I Have a Hungry Brain, and It Must Be Fed

Less than two weeks have passed since I came back to Korea. Now, nine boxes of books—all of the nonfiction genre—have been delivered to my office, carted to my apartment nearby, catalogued and stored. As a bibliophile, I find this deeply satisfying. I love to read, and I need to read. I am always reading. Reading makes me a better writer, although that is merely a fortuitous by-product. It’s about learning, understanding and growing. While in Texas, a friend characterized me as an “intellectual.” I did not argue the point, but she was too kind. Ha! With my fair-to-middling bachelor’s degree from UT, I have no such pretensions. On the other hand, voluminous reading allows me to deal in facts, concepts and ideas every day, enriching my life considerably. The money it took to buy these books and ship them here is best seen as an investment.

While I was in Austin, Dallas, Abilene and Houston, I finished a biography of Josephine Baker (the American-French chanteuse) and started one of those listed below, about the history of Istanbul. It has been completed, and I have moved onto a bio of Kurt Weill. I estimate that 130 of these were purchased online via Amazon.com and sent to the home of my friend Gary Scoggins; I bought the other 20 at Half Price Books while there.

I have no desire to impress anybody with this compilation. Indeed, you will find a few books that are silly (Sandy Lake Lodge) or lightweight (Hollywood sex scandals; college pranks). Others may scandalize (Charles Manson; flagellation) or surprise you (tattoos, which I loathe). It probably seems redundant that I bought two books on China’s Great Wall, two on the Siberian gulag, two on the Detroit Tigers and three on or by the late and great Jim Murray. Only now do I realize that there are two books about the 400-year history of New York City—as well as one about the Bowery. I bought books on Paris, Baghdad, Jericho and Banares. There’s some music (Bob Marley; Frederic Chopin; Jimi Hendrix; Paul Simon [I exclude the Sex Pistols here because what they made is by no means musical]), some politics (both left and right wings), some art (Rembrandt), a lot of history and a lot of sports. Of course, the list includes a few books about racism, Jim Crow and integration. North America (six on Texas), South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean and Antarctica are covered. Two or three pertain tangentially to science, not my forte.

These books are not just to be read but savored. Each will eventually receive an honored place in my library. I wonder who owned them before, and why was the decision made to sell or donate? A few were gifts (“From Bill to Jenny, Christmas 1983” and so on), and in a couple of cases the authors signed them.

With no further ado, here they are:

• A Disposition to Be Rich / Ferdinand Ward, the Greatest Swindler of the Gilded Age, by Geoffrey C. Ward, 2012

• A History of the Philippines / From Indios Bravos to Filipinos, by Luis H. Francia, 2010

• A History of the Rod, by William A. Cooper, 1865

• A Place for Summer / A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium, by Richard Bak, 1998

• All Those Mornings…at the Post, by Shirley Povich, 2005

• American Hero / The True Story of Tommy Hitchcock—Sports Star, War Hero and Champion of the P-51 Mustang, by Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., 1984

• Antarctica / A Biography, by David Day, 2013

• Armadillo World Headquarters, by Eddie Wilson and Jesse Sublett, 2017

• Australia / True Stories of Life Down Under, Larry Habegger, ed., 2000

• Babylon, I.L. Finkel and M.J. Seymour, eds., 2008

• Baghdad / City of Peace, City of Blood / A History in Thirteen Centuries, by Justin Marozzi, 2014

• Banares / City of Light, by Diana L. Eck, 1982

• Baseball’s Greatest Hit / The Story of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” by Andy Strasberg, Bob Thompson and Tim Wiles, 2008

• Beau James / The Life and Times of Jimmy Walker, by Gene Fowler, 1949

• Booknotes / America’s Finest Authors on Reading, Writing and the Power of Ideas, Brian Lamb, ed., 1997

• Booknotes / Life Stories / Notable Biographers on the People Who Shaped America, Brian Lamb, ed., 1999

