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I just finished a remarkable novel the other night, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, by Oscar Hijuelos. The book is a slow burn of a novel about the life of a man (told as a series of memories as he looks back on his life during his last hours, in a seedy hotel in New York City) who, along with his brother, was once a major figure in Cuban music (particularly Mambo music) in the 1950s. Cesar Castillo remembers his childhood with his brother, Nestor, in Cuba, and he remembers the loves they had there before they came to NewDown the rabbit hole….

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Today is the generally-observed “birthday” of William Shakespeare. The actual date he entered the world is not known, but April 26, 1564 is the best we have: that was his baptismal date. As babies typically weren’t baptized right at birth, the assumption seems to be that he was actually born a few days prior, and since his death date is known to be April 26, 1616, we’ve just gone ahead and assigned that date to his birth as well. Shakespeare is an eternal “thing I need to learn more about”, no matter how much I learn about him and noDown the rabbit hole….

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Sports writer John Feinstein has died. I have only read a few of his books, but that is hardly damning as Feinstein was very prolific, and he wrote about just about every sport that’s out there. Not only was he a superb prose stylist, but he was especially gifted at translating the human stories of sport into words. He made you feel what it was like to be a ballplayer, or a basketball player, or a golfer, or whatever it was he chose to write about. I will miss his voice and I feel I should make it a bitDown the rabbit hole….

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I’ve been very good about not buying lots of books over the last year, preferring to actually read through my personal library and supplementing with stuff from the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. But… Tomorrow starts the big annual sale at Taschen. Ooof. Here we go! Stay tuned to see my haul at some point, because I’m sure I will be buying something. Or several somethings. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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I’ve just watched a wonderful documentary about the world of rare and antiquarian booksellers, and you can watch it, too! It’s quite a wonderful film that sheds light on the mindset of people who collect rare books, people who sell them, and why they do all this. There is also some skepticism about the reading future, in this time of electronic devices and bad attention spans, but…well, if books are going away, I hope they wait until I’m gone to do it. The title of this post comes from this poem, which is recited at the end of the film. Share ThisDown the rabbit hole….

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There’s been some debate lately after last week’s NFL games, regarding whether or not it’s right, or good, for teams that have secured their playoff positions and who are thus facing a game that is essentially meaningless to not play their best players. The Kansas City Chiefs rested their starters, having already locked up the Number One seed in the AFC, and because they proceeded to lose to the Denver Broncos, who very much did have something to play for, the Broncos made the playoffs and the Cincinnati Bengals did not. (That the Bengals could have made the playoffs hadDown the rabbit hole….

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As with the 2024 in Movies post, I’m starting this on December 31, 2023 and will fill it in as I go throughout the year. [And as with the Movies post, I’m changing my mind and posting this halfway through the year! I’m so unpredictable! You never know what I’m gonna do! Ahem….] These are in the order I read them. ::  Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created “Nancy”, Bill Griffith. This graphic novel biography of Ernie Bushmiller is a wonderful volume, serving as both a warm testament to a creator of one of the 20th century’s enduringDown the rabbit hole….