I’m your opposite, George; I’ve been a voracious reader my whole life and only recently taken a great interest in motorsports. One racing book that I read in 6th grade stuck with me though. it has been out of print for decades, so you have to look online at used book dealers. “30 Days in May: the Indy 500″ by Hal Higdon. It’s the story of the 1970 Indy 500 and is worth finding and reading.

Hal Higdon also wrote a bio of Johnny Rutherford around the same time, which is also out of print, but worth finding.

Another book worth finding is “The Unfair Advantage”, by Mark Donohue. It is his autobiography which gives you a great overview of the pre-computer engineering days of racing. It also gives a lot of insight into how Roger Penske works. Fascinating book.

My final recommendation for a racing book is a work of fiction, which revolves around racing. “The Art of Racing in the Rain” is a great book told from the viewpoint of a dog. I don’t want to tell you more and spoil the book.

As always this is IMNSHO and YMMV.

As you say, the book is a little pricey and there may be a few shots of Danny Boy that were framed more with the ladies in mind than us guys, but it is a fine high quality compilation. Also keep in mind that Blurb.com does not generally produce large quantity printings of the books they publish, but rather prints and binds each book as they are ordered. Not the most cost saving method of printing, however, it makes it possible for more books from a variety of areas to become available to the consumer. It also allows the average person to print sample books of there own writing or for anyone to create a book or photo album on any subject for any reason.

Merry Christmas to you and yours Geroge, as always, thanks very much for another year of great Indy Car writing.

Slainte, Bent….