The Art of Fielding in Read by Theme

Jul 21, 2012 Autumn rated it really liked it

What made this book was the characters. Almost immediately they became friends and I became engrossed in what happened to them. Although there were a couple times I had to put the book down because it was almost to the point that it hurt to see them make bad decisions or have something bad happen to them. I felt transported to the world of Westish College.

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Mar 30, 2012 Dana Crouch (Callaway) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

Read for Read By Theme (07/12): Blue Covers

I'll start off by mentioning that this isn't the type of book I usually like. It's literary and serious, somewhat more driven by characters or things other than plot. In the middle of the book, I would have probably given it a lesser rating. At that point, I really liked some parts, but the rest just seemed okay. But now I've finished it, and I think I can truly say I loved this book.

Why? I'll admit a large part of this was the baseball. My family is a Read for Read By Theme (07/12): Blue Covers

I'll start off by mentioning that this isn't the type of book I usually like. It's literary and serious, somewhat more driven by characters or things other than plot. In the middle of the book, I would have probably given it a lesser rating. At that point, I really liked some parts, but the rest just seemed okay. But now I've finished it, and I think I can truly say I loved this book.

Why? I'll admit a large part of this was the baseball. My family is a baseball family. My grandfather played minor league ball, my dad played college ball, and almost all of my cousins on that side have played baseball or softball a good deal. I myself played until my junior year of high school. I do not really follow any sport, but baseball is the only major sport I really enjoy watching or playing.

The way baseball was described in this book was beautiful. Maybe I only think that because of my own personal history with baseball, but oh well. The excerpts from Aparicio's The Art of Fielding were gorgeous. Without them, Harback could not have presented baseball as such a pure and meaningful thing. I know this sounds way over the top since I'm writing about a game, and while I do not think that baseball is the most important thing ever, I do think that it is a very different kind of game than most other major sports and lends itself to this kind of poetic description.

I didn't just love this book because it was about baseball, though. I thought that the structure was interesting and well-done. There are five main characters, but we only get the perspective of four of them. I thought that the characters were believable and interesting. None of them ever got overly annoying, as characters in literary or character-driven books tend to do (for me at least).

There are some meaningful thoughts about life in this book, which I thought were conveyed well without trying too hard.

I wouldn't recommend this to everyone, but if you like novels and baseball, I think you would at least enjoy it.

P.S - If you don't like baseball or are indifferent towards baseball, I still think this book could be very enjoyable. A understanding or appreciation of baseball are not needed to enjoy this book, though they certainly enhance the experience. ...more

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May 19, 2012 Teresa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This is an excellent book! I would recommend it to anyone, whether they're interested in baseball or not. I read this in under 48 hours - devoured it! ...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Bren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2012

This book could have been titled "The Zen of Baseball" - except it is about so much more than baseball. Sometimes the drama made me weary. But the Melville draw in, the concentration and personalities of the baseball players kept me reading.
Hardly any of the characters are completely likeable. They all have faults and annoyances. But I stayed glue to the end of this huge book, and I enjoyed it immensely. ...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Michelle rated it it was ok

Love baseball, retellings of classic literature, and college stories, but I simply did not love this book. It was just FINE overall and about 100 pages too long in the middle. I thought it was wrapped up nicely in the end, but mostly I was just glad that there WAS and end.

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