The Man Who Worships Gods Of Cardboard

Granada Hills native and L.A. Observed blogger Bob Timmerman reminisces about buying baseball cards at Cork 'n' Bib Liquor in his interview with baseball card collector, Josh Wilker, author of Cardboard Gods. An excerpt from the interview:

Q: How do you describe what Cardboard Gods is about?

A: It is a tough one, and I guess I have different answers at different times. I always have trouble saying what any books are about, actually, I think because it's more about how I lean on them than what they're about. Like On the Road was a book I leaned on when I was 17 and freshly expelled from high school to expand my narrowing horizons and to get some breath in my lungs and to be hopeful about the life I still had to lead, and that such a life might contain some adventures and joy, and that I might be able to write about that life and get some of the joy down onto the page, as Kerouac had. It's the same with this book that I wrote--it's easier for me to comment on how I leaned on it in my life than to say what it's about. Pretty deep into my life here on the planet, I was able to lean on my childhood baseball cards to not only impose some kind of a narrative shape on my previously unshapeable life but also to draw some kind of a feeling of persisting childlike joy from the cards and thread it through my life. Also, I wanted to hold on to that brief span of years that was my childhood, and the cards helped me do that. So I guess maybe that's a long-winded way of saying the book is about a guy holding on to his baseball cards throughout his life.


Read more:
The man who worships gods of cardboard - Native Intelligence

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