The Read & Write Stuff

The Read & Write Stuff

Jerry Seinfeld was once quoted as saying that “a bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.” Fully Booked, that wondrous specialty store for printed delight, has made use of that sagacious endorsement for books and reading.

Almost as soon as I could read, books, magazines, I devoured them with a passion and mania of someone with an addiction. I had no trouble being asked to read. And the earliest even to this day were comic books. My folks were happy at first that I read a lot, but later became mortified that I read my comic books more than my schoolbooks. So they tried to get me into other reading materials. I graduated to Reader’s Digest then was forced to read the newspaper. The latter was hard at first because I thought it was boring. I was never good at math so the stock market was a tough sell for me. Eventually, I enjoyed reading the newspaper beginning with the sports section all the way to the lifestyle with the front page being the last.

My grandfolks gave me copies of Life, Time, and Newsweek to read and they really broadened my horizons. As a kid, I used to hop on my bike and sell a television guide magazine in the neighborhood; something that I truly enjoyed because it gave me a sense of satisfaction and my first experience in earning money.

Looking back at that honestly, I thought that my neighbors bought the mag because they thought it was a novelty to see a kid with a baseball cap worn backwards on a three-wheeled bike selling magazines. They also took the opportunity to dispense wisdom and advice as I chugged down a glass of lemonade. Isn’t that cool – they buy a mag and give me a glass of lemonade to drink?

If my parents only knew how reading liberated me. In the late elementary years, a classmate of mine brought to class a copy of Playboy with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and suddenly I was feeling all sorts of things I never felt before. I took a deep breath and felt my heart beat like a drum solo. Do people actually read Playboy or do they just look at the pictures? I read them – honest! Like what her vital statistics were etcetera. Incidentally, that issue was the sole reason why I got into American football -- because of the cheerleaders. Hahaha. So long live the cheerleaders. Except that now my faves are the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders.

In college, my classmates and I would cut class on a couple of occasions to go to Dau in Pampanga to buy military surplus stuff, CDs, and porn. Those were days of, er, looking at the road rushing under the wheel and discovery. Hahaha.

Lest you think that my soul was the sole perversion of Hugh Hefner, I bought my first books that was The Lord of the Rings trilogy as I moved from grade school to high school. Then I bought Frank Herbert’s Dune. Form there it was some oral histories of cops, soldiers in ‘Nam, biographies on Springsteen, McArthur, JFK, Susie Hinton’s juvenile delinquent stories such as The Outsiders and Rumblefish, and my first ever sports book – John Feinstein’s A Season On the Brink. Over the years, my book collection grew to include advertising books (several editions of The One Show, the Art Director’s manual, The Milk Mustache Book, The Absolut Book, and Where the Suckers Moon), art books (Norman Rockwell to Banksy), photography books (Ansel Adams, Walter Ioss), to Tom Clancy and JK Rowling.

My favorite habitués are music and bookstores and can spend hours on end there and not get bored. In fact, I’m so predictable in where I go as one can find me where those stores are located in malls.

I purchase an average of at least two dozens books in a year. Like my compact discs, they are a huge part of my personal collection; one that I’ve invested heavily over the years. Many of them I read several times over.

My dad was right; reading has helped broaden my knowledge and horizons. And it has greatly helped in my writing. It has had a profound influence. I have always cited influences over the past couple of years, but the book that had any significant impact on my sportswriting can be pared down to three: Feinstein’s A Season On A Brink, and Jack McCallum’s Unfinished Business, and Rick Reilly’s The Life of Riley.

While writing The 18^th Banner, I wish that it were written a little more lengthily. Following the Ateneo Blue Eagles isn’t easy. One would have more luck following political scandals and national disasters than covering my favorite team in blue. Too many dos and don’ts but that is understandable.

That is why I try to go a lot more in depth with the Smart Gilas National Team; there’s a little more leeway. But when I get my story out on that team there will be much more than what has seen print.

Basketball in my opinion is the most fascinating of sports teams to write about. That’s anywhere from 12-16 players (not counting the coaching staff) who are all different from one another with stories of their own to tell. That number isn’t too much or too little. At any given time, all the players on the court are in motion making for many interactions. They play a sport that is viewed in a high definition magnifying glass where a demanding and fickle audience can build and cast them down as fast as a 24-second shot clock. If there is a sport that is made for television then basketball is it. And unlike in other sports where the crowd sits much farther away from the field where they players are, in basketball, we can see their facial expressions and body language. Of all the sports, it is perhaps the most emotional.

That is why a lot of what I write are of basketball players. But this year, I hope to feature more. But I will be traveling a lot more this year as I hope to follow up on even more varied subjects not all of them sports.

Someone once wrote to me that the strength of my writing was not in the words I use or the style I prefer but because I tell stories about people. Stats are always important but at the end of the game, what matters is whether one got the W or not. Not many will even remember the scores. But they remember the win and the effort that was put in for those momentous games.

It’s only been a few years since I began to write more seriously or even professionally and there is still so much room for improvement. It’s a learning process too as I become more aware of strengths and weaknesses. If last year was a doozy then I’m definitely excited for 2010. There’s Turn On the Bright Lights (out in the first quarter) and Bleachers’ Brew (a compilation of the best of my columns in the last three years out before the next UAAP season). Stick around for that and more. And keep reading.

Thanks!