Hi,

Do you (or your readers) know and/or
recommend any sites or books that would help me turn my American-style
resume into a European style CV? I’ve looked it up on monster.com and a
few other places, but I’m getting a lot of conflicting advice about what
goes where and I’d like to do this right.

Thank you,
Goin’ Overseas!

Dear Overseas,

If a site like this one isn’t helpful to you, maybe the readers can be.

Anyone?Email subject line: “European CV.”

Hey Sars!

I have a slightly off-center Ask The Readers question, but given how smart, creative and all-around wonderful your readers seem to be I thought I would give it a whirl.

I teach a high school colorguard group (with the flags and the dancing and the whatnot) and need a song for them to perform to in competitions.I know what I want it to sound like, but don’t even know where to start looking.

I need an instrumental song at least five minutes long that sounds cold, icy and arrogant, if that makes sense.Basically, if you could take the way Tilda Swanton looked as the White Witch in Chronicles of Narnia and make that a song, that’s what I need.

If anyone can make song or even artist suggestions (that are easily obtainable…nothing unpublished or out of print) I would be forever grateful!

Thanks,
The Sound Of Silence Is Pretty Darn Boring

Dear Sound,

I can’t think of anything offhand; most of the ideas I’m coming up with are stuff like Mylo, which probably wouldn’t work for your purposes.

Readers, we need song/artist suggestions; no more than two per email, please.Email subject line: “colorguard music.”

Sars —

I’m not sure if this is appropriate for Ask the Readers Friday or just a request you could answer yourself, but I’m looking for baseball books.Generally, I’m not a sports fan (I live in Cleveland — can you blame me?), but a few years back I read Moneyball by Michael Lewis and it really got me interested in baseball.I like being able to understand some of the numbers they put up on the big screen and how important (or unimportant) certain statistics can be.I also enjoyed it for the New Yorker-lite “baseball for dummies” style, where I didn’t have to know a ton of baseball history just to figure out what Lewis was trying to say, which is a problem I’ve had with other baseball writing.I don’t know who all the players and coaches and managers are, and have been for the last forty years.I know thismuch about baseball lore and history.Moneyball worked for me not only for the new information it gave, but for the context it provided.

So, I’m wondering…what else can I read?Books?Magazines?Blogs?Is there some place I can get more up-to-date baseball information than a three-year-old book about the Oakland A’s?A place similar in style to Moneyball?The New Yorker of Baseball, perhaps?

A Potential Fan

Dear Fan,

The problem with these requests, which I get from time to time, is that baseball isn’t really a game of overviews or generalities, except when it comes to the biographies of players.The only way to get much out of reading most baseball books is, alas, to have read a bunch of other baseball books.

The best place to start, in terms of getting into rhythm of baseball writing, is the beat writers for your team.The offseason is nearly upon us, and I don’t know where to point you in terms of Indians blogs, but Baseball Toaster is sort of a clearinghouse for blogs of all the teams; I read Bronx Banter, obviously, but no doubt there’s one for the Tribe there.Go back and read this season’s archives.Follow your local sports section.Whenever SI has a baseball cover story, read it.

Then start reading biographies.They’re about people, so they’re more relatable, and the baseball sort of sneaks in around the margins and lets you learn without being too dry.Creamer’s Babe Ruth biography is top-notch; you could also read Red Barber’s memoir (he was the voice of the Dodgers for many years); Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Maybe Next Year; and the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, which has a lot of biographical information, as well as snapshots of each decade of baseball, and which is well-written and incisive as James always is.

Read Roger Angell’s Late Innings.Pick up a copy of the companion to Ken Burns’s Baseball series, and in fact, rent that from the library; it’s a loooooong documentary (like 20 hours’ worth), but you can dip in and out of it.(When It Was A Game is good for this too.)

Just read whatever you can find.It all adds to your knowledge about and pleasure in the game.If you don’t like a given book, pitch it and read another; if you’re not into Tom Boswell, try Jim Bouton, and if you don’t like that, try Keith Hernandez, and if you don’t like that, try W.P. Kinsella or C.W. Tooke.

Readers, we need baseball books and resources that aren’t too “inside.”Email subject line: “baseball stuff.”

[10/20/06]

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