Starting to climb on the Tyler Colvin Bandwagon

I was pretty skeptical of the New and Improved Tyler Colvin this spring training, and would rather the Cubs had sent him to AAA to get regular playing time. Even then, I didn't think that he'd ever be more than a 4th outfielder. After the first 20 or so games here this season, I'm starting to change my mind. The kid can hit. He's not this good, but his likelihood of ever becoming a MLB regular in my mind has risen by about 50% or so in my mind.

Add it to the pile

I haven't made a new post about books in about 3 months, when I reviewed the most recent Wheel of Tedium book. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it, and it really turned my opinion about one of the characters around that I had previously lumped in with some of the shrill harpies that populate this series. Anyway, it was enough to get me to reread them, which meant I had to go out and re-buy them as I had sold my original copies off after the author passed away a few years ago (the series has been passed on to another author, with Jordan's blessing). Our B+N had the first 6 books, so I bought them and I'm most of the way through book 5.

While out on our quasi-Valentine's date today, we stopped by the B+N on the other side of town which had the rest of them and I grabbed the rest of them...but after about 5 minutes I changed my mind and put them back. I've got a big backlog of books that I've been meaning to read, and I did resolve to make a little more effort to read new stuff rather than re-reading things that I've read many times before (but very much enjoy). In the past 3 months I've read those 5 Jordan books and re-read the excellent Tawny Man trilogy (the last book of which is my sentimental favorite for best fantasy novel). But, here's what I have piled up to read:

• The rest of Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything
• The rest of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball
• The rest of Simmons's The Book of Basketball
• Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself
• Bryson's Notes From a Small Island
• Bryson's The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid (You can tell I'm a big Bryson fan)
• #17 on the KLAW 101 Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
• Klaw 101 #15, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
• Klaw 101 #42 Brideshead Revisited
• Marvin Miller biopic A whole different ballgame
• Joe Posnanski's excellent The Soul Of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
• Posnanski's The Machine
• The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers
• The new BP Annual
• The Hardball Times Annual
• The 2010 Cubs 'Anal', with 2 articles by Shawn

I picked up Wind-Up Bird Chronicle after putting the WoT books back. A skim of the back cover makes it seem like it's pretty cool. Not that I agree with Klaw on his rankings in general - I was not a fan at all of his #1, The Master and Margarita, and my wife (who I view as a good authority on this) thinks that Emma, his #3, isn't nearly as good as the other two Austen books (P+P and Persuasion) on the list and isn't as good as one (Sense and Sensibility) that didn't make the cut. A curious selection. He also has Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in there, both of which I despised in high school. He does score huge points for including Lonesome Dove though (at 98),

Anyway, I have my work cut out for me. I'm going to finish reading through WoT #6 and then get back to work on these things...