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July 6, 2008

Seabiscuit


I read this one for the book club and was mightily surprised. I know next to nothing about horse racing and don't read much in the way of sport books. So a sports book about horse racing held little interest.

This was one of the most compelling books I've ever read. It's about an interesting historical period full and full of some of the most over-the-top colorful figures I've read about. It's too crazy not to be true. Hillenbrand has had some criticism for her "purple prose," but I think it fits the time period perfectly.

There are so many great moments in this book, I hesitate to mention them. The stuff about how the jockeys lost weight for their rides was amazing. These guys were worse than ballerinas and supermodels. They did everything to lose weight fast, including the purposeful ingestion of tapeworms.

Way better than the movie.