Cardboard Gods, Josh Wilker
Cardboard Gods, Josh Wilker
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Cardboard Gods
An AllAmerican Tale Told through Baseball Cards

Author: Josh Wilker

Narrator: Jim Meskimen

Unabridged: 8 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/21/2010

Synopsis

Cardboard Gods is the memoir of Josh Wilker, a brilliant writer who has marked the stages of his life through the baseball cards he collected as a child. It also captures the experience of growing up obsessed with baseball cards and explores what it means to be a fan of the game. Along the way, as we get to know Josh, his family, and his friends, we also get Joshs classic observations about the central artifacts from his lifethe baseball cards themselves. Josh writes about an imagined correspondence with his favorite player, Carl Yastrzemski; he uses the magical bubbleblowing powers of journeyman Kurt Bevacqua to shed light on the weakening of the powerful childhood bond with his older brother; he considers the doomed utopian backtotheland dreams of his hippie parents against the backdrop of inimitable 1970s baseball figures such as Designated Pinch Runner Herb Washington and Mark The Bird Fidrych. Cardboard Gods is more than just the story of a man who cant let go of his past, its proof thatto paraphrase Jim Boutonas children we grow up holding baseball cards but in the end we realize that its really the other way around.

About Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker writes about his life and childhood baseball cards at cardboardgods.net. He has an MFA in fiction writing from Vermont College and is a winner of the Howard Frank Mosher Prize for Short Fiction. He lives in Chicago.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brad

As an author of creative nonfiction, I occasionally come across examples of the genre and think, "Man, I wish I would have written that." THE KNOW-IT-ALL by AJ Jacobs (about his mission to read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica) was certainly one of those books. Brilliantly funny. CARDBOARD GODS is......more

Goodreads review by Matt

Let me preface this review by stating that during my youth, I was obsessed with baseball cards. I understand. I am part of the fraternity. Needless to say, when I stumbled upon this book (after reading a Ben Tanzer review on Goodreads) I was excited. The reviews were outstanding. And then I opened t......more

Goodreads review by Alan

I liked the book but I didn’t feel it was as good as it could have been. I enjoyed the observations of the old baseball cards and the author’s comments on the players. Beware thought that the book is more about the author and less about the players and the cards. And that’s ok but wasn’t exactly wha......more

Goodreads review by Dani

Couple of things right off the bat: 1) This is NOT a book about baseball cards or how to collect them or anything like that 2) This book is a memoir of the author 3) Recommended ages for this book 16+ With that out of the way...I've collected baseball cards for over 25 years now so when I saw this book......more

Goodreads review by Jared

I loved this book. It is, refreshingly, utterly without pretense. The author has such an authentic, humble, and honest voice that he simultaneously manages both gritty realism and vulnerable eloquence. Even if it wasn't about baseball and baseball cards, it would have been worth the read for the mov......more

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