• Booknotes / On American Character / People, Politics and Conflict in American History, Brian Lamb, 2004

• Breaking Open Japan / Commodore Perry, Lord Abe and American Imperialism in 1853, by George Feifer, 2006

• Brushing Back Jim Crow / The Integration of Minor-League Baseball in the American South, by Bruce Adelson, 1999

• Catch a Fire / The Life of Bob Marley, by Timothy White, 1983

• Cecil Rhodes / Flawed Colossus, by Brian Roberts, 1987

• Children of the Sun / A Pictorial Anthology from Germany to California, 1883–1949, Gordon Kennedy, ed., 1998

• Chinua Achebe / A Biography, by Ezenwa-Ohaeto, 1997

• Chopin / Prince of the Romantics, by Adam Zamoyski, 2010

• Chopin’s Letters, by Frederic Chopin, 1988

• Churchill / Walking with Destiny, by Andrew Roberts, 2018

• City of Dreams / The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York, by Tyler Anbinder, 2016

• Come Have Fun with Frank Rush at Craterville Park and Sandy Lake Amusement Park, by Frank Rush III, 2006

• Conspiracy of Silence / Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball, by Chris Lamb, 2012

• Cotton Bowl Classic Football Vault, by Steve Richardson, 2010

• Daniel Boone / The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer, by John Mack Faragher, 1992

• Daniel Webster / The Man and His Time, by Robert Remini, 1997

• Dead Certain / The Presidency of George W. Bush, by Robert Draper, 2007

• Do Not Ask What Good We Do / Inside the U.S. House of Representatives, by Robert Draper, 2012

• Dr. Z / The Lost Memoirs of an Irreverent Football Writer, Peter King, ed., 2017

• East of the Sun / The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia, by Benson Bobrick, 1992

• Egg on Mao / The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship, by Denise Chong, 2009

• Empty Mansions / The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr., 2013

• England’s Dreaming / Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock and Beyond, by Jon Savage, 1991

• Fall from Grace / The Truth and Tragedy of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, by Tim Hornbraker, 2016

• Fame at Last / Who WAS Who According to the New York Times Obituaries, by John C. Ball and Jill Jonnes, 2000

• Femme Fatale / Love, Lies and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari, by Pat Shipman, 2007

• Full Service / My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars, by Scotty Bowers, 2001

• [Bill] Gates, by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, 1993

• George Washington Carver / A Life, by Christina Vella, 2015

• Gershwin / A Biography, by Edward Jablonski, 1987

• Get Happy / The Life of Judy Garland, by Gerald Clarke, 2000

• God Save Texas / A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State, by Lawrence Wright, 2018

• Goethe / Life as a Work of Art, by Rudiger Safranski, 2017

• Gulag / A History, by Anne Applebaum, 2003

• Harem / The World Behind the Veil, Alex Lytle Croutier, 1989

• He Calls Me by Lightning / The Life of Caliph Washington and the Forgotten Saga of Jim Crow, Southern Justice and the Death Penalty, by S. Jonathan Bass, 2017

• Howard Cosell / The Man, the Myth and the Transformation of American Sports, by Mark Ribowsky, 2012

• I Have Seen the Future / A Life of Lincoln Steffens, by Peter Hartshorn, 2011

• Idea Man / A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft, by Paul Allen, 2011

• If At All Possible, Involve a Cow / The Book of College Pranks, by Neil Steinberg, 1992

• Istanbul / A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes, 2017

• Jericho / Dreams, Ruins, Phantoms, by Robert Ruby, 1995

• Jesse James / Last Rebel of the Civil War, by T.J. Stiles, 2002

• JFK and the Masculine Mystique / Sex and Power on the New Frontier, by Steven Watts, 2016

• Jim Murray / An Autobiography, 1993

• Jimi Hendrix / The Ultimate Experience, by Johnny Black, 1999

• John Rosenfield’s Dallas / How the Southwest’s Leading Critic Shaped a City’s Culture, 1925–1966, by Ronald L. Davis, 2002

