Monday Morning Wake Up: Why I Will Not Read Battle for the Big Top ...

 You could never guess. 

I've known about  Lee Standiford's well received book, have skidded through a stream of consumer raves, hoping the local library would eventually order a copy.  It sounded like maybe a Big One. Not big enough for Oakland, half the town still behind masks, some on a waiting list for mask implants.

 So, I broke down and ordered a copy from Amazon. The moment it arrived, I opened it to find a form of type face insultingly small,worse yet, not clear black but half-dead grey.  And this, from a major publisher?  Great cover,  frugal interior design on life support.

The experts say that the publishing world is having a hell of a time, many books selling 0 copies, the average new tome, in a swampland of both traditional and self-publishing, selling around 300 to 500 copies.

I read many books, but I did not relish the thought of fighting my way across a grainy grey typeface terrain. Not unless the book were about John Ringling North or Rodgers & Hammerstein.

Here comes yet a bigger shock, for anybody who has a basic kindergarten knowledge of American circus history. While temporarily in possession of the orphan, I did a little checking to see how big a role Art Concello plays in the narrative.  So I looked for his name in the index.

Nothing!  

Heck, he was only to John Ringling North what James. A. Bailey had kind of been to P. To Barnum.  A big player.

I'll leave it at that, other to note that the book seems to cover a wider ground than what the title promises.