Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Book of the Month, July 2011

I love books. They're fun, educational, and their covers have such pretty colors.

Since this blog currently features a review of "Page One" and an interview with the doc's director, Andrew Rossi, it's only that this month's BOM covers another publishing giant--"Sports Illustrated."

Michael MacCambridge's "The Franchise" is a thoroughly researched, immensely entertaining history of "SI," its office politics and hard-living staff. The latter includes legendary college football scribe Dan Jenkins (who partied like a rock star), bonus king Frank Deford (who left to edit the ill-fated sports daily, "The National"), and Mark Kram (a tempestuous, talented boxing writer who went off the rails).

"The Franchise" is an outstanding, sadly overlooked predecessor to "Those Guys Have All the Fun," James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales's rock-solid oral history of ESPN. You may also enjoy MacCambridge's inspiration: Robert Draper's excellent history of "Rolling Stone" magazine.

That's all for now. Until next month, read in peace.

P.S.--"The Fighter" is still lousy.

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