• K: A Biography of Franz Kafka, by Ronald Hayman, 1981

• Korean Unification / Inevitable Challenges, by Jacques L. Fuqua Jr., 2011

• Last King of the Sports Page / The Life and Career of Jim Murray, by Ted Geltner, 2012

• Lenin the Dictator / An Intimate Portrait, by Victor Sebestyen, 2017

• Lili Marlene / The Soldiers’ Song of World War II, by Leil Leibovitz and Matthew Miller, 2009

• Lost and Found / The 9,000 Treasures of Troy, by Caroline Moorhead, 1994

• Love, Africa / A Memoir of Romance, War and Survival, by Jeffrey Gettleman, 2017

• Manson / The Life and Times of Charles Manson, by Jeff Guinn, 2013

• Michael Jackson / The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, by J. Randy Taraborrelli, 1991

• Michael Jordan / The Life, by Roland Lazenby, 2014

• Milwaukee Braves / Heroes and Heartbreak, by William Povletich, 2009

• Mr. Anonymous / Robert W. Woodruff of Coca-Cola, by Charles Elliott, 1982

• Name, Rank + Serial Number / Exploiting Korean War POWs at Home and Abroad, by Charles S. Young, 2014

• On the Map / A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks, by Simon Garfield, 2013

• Paris / A Secret History, by Andrew Hussey, 2006

• Paul Simon / The Life, by Robert Hilburn, 2018

• Prince Henry “The Navigator” / A Life, by Peter Russell, 2000

• Radical / A Portrait of Saul Alinsky, by Nicholas Von Hoffman, 2010

• Rembrandt / A Life, by Charles L. Mee Jr., 2016

• Robert Morris / Financier of the American Revolution, by Charles Rappleye, 2010

• Rogers Hornsby / A Biography, by Charles C. Alexander, 1995

• Rosebud / The Story of Orson Welles, by David Thomson, 1996

• Sacred Trash / The Lost and Found World of Cairo Geniza, by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole, 2011

• Saudi, Inc. / The Arabian Kingdom’s Pursuit of Profit and Power, by Ellen R. Wald, 2018

• Scalp Dance / Indian Warfare on the High Plains, 1865−1879, by Thomas Goodrich, 1997

• Sex among Allies / Military Prostitution in U.S.–Korea Relations, by Katherine H.S. Moon, 1997

• Sherman’s March, by Burke Davis, 1980

• Sir Aurel Stein / Archaeological Explorer, by Jeannette Mirsky, 1977

• Sleeping with the Enemy / Coco Chanel’s Secret War, by Hal Vaughan, 2011

• Smoky Joe Wood / The Biography of a Baseball Legend, by Gerald C. Wood, 2013

• Sportswriter / The Life and Times of Grantland Rice, by Charles Fountain, 1993

• Stalin’s Apologist / Walter Duranty: The New York Times’s Man in Moscow, by S.J. Taylor, 1990

• Star of the Morning / The Extraordinary Life of Lady Hester Stanhope, by Kirsten Ellis, 2008

• Sticky Fingers / The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine, by Joe Hagan, 2017

• Strong Inside / Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South, by Andrew Maraniss, 2014

• 1066 / The Hidden History of the Bayeux Tapestry, by Andrew Bridgeford, 2005

• Tennessee Williams / Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, by John Lahr, 2014

• Texas / A Bicentennial History, by Joe Frantz, 1976

• Tigers by the Tale / Great Games at Michigan & Trumbull, Scott Ferkovich, ed., 2016

• Trees in Paradise / A California History, by Jared Farmer, 2013

• The Baseball Dictionary, by Paul Dickson, 1989

• The Bowery / The Strange History of New York’s Oldest Street, by Stephen Paul DeVillo, 2017

• The Children’s Crusade / Medieval History, Modern Mythistory, by Gary Dickson, 2008

