The SCP book club was supposed to be a four part series. Surprisingly, though, the book clubbers all stepped up and finished reading ahead of schedule. It’s the exact opposite trend to what happened between editions 1 and 2. And so, The SCP Book Club’s discussion of “Those Guys Have All The Fun,” wraps up here with a study of chapters 6, 7 and 8, covering pages 455 through 745.

Read parts 1 and 2

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As the SCP book club discussion moved past the initial edition, the writer expected it to continue at it’s initial pace. Quickly, though, it became obvious that would not be the case. The participants, busy with their own lives, struggled to to find enough time to read the hundreds of pages that SportsCracklePop expected to be covered. It became obvious that what was originally intended to be a weekly feature would actually work better for everyone as a bi-weekly discussion. So, the second edition of the “Those Guys Have All The Fun” book club finally makes its long awaited appearance. Edition two covers chapters 4 and 5 of the book, from page 215 to page 454, ESPN’s history between 1992 and 2000.

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On May 24th, 2011, The book “Those Guys Have All The Fun” hit stores nationwide. In the run-up to release, the authors had been doing the press rounds and a few juicy excerpts had been released online. SportsCracklePop had always covered the release of new books by publishing an interview with the author. In this case, though, it seemed obvious that a small site like SCP would have to get way in the back of the line to speak to the writers. So, instead, the site decided to take a different tact, inviting a group of regular readers to take part in a weekly SCP book club. And because they like a challenge, they decided to write the book club entries in the same format as the book itself, with quotes making up the majority of the copy and italicized asides helping move the action along.

The first edition covers the book’s first three chapters, a total of 214 pages.

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I’ve been struggling for a couple of days to put into words just how excited I am about reading the ESPN oral history, “Those Guys Have All The Fun.”  I think I’ve finally figured it out.  I’m not excited enough to fantasize about this book while masturbating, but, if during that “process” the book flashed into my mind, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t knock me off task.

So, with that horrible image in your head, let’s talk about how we’re going to handle this monumental literary event. We’re bringing back the SCP Book Club. But, as opposed to our efforts to chronicle “What It Takes,” this will not be a one man task. Starting next Tuesday, we’ll begin posting a weekly discussion of “Those Guys Have All The Fun,” featuring some of this site’s most loyal readers, John, from 200 Miles From The Citi, commenter and one time contributor Dave in Brighton (who will soon be Dave in Ann Arbor,) and commenter Scott Salley (not his real name,) who, for the sake of simplicity, we’re just going to call Kevin.

We’re also open to other participants. Feel free to add your thoughts into the comments section or, if you want to get more involved, email me at justin@sportscracklepop.com.

So, go out tomorrow, buy the book and start reading. We’ve got a lot to talk about.

Finally, the answer we’ve all been waiting for:  YES.

Today marks the final edition of our ongoing chronicle of one man’s efforts to read a book.  Richard Ben Cramers, “What It Takes,” is a very long chronicling of the 1988 Presidential election. It is 1,051 pages broken up into 130 chapters, an afterword and an additional author’s note.

How did I do?

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And now, the latest chapter in our ongoing saga of man vs. book, a serial adventure that I’m all but sure is interesting only to me.

To catch up any first time readers, I’m chronicling my efforts to read Richard Ben Cramer’s massive book, “What It Takes,” which chronicles the 1988 Presidential election.  It’s 1,051 pages long and is broken up into a ridiculous 130 chapters.

After 5 weeks, how I am doing?

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Today marks a full 28 days since I began the Herculean task of reading Richard Ben Cramer’s encyclopedia sized tome about the 1988 presidential election, “What It Takes.”

Here’s a quick primer, if, for some reason, you haven’t been following my ongoing effort to tackle this literary monolith. The book is 1,051 pages long and is broken up into 130 chapters.

So, after a month, where do I stand?

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And  now, another installment in our ongoing series about one man’s journey to the end of a really long book.

Today marks 21 days since I began reading Richard Ben Cramer’s mammoth work “What It Takes,” which tracks 6 candidates as they run for President in 1988.  As I have stated it the past, the book is 1,051 pages long and is split into 130 chapters.

So, How’s it going?

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It’s time once again to track my progress as I try  to tackle Richard Ben Cramer’s Magnum Opus, “What It Takes” about the 1988 Presidential campaign.

As I’ve stated previously, this book is very long and has very small print.

Let’s see how it’s going.

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It’s been a week since I announced, to much fanfare, that I am reading Richard Ben Cramer’s  Epic, “What it Takes,” about the 1988 Presidential election.

Here’s how it’s going so far.

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