Celebrating the Playoffs: Cardboard Gods Giveaway
Here at Algonquin, we like to celebrate the playoffs in true American style: by kicking up our feet, turning on the tube, and belting “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” while eating bacon-wrapped hot dogs and petting a Bald Eagle. And who better to help us celebrate than baseball connoisseur Josh Wilker, author of Cardboard Gods? In his hilarious and heartbreaking memoir, Josh tells the story of his 1970’s childhood through his beloved collection of of baseball cards. He begins each chapter with a full-color image of one of his cards–Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, Tom Seaver, Wade Boggs, and many lesser-known players—and uses it as a launching point to chronicle his unusual childhood in which only his collection of paper heroes could give him the unfailing faith that a winning season was just around the corner.
We have three of these puppies up for grabs. Want to win one? Just submit a comment here or on our Facebook page. May the biggest baseball fans win!
Praise for Cardboard Gods:
“Proust has his madeleine. Nick Hornby has his vinyl records. And when Josh Wilker wants to summon the past, he has the scent of bubblegum. . . . If Wilker had a baseball card, its back might read: Josh is one of 2010′s most promising literary players.”—Sports Illustrated
“A baseball-loving loner deciphers his complicated childhood through his old box of trading cards. . . . Wilker’s book is as nostalgically intoxicating as the gum that sweetened his card-collecting youth. Grade: A.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Wilker connects baseball cards to more pop culture references than a season of Family Guy—everything from Louis L’Amour westerns to Jack Kerouac to Elvis Costello . . . You’ll love this book.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“I couldn’t put it down . . . In much the same way Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Wait Till Next Year is as much about growing up in the 1950s as her being a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Wilker, too, uses baseball as a backdrop in writing about the ’70s.” —The Boston Herald
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Overall Score
Reader Rating: 0 Votes
This book has been on my “want to read” wish list for awhile!
The books sounds like a very fun read!! I would LOVE to win a copy!! (Who doesn’t love baseball and a young boy’s memories of it growing up). Good luck with it. I hope it seel 1 million copies!!
Big baseball season in Detroit, how fun to win this book 🙂
Wow! Would love to read this! Gooooooooo Cardinals!
I love Algonquin ‘s books !
If I won this I’d give it to my Sweety for his upcoming birthday.His mother threw out his collection of baseball cards years ago and it would be a cool gift.
Looks great – would love to receive a copy. Thank you.
We are baseball fans with my 15 year old playing Ball since he was 7 years old. Baseball tales are a great read in the house!
heard so much about the book would love to read it.
Would love to win this so I could give it to my hubby whose mother threw away all his keepers! Can’t understand why a mom would throw away her child’s baseball card collection!Cards from the 50’s on are all gone….so sad
We have huge baseball fans here. It would be great to win this book that we would all want to read.
My wife’s sister told me about this. I am a die hard baseball fan and would love to read this book.
Would love to win this book! Go, Rangers!!!
This looks fabulous! Would love to get this for my dad (and then steal it from him). His baseball devotion spans from the Atlanta Braves to grandsons’ Little League games (which he follows via email from three states away).
Love to win a copy of Cardboard Gods by Josh Wilker…….babyruthmac16@yahoo.com
Love to win a copy of “Cardboard Gods” by Josh Wilker…sounds like a awesome book……………….babyruthmac16@yahoo.com
Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy of this book.
This looks like a great book. I can remember saving my pennies to buy baseball cards back in the 60s and 70s. Wish I still had those cards today!
My honey is a huge Bball fan. I would love to win this book!
I would love to win this book!
Looks like a great read!
I too have been a baseball fan for as long as I can remember: Atlanta Braves, thanks to Ted Turner and TBS 🙂 but it was collecting baseball cards with my youngest daughter and the look on her face when Andruw Jones signed his card for her one day just before a game – in the Taco Bell across from the old stadium – that sticks with me the most. What a wonderful idea for a book!
We (my five sisters and brothers) were given our uncle’s baseball card collection. We, especially my next oldest sister and I, used to go through those cards incessantly, figuring out our fantasy ideal teams. My mother, who is not known for throwing anything out – especially if it might have value. Through those cards out – long before baseball cards became such a hot commodity. The cards were primarily from the 40s and 50s. There were some choice cards in the bunch.
Getting baseball cards autographed at Florida’s Grapefruit League games used to be one of my favorite Spring pasttimes. I’d love a copy of this book to help bring back those memories!
It sounds like a swell book and I would love to read it. I love baseball and baseball cards.
Just finished the book last night and loved every page of it. For those who haven’t read it yet, the book is about so much more than baseball cards; they’re really the thread that holds the whole story together. Whether you are a former baseball card collector (I am) or not, you’ll love this book.