• The Communist / Frank Marshall Davis: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor, by Paul Kengor, 2012

• The Complete Pyramids / Solving the Ancient Mysteries, by Mark Lehner, 1997

• The Conde Nast Traveler Book of Unforgettable Journeys / Great Writers on Great Places, Klara Glowczewska, ed., 2007

• The Days Grow Short / The Life and Music of Kurt Weill, by Ronald Sanders, 1980

• The Forgotten History of America / Little-Known Conflicts of Lasting Importance from the Earliest Colonists to the Eve of the Revolution, by Cormac O’Brien, 2008

• The Game’s Not Over / In Defense of Football, by Gregg Easterbrook, 2015

• The Ghosts of Happy Valley / Searching for the Lost World of Africa’s Infamous Aristocrats, by Juliet Barnes, 2013

• The Great Wall / China against the World, 1000 BC–2000 AD, by Julia Lovell, 2006

• The Great Wall / From Beginning to End, by Michael Yamashita and William Lindesay, 2007

• The Invention of Nature / Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, by Andrea Wulf, 2015

• The John Lardner Reader / A Press Box Legend’s Classic Sportswriting, John Schulian, ed., 2010

• The Last Days of the Incas, by Kim MacQuarrie, 2007

• The Last of the Best, by Jim Murray, 1998

• The Man Who Loved China / The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom, by Simon Winchester, 2008

• The Man Who Outshone the Sun King / A Life of Gleaming Opulence and Wretched Reversal in the Reign of Louis XIV, by Charles Drazin, 2008

• The Mature Mind, by Harry A. Overstreet, 1949

• The New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten, 2001

• The Philosopher’s Stone / A Quest for the Secrets of Alchemy, by Peter Marshall, 2001

• The Prize / The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, by Daniel Yergin, 1991

• The Promise of the Grand Canyon / John Wesley Powell’s Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West, by John F. Ross, 2018

• The Radium Girls / The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, by Kate Moore, 2017

• The Riddle and the Knight / In Search of Sir John Mandeville, the World’s Greatest Traveler, by Giles Milton, 1996

• The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, by Lawrence James, 1994

• The Sports Gene / Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance, by David Epstein, 2013

• The Story of Art, by E.H. Gombrich, 1950

• The Talking Jewels, by Denis Diderot, 1745

• The Thief-Taker Hangings / How Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard Captivated London and Created the Celebrity Criminal, by Aaron Skirboll, 2014

• The Quartermaster / Montgomery C. Meigs / Lincoln’s General / Master Builder of the Union Army, by Robert O’Harrow Jr., 2016

• The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracies of All Time, by Elliot Kalb, 2009

• The Ty Cobb Scrapbook, by Marc Okkonen, 2001

• The Village / 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues / A History of Greenwich Village, by John Strausbaugh, 2013

• The Witches / Salem, 1692 / A History, by Stacy Schiff, 2015

• The World of Tattoo / An Illustrated History, by Maarten Hesselt van Dinter, 2005

• The Wright Brothers, by David McCullough, 2015

• The Year America Discovered Texas / Centennial ’36, by Kenneth B. Ragsdale, 1987

• Thursday Night Lights / The Story of Black High School Football in Texas, by Michael Hurd, 2017

• Trump Revealed / The Definitive Biography of the 45th President, by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher, 2016

• Tyburn / London’s Fatal Tree, by Alan Brooke and David Brandon, 2004

• Tycoon’s War / How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America’s Most Famous Military Adventurer, by Stephen Dando-Collins, 2008

• Up from History / The Life of Booker T. Washington, by Robert J. Norrell, 2009

• When the Mississippi Ran Backwards / Empire, Intrigue, Murder and the New Madrid Earthquakes, by Jay Feldman, 2005

• William Gaylord Wilshire / The Millionaire Socialist, by Lou Rosen, 2011

• Wonder Girl / The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, by Don Van Natta Jr., 2011