I am not a book reader, never have been. I like reading newspapers, magazines and things on the internet, but not books. That all changed this past week. I found a book I can’t put down and it’s kind of exciting. How I came across this book is a pretty cool story.

On Tuesday afternoons I do a library show with Cindy Hendrickx on KLQP. She is the head librarian of the Appleton Public Library. We have done this show for a number of years now and I have learned a lot from Cindy about what a library is and all that it has to offer. Every show she will mention what her book club is reading. At the end of the show I always ask Cindy what book she is reading. Cindy loves to read books and she reads lots of books. She has a talent of speed reading and so she can tear through a novel or any book really fast.

On last week’s library show she asked me what book I was reading, knowing full well that I don’t read books. We like to put each other on the spot and tease each other. She did that to see how I was going to answer, which was, I am not reading any books. We both laughed. A couple days later I came into work and on my desk was a book and a note from a listener! The note said, “Paul, I heard on the library show that you are not reading a book. I thought you might be interested in reading this book.” The minute I saw the cover I knew I was about to start reading a book. I actually got excited and couldn’t wait to get home and start reading it. I actually spent some time at my desk reading a few chapters.

The book is about Dick Bremer the play by play television broadcaster for the Minnesota Twins. It is called, Dick Bremer Game Used. The book is perfect for me, its under 300 pages and the chapters are by innings and stitches, meaning 108 short stories representing 108 stitches on a baseball. It is about Dick Bremer growing up in Dumont, Minnesota which is just north of where I live. Growing up in the 1960’s, he watched the Dumont Saints baseball team. He tells how he started broadcasting sports on the radio and television. I can relate to this book because I have experienced the same things Dick experienced starting out in radio. I love the stories he tells. He goes on to talk about his amazing broadcasting career. I think why I love this book so much is I see myself in reading Dicks book. Of course I have never made it as a big league broadcaster, but I do the same thing he does, put on a headset and call a game. That is what both of us love to do.

One good thing about this pandemic is I am home almost every night. The first night I brought the book home I sat in my chair from 7pm till 11:30pm reading it. I have never done anything like that before! I was so into reading this book I couldn’t put it down. I actually kept laughing at myself because I was spending a whole evening reading a book. I couldn’t wait to tell Cindy on the next library show! I remember in English class in high school, my book reports were just reading the back of the book to make the teachers and class think I had read the whole book. I am a slow reader so it took me most of the week to finish the book. I am so proud of myself, now I can say I have read a whole book!