Finished the book yesterday. I have got to say this is one of the best books I have read in recent times. I liked it so much, I am going to read it again, once I get it back from the friend who borrowed it. I am neither a horse person or a racing person, but the book still managed to grab my attention and hold it. Lauren Hillenbrand did an excellent job of almost resurrecting in front of the readers' eyes, each moment from the life of Seabiscuit and his humans - Howard, Smith, Pollard and Woolf - each of them somehow finding themselves and holding on, relying on the horse's tenacity.
The book is action-packed with Seabiscuit's races - each one of them described pulse-pounding moment by moment, so much so that you literally feel like the jockey. The lives of the jockeys are described enough that you feel like they are your friends. Even now, 60 years of the Biscuit's epic races, it is extremely easy to see what made the whole country of America root for the horse that looked like a "cow pony", but the had the heart of a champion.
I laughed aloud in many places, almost cried with happiness in races that the horse won and lost. Great book! get it now and read it, before the movie comes out. If the movie is half as good as the book, it is sure to take the country by the storm again. Oh, and almost as inspiring as Seabiscuit's story is the author's story. She had to battle Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Vertigo while writing the book, and what a product she has made!
Posted by shanti at June 8, 2003 1:02 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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I really should read the book, as I love the horses and was MOST disappointed that Funny Cide didn’t win yesterday.:(
My parents lived thru the Great Depression and I’m intensely interested in the period, too.
I definitely intend to see the movie before our trip to India. :)
Posted by: Diana at June 8, 2003 7:49 PM
PBS had a show about Seabiscuit and the jockey who knew him best: two “losers” who together became legendary.
Yeah, I watch PBS sometimes (especially when they run a string of Sherlock Holmes TV shows from the fifties). I even listen to NPR (well, sort of: actually, I listen to Click ‘n’ Clack via their website.)
Posted by: John Anderson at June 8, 2003 11:14 PM
Diana, you really should - I had heard of Seabiscuit before, but didn’t exactly know the outcomes of the various races, so it was really fun and exciting for me to follow them from the start to finish. We should watch the movie before we go to India - some movies are not released there on time ;)
John, we should banish you from the VRWC - how can you watch PBS and listen to NPR? :shocked: Of course, a couple of years ago, NPR was the only thing that played in my car radio :blush:
I think Seabiscuit is like the real-life “Rocky” :)
Posted by: Shanti at June 9, 2003 6:27 AM
I listen to NPR and watch PBS..:beam::beam::beam::beam:
Posted by: Diana at June 9, 2003 12:58 PM
But Diana, you were never part of the VRWC - You belong to Jooish Cabal that controls the VRWC. See? :tongue3:
Posted by: Shanti at June 9, 2003 2:01 PM
Can I join the Jooish cabal or am I doomed to spend the rest of my life as a member of the VRWC? :tongue3:
All the conspiracy theories always confuse me because different ones have different people controlling the world. According to some, the J-E-W-S control everything and others say they are tools of the MAN. Can someone help?
Posted by: Inscrutable American at June 9, 2003 3:40 PM
IA, I don’t think us little-bitty bloggers are quite “up there” yet, or eeevil enough to join the Jooish cabal. We need to oppress a few more downtrodden Palestinians or in our case, Pakistanis to move up :evil:
Till then, we are but minions of the cabal :(
Posted by: Shanti at June 9, 2003 4:37 PM