I just got home from the bookstore with six new books in hand -- good news for me! (I read way too much.) It got me thinking ... what's everyone here reading these days?

I just finished "Tragedy and Triumph: The Journals of Captain R.F. Scott's Last Polar Expedition." It was a little too scientific for my taste -- lots of weather and geology observations -- but the story itself is a great one. R.F. Scott and his crew, from England, are trying to be the first people to reach the South Pole. They make it there eventually, only to find out Roald Amundsen and his party, from Norway, got there first. Then, as one might guess from the book's title, Scott and his travel mates die on the way back -- stuck in a blizzard, only 11 miles from food.

His last journal entry is classic, in my mind: "Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more."

Anyway, enough about my obsession with artic exploration books! I'm about to finally start Michael Chabon's "Summerland," which I'm excited about.

Also, I just bought "The Long Ball" by Tom Adelman. Has anyone else read this book? About the 1975 season/World Series?