The Battle of Alberta

Continuing with these "bad books", I recently read a non-fiction doozie called The Battle of Alberta, written by Edmonton journalist Mark Spector. Having grown up in Calgary, the battle between the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s, has always been close to my heart and I had been looking forward to this one since it came out in December. It would be a chance to relive the excitement of hockey in Alberta, in the 1980s.

I had been expecting a deeply researched book offering a behind-the-scenes look at one of hockey's great rivalries. Instead, this was only a collection of present day interviews with players reminiscing about events that took place 30 years ago.

The problem is that nobody can accurately remember things that happend 30 years ago. In the afterword of this book, Spector even concedes the players had a lot of their facts wrong; who scored that big goal, who was in that fight, and even in a few instances, who that playoff opponent was. But he never corrects them, and instead tries to omit the incorrectly remembered details, thus leaving us with a bland, innaccurate account of a few hockey games from long ago.

When I to sulphurous and tormenting Flames

Looking back at my progress through the list these past couple of months, I realise I haven't been doing a very good job.  I finished The Blind Assassin on August 23rd, and I finished Under the Volcano on September 15th.  So even if I finish my current read, Portnoy's Complaint, in the next three days, I'll have essentially only read two books in one month.

But, I suppose that a two books per month pace is all I have ever shot for.  At that pace, I'd finish in just over four years, from start to finish.  But I had been doing so well, having knocked off six books in the previous two months.  That would have be finishing the remaining 55 books in about a year and a half.  Not bad.  But it looks like that isn't going to happen.

Though when I do look back at what I've read, I notice that while I'll only have read two books from the list in the previous month, I will have read seven other books, be they non-fiction or non-list books.  So I guess the real problem isn't that I haven't been reading, I just haven't been doing my assigned reading.

Previously I had mentioned my desire/need to read a couple of hockey books as slowing me down a bit.  And I fear that trend may continue.  Tonight is the Flames' first pre-season game, and I could become a little distracted.  But of course, I was able to get a lot of reading done during last year's hockey season, so I guess there is no reason to think this one will be any different.  Plus, I have a couple of trips planned for later in the year, both of which may provide me with ample time to squeeze in a few books.

I think the real key, is to re-focus myself onto reading the list, and stop spending so much time reading other books.  This doesn't mean I'll stop reading other books altogether, just not as much or as often.  Right now, I'm reading Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth for the list, and Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor on the side.  Both were started on the same day, so I've decided to use one as a yard stick for the other.  By this I mean, I'd like to finish Portnoy before I finish one-third of Stalingrad.  So far, I'm right on pace.