I mentioned on Twitter that I got a 2nd hand Kindle last week. I got it from a family member who had no need for this Version 1 Kindle now that they had a new, souped-up one. So I have a Kindle.
So I have a Kindle, but now what? I googled looking for free books and found the Gutenberg Project. Amazing. Tens of thousands of out of copyright books. I downloaded a whole load. I announced that I was never going to buy a book for the Kindle because, well, why would I? I had over a hundred downloaded and 38,000 more to read for free. Why would I buy one?
Then yesterday I saw that Shannon Shark (@MetsPolice) had published an eBook. Two clicks later and my credit card was charged $4 and I had a copy of the book on my 'new' Kindle.
Shark isn't a sports journalist or professional writer or a major league baseball player. He's blogger/tweeter, but really he's a fan. Like me. A normal guy who tweets and blogs about the Mets. He even has a life and isn't that obsessed with the Mets.
Maybe it's the normality of it all or the easy style he has, but, whatever, I really enjoyed reading his book. It wasn't hard-going and it's not a work of literary art. Who'd want that in a book about being a Met fan (and a son, a husband and a father.)?
It took me a few hours to read the book, but it was more than worth it. Maybe you have to be a Met fan to enjoy the book. Maybe you have to be a man. Maybe you have to be a male Met fan over 40, but I fit all those and I thought the book was great. It's funny, poignant and informative (about little things about the Mets). I couldn't put it down.
As I said on Twitter my biggest disappointment is that I really wanted to sit down and talk to Shark about his book for about 4 hours. It's something he may remedy in an online format.
I hope loads of Met fans buy it and I hope other Met bloggers follow Shark's lead. I'm particularly talking about you, Steve (@kranepool). I'd love to relive the Art Howe years in an eBook format. I'd also like your take of things further in the past.
For too long baseball books were written by ex-players and (too often too cynical) sportswriters. If the eBooks open it up to fans to publish then I'm a big fan of the Kindle and will be buying more such books.
