Comparative Book Review | Chat Style
- I've just finished reading two very different books on a very similar topic. The books were Selena Roberts' "A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez" and "American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America's Pastime," written by the Daily News' investigative team of Thompson, Vinton, O'Keeffe, and Red. In lieu of a traditional book review, here's a conversation I overheard between the two books on my nightstand.
- A-Rod: Hey, Icon. So...your subject is a great pitcher, and mine is a great hitter.
- Icon: Uh, yeah. I guess.
- A-Rod: Did you know I'm a svelte 272 pages, and I cover the entire life of Alex Rodriguez?
- Icon: Really? That's great.
- A-Rod: You look a little...um...beefy.
- Icon: Well, I'm 464 pages. And I don't cover Clemens' whole life...just ten years or so.
- A-Rod: Ten years took 464 pages?? You must have tons of pictures. I only have a few pages of pictures.
- Icon: Actually, A-Rod, I don't have any pictures.
- A-Rod: What? Well, how could your authors have written that many pages about only ten years?
- Icon: Well, they did meticulous research. They conducted thousands of hours of interviews and did award-winning investigative reporting. I'm pretty proud of it, actually. My pages aren't full of opinion or conjecture. Just facts, really.
- A-Rod: Oh, I'm full of facts, too. I mean, occasionally my author may have talked about what Rodriguez was thinking when she couldn't have possibly known. And her personal dislike of Rodriguez probably sneaked into my pages a little more often than it should have, but, you know, it's okay.
- Icon: Sure. Whatever.
- A-Rod: I only have a few grammatical and spelling errors, you know. Like 15 or 18. My author can't spell "Nomar Garciaparra." And, for some reason she thinks "playoffs" should be hyphenated. (I think she writes for a prominent sports magazine or something, so I can't figure this one out.)
- Icon: Well, I don't know about all that, but I have a couple mistakes, too. Exactly a couple.
- A-Rod: Two mistakes? That's it?
- Icon: Yeah.
- A-Rod: Well, I'm due back at the library tomorrow. What about you?
- Icon: Oh, I'm not from the library. That dude who was reading us bought me on Amazon.
- A-Rod: Really? Weird, huh? Wonder why he bought you but only checked me out at the library.
- Icon: I don't know, A-Rod. I don't know.
