He pitches for the Mets, but Jerry Blevins would rather not read about baseball.
“I use reading as an escape,” the lefthanded relief pitcher told The Post. “I enjoy science fiction and fantasy. I like a strong character and delve in — it’s a way to get out of my own head and the intensity of baseball!” That said, baseball’s been very, very good to him: The Tennessee native has traveled extensively, to South America, Japan, Dubai and, of course, Queens, home to Citi Field, where the Mets play Sunday. Let’s hope the 33-year-old lefty’s hook does the job.
In the meantime, here’s what’s in this ballplayer’s library.
This is a true story about the US ambassador to Germany during the rise of the Third Reich. William Dodd kept a pretty good journal, and so did his young daughter, Martha. It shows how nearly everyone in America underestimated the Nazi regime and how a gentle man saw its treatment of the Jewish people. It’s hard to fathom how any human being can do that to another.
I thought I’d read a couple of classics. First I tried “Moby Dick,” which was fantastic, and then this one, about a man who’s betrayed and imprisoned and so bent on revenge, he can’t see clearly. It’s a really fun read!
When a line-drive hit cracked a bone in my arm in 2015, I spent a long time in rehab. My teammate Erik Goeddel was there, and we found we’d both read this book. It’s set in a dystopian future where the main character escapes into virtual reality, in search of a prize. It’s filled with nerdy subculture references from the ’80s and ‘90s: a flashback to my childhood.
This is the first of the Kingkiller Chronicles trilogy, but the third book still hasn’t come out. It has an amazing main character, Kvothe, a hero who has his flaws and embraces that. He knows he’s fallible, so he’s easy to root for. Nobody’s perfect.
