloaded The Hobbit Enhanced Edition. This fancy edition comes with full color versions of Tolkien's own drawings spread across the book AND audio recordings of Tolkien himself reading/singing passages, which added a new piece of fun to re-reading the book.

One of the first things that I noticed while reading was the style of Tolkien and it's something I do in my writing but to a lesser extent (and not as well, I might add). He does it as if he's actually narrating, not writing. He's telling you a story before bed, side comments included. It's such a remarkable violation of everything you've been taught about writing, how could I not love it?

Writing in grade school, my teachers always said I write too much like I'm talking but I always felt that was better for reading. Maybe I wasn't fully aware of it at the time but somehow I knew that if something reads like it's from a friend, you'll be warmer to it and thus you'll be more willing to trust and join the characters. In The Hobbit, we don't just get Bilbo's tale, we get Bilbo's tale the way it would be told around a campfire. There is no more classic way to hear a story.

After I finished the book my biggest revelation was simply that I had forgotten how good it really was. But beyond that, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy a good fantasy book. I've been reading so much 'hard' science fiction recently that I forgot how much fun it is to enter a world that is completely separate from our own. Little unassuming Bilbo goes off on his adventure and encounters trolls and goblins and dragons and those are just, plain fun.

There are possibilities here.

What was really cool about this reread is that it got me thinking about stories and worlds I'd left behind long ago. And there's no reason to leave them behind. I never thought they were too childish they just... weren't what I was doing at the moment. It started me questioning some of the fundamentals of my storytelling and that is more than I could have possibly asked for (it even inspired a rather fabulous idea for a web series that will combine my more current love of science fiction with the older love of fantasy in a most intriguing fashion).

At the end of the day, The Hobbit is probably one of the most purely fun reads that I've had in a while and I can't wait to reread The Lord of the Rings later this year.

I.M. Literate

Well, it's a new year and that means setting goals. One of the goals I've set for myself this year is to both read and write more often. The Kindle my parents gave me for the holidays will undoubtedly aid me in the reading part and I intend this blog to take a brunt of the writing part of it.

Today I was reading some posts on my friend Rachel's blog (Coffee and Cigarettes) and in turn followed that to a blog I had, admittedly, never been to before. But Rachel's post spoke of a challenge and I the competitor in me said "what have you got?"

The challenge from author Emlyn Chand is basically to read 12 books from your childhood (one per month) and then blog out the results. Will the stories hold up over time? Will they affect me the same way emotionally as the first time through? Do I even remember the story the way it actually happened? How much have I really changed in the years since I've read these books? These questions and more await their answers....

I haven't figured out ALL the books I plan on reading this year but here are a couple I plan on getting in at some point during the year.

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball by David Shannon
• Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss
• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (let's say all of them for now)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke
• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein 

The challenge begins with a simple question: why do I like reading? I suppose it's very much the same as why I like watching television or movies and why I like playing video games, I like the escape. The real world can be boring, repetitive and dull. Books, movies, games; they all allow us an opportunity to experience things that we would never get to experience in the real world. Sure, there are endless great places and things to explore in this world but I can't go into space in real life (yet) and I definitely can't journey to lands like Middle-Earth but I can in my head. A book can take me there.

These stories can also give us hope. If our own story isn't going quite the way we wanted to, we can find another person who overcame even greater obstacles to save the world or meet the girl or just succeed at something.

Basically, books are a way to experience the impossible and I can't think of a better reason to read.

Terra Nova is Becoming a Let Down

This summer, during my now yearly adventure down to San Diego Comic Con, I was lucky enough to catch a sneak preview screening of the pilot of Fox's new dinosaur mega show Terra Nova. At the end of it, I was impressed to say the least. A dinosaur TV show that looks good? How could we go wrong? (Sorry Dinotopia.) I was genuinely excited. I even tweeted about it: "Great day at #SDCC [...] the Terra Nova pilot was unbelievable." A sentiment I discovered retweeted by the shows executive producer Jon Cassar much to my surprise and internet age excitement.

Unfortunately, since the pilot, the show is not showing good signs.

**Fair warning: SPOILERS are ahead.**

When the pilot aired, I loyally tuned in as soon as I could to watch the pilot again. Still excited. The marriage of a dystopian future with a dinosaur colony? It was like someone made a show for me and the mathematical diagrams that the kids find out in the jungle had started building a Lost-like intrigue. What are the Sixers goals?? Who sent them? Why does the time rift exist? So many questions! I couldn't wait for next week.

Then the second episode aired and it was.... decent, I guess. It felt like a midseason filler episode rather than something that was supposed to keep an audience on the hook. The little mating dinosaurs were going to eat them alive cause they were on their mating grounds! Interesting concept, you've got me. Oh and Elizabeth got in because an old boyfriend Malcolm recommended her? Hmmm, I wonder who this guy is. Maybe he's the Sixer's spy!

It was a good plot line but it didn't really heighten the drama of the show much. No one seemed to care about all those questions they'd established in episode one and that's what I wanted more of. The overall story of the show was barely pushed forward. The pilot had turned my expectations up to 11 and the second episode came in around a 6 or a 7.

But it's fine, it's just one rough episode and I really want to know what the deal is so I'm going to keep watching.

External drama? Check.

So this morning I punched up the ol' Xbox with Hulu Plus (no rush to watch anymore) and the show frankly let me down again. Again the episode was a fun storyline within this world, a strange pathogen is wiping out peoples memories and the only way to prevent it is to infect people with the common cold! Amnesia is a bit used but I still enjoyed the ride but honestly, I'm not hooked the way I should be. Not after 3 episodes and four hours of television.

Will they? Won't th- oh they did.

The problem is that while there is plenty of external drama to deal with (Sixers, dinos, disease) there seems to be almost NO genuine internal drama for these characters. Josh went back to being nice to his dad and everyone in the family is happy in Terra Nova. It only took till the third episode for Josh to kiss Sky and for Maddy to get a date with her super nice soldier boy. There was no time for romantic tension to build.

So what's the tension? Oh, Sky is too nice and she's going to help Josh get his girlfriend there from the future? Malcolm's still obviously got the hots for Elizabeth but he seems like too nice a guy to do anything about it. Our main characters are all pretty happy so why are we still watching? I know when I'm writing a story I'm too often tempted to protect my main characters. They're a part of me and I want the best for them! But what's best for them does not translate to what's best for the show. It seems Terra Nova and the Shannon family have fallen into this trap.

Lost took even longer than Terra Nova to really introduce the big mysteries but the viewer is hooked from minute one and they're not going anywhere. So why? Immediately we knew that most of these characters had real problems. They were criminals, drug addicts, or missing their husband but grasping to the belief that he was alive. Later on, romantic story lines kept viewers watching. Sawyer or Jack?! Juliet or Kate?! Who winds up with who?!? There was extreme intrigue from the get go and that's what Terra Nova is unfortunately missing. 

Yes, at the end of the episode the Sixers pop up and they've got their bartender mole who's now going to hire Josh. They hint at the manipulation of Josh's girlfriend. If they spend their time in the future turning her into a Sixer we could have some crazy possibilities on our hands. Maybe Josh joins the Sixers and it's Shannon family civil war! Is Malcolm a Sixer spy too? Maybe he'll kidnap Elizabeth!

An intriguing image from next week's episode: What Remains

Ok, those are extreme ideas but if the show do some extreme shaking up soon, even a sci-fi/dinosaur/television loving fool like myself might just start tuning out.

*Terra Nova airs on Fox at 8/7c. Photos are courtesy of terranova.wikia.com