About Lit Bases

Well, it was about time to update this page, since I’ve decided to make a couple of changes. Lit Bases was started back in 2009 by Nicholas Croston (henceforth referred to in the first person), a literature nut with a flair for words and a ton of spare time. I happened to be living in severe poverty in Chicago. The messenger service that had employed me as a contractor for the previous three years was all but run out of the city and taken over, so I was out of my job. My existence before that happened was hand-to-mouth because my commission-based work was already a casualty of the economy, and even though I was college-educated, between me being disabled and the rampant stereotypes of bicycle messengers that dominate popular imagination, I was for pretty much all purposes unemployable.

Without any prospects, I lost myself by reading more. I spent a lot of time breezing through sports books. One day I happened to come up with the idea of starting a review blog that was specifically about baseball literature, since baseball books were the main focus of my readings. Hence the reason this blog is called Lit Bases. It’s a part of my history, so I’m not planning to change it. In any case, Lit Bases did manage to find a following, and I received personal praise from numerous authors. Cait Murphy (Crazy ’08) and Marty Appel (Pinstripe Empire) were among those who eventually dropped in and commented. Self-published author Bill Lewers personally asked me to review a book he wrote.

After my poverty took its toll and forced me to move back home, I was forced to put this blog on an indefinite hiatus in order to reclaim my life. That took a lot of effort, but I eventually graduated from college a second time, moved across the country to Seattle, found gainful employment at a really good place, and started yet another blog. Since Lit Bases proved to be the most memorable of my work, though, I also decided I needed to get it going again. (Really, part of the reason I blog so much is because I want to become a known writer.) Unfortunately, my success in turning my life around left my spare time to read exclusively about baseball lacking. So in order to get around that, I decided it was time to jump the shark and turn Lit Bases into a blog which reviewed general sports literature.

And that’s the story.

The ethos of Lit Bases, rather than focusing on baseball books, is reviewing sports books. The name of Lit Bases is a good one, and part of its history, though, so I decided to hang onto it. And yes, I’m definitely still going to review baseball books, as well as movies and documentaries. (Both of those are forms of writing in and of themselves.) But I hope to create a wider audience of people who love the history and quirks of professional sports enough to read about them, and people who hope to get a better idea of what makes a good book about sports.

In any case, don’t expect to see reviews of whatever new book is currently burning up the bestseller lists. My review list is decided by one thing and one thing only: Whatever catches my eye. Yes, you’ll find reviews of big releases and classics here, but you’ll also find reviews of books you’ve never heard of, because I like the idea of looking for hidden gems. (Or rightfully forgotten trash.) I review whatever book I feel like reviewing, at whatever time I feel like reviewing it. I’m also up for doing a little bit of work on movies.

You can find me on my social media handles, although be aware that none of my blogs have proper accounts yet. Nicholas Croston (Facebook) and Niko Croston (Twitter), where I tend to cover more diverse subjects than sports, although I do post pieces from all of my blogs on both.