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Another New Year's resolution of mine, along with working my way back down to middleweight and then, naturally, taking the middleweight championship of the world (like Homer Simpson, when I imagine my victory over Sergio Martinez, I imagine a congenital heart defect felling Maravilla seconds before entering the ring) is to read more. I'm still a voracious reader, but in the days before Wi-Fi and my laptop, I was a legitimate 48 book a year reader, unless I was taking time out for Underworld or another go at Ulysses.

To encourage others to do something with their dreaded minutes waiting for BLH's next posting, and hopefully get some ideas of my own, here are a few great boxing books, in no order, and with no statement of authority. I look forward to hearing your recommendations in the comments.

-The Professional, W.C. Heinz.

Duh. Widely accepted as the best boxing book of all-time, it's an immensely detailed, ultimately heartbreaking novel, and if you don't read it, Buzz Bissinger will stab you in the throat. (Possibly.)

-The Sweet Science, A.J. Liebling

Another no-brainer, and an immensely important collection in the developing of boxing journalism. I'm especially fond of how Liebling writes about one of his most crafty subjects in the ring, Archie Moore. The Mongoose will come to life in your mind's eye more than he ever did for me in grainy footage.

-The Black Lights, Thomas Hauser

As is often the case with great writers, yes, Hauser loves the sound of his own voice, and not every 1500-word Internet outburst, or collection of his writing, is made equal. But this is the real deal, an unblinking look at how boxing business was (and still largely is) through Billy Costello, a brief lightweight champion made a sympathetic example. In 1986, this was also extraordinarily ground-breaking. Some prefer his Ali book, but I would argue this is much more important.

-The Harder They Fall, Budd Schulberg

Just found this one and breezed through it: a sometimes laughably hard-boiled novel, it's nevertheless riveting. The manufactured rise and fall of all-height, no-punch man mountain Argentine heavyweight Toro Molina, this also became Humphrey Bogart's last movie (and a good one, though sadly out of print). I wonder what Schulberg would have thought of a certain Russian former WBA champion...(Also recommended is Schulberg's Ringside, an uneven collection that does have its gems.)

-This Bloody Mary Is The Last Thing I Own, Jonathan Rendell

Every fighter breaks your heart in the end. A writer turned unlikely boxing manager, a featherweight (Colin "Sweet C" McMillan) geared up to take the title, and a lyrically written journey better read than described. This one really doesn't deserve its obscurity.

-The Last Great Fight, Joe Layden

There are two criticisms I can make of this book: one, the title is hyperbolic, if there is an argument made by this book, solidly, that Tyson-Douglas really did shatter boxing in a sense, never to be rebuilt; two, the Tyson chapters are largely compiled from other sources.

But so what? Alternating between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas before a fight no one but Douglas' camp believed he could win, but taking the story all the way through Douglas' quick implosion and Tyson's multiple explosions, this is a grandly entertaining read that I ripped through in hours, and found the narrative so stuck in my head, I wrote a play influenced deeply by the Buster Douglas story. (Particularly the downfall.) Tyson fans, boxing fans, sports fans, and most literate souls need to pick this one up. It's that good.

(Less recommended: A Savage Business by Richard Hoffer, a somewhat overwrought though very entertaining telling of the Tyson comeback, and how fraudulent it was from the very start. Its perspective gets a little overbearing, but if you can roll with that and just roll your eyes periodically, it's a fun read.)

And yours?

Fantasy question here based on a long, drunken conversation from the other night.

If you're a fight fan, odds are very strongly you've had at least one daydream of being a fighter. No need to deny here amongst friends. Hell, when I'm having trouble sleeping, I don't count sheep; I imagine fighting my way up the heavyweight division. (Properly speaking, I walk around at super middle/middleweight, but heavyweight is the best division for sleep-inducement.) Watching football, basketball, or even baseball, which I lettered in in high school, doesn't induce the same fantasizing. Why is that?

My theory is, it's the individuality of it. As a fighter, you choose your own uniform, you develop your own style...if you're successful in there, it's at least particularly because you've become one with your physical and mental strengths and weaknesses in a way not everyone really has to in life.

Oh, did I mention that you get to pick your own theme song? And unlike baseball, they aren't playing a paltry 15 seconds of it?

So if you were a fighter, what would you enter the ring with? Something to rattle the stadium? Something of deep personal significance? Something hilarious?

Three picks for me:

1) J Dilla, "Glamour Sho75": A rattling beat by the greatest hip-hop producer of all-time to make all my own, with a secret to match my sensitive side: it's based on a Janet Jackson sample. Lyrics don't play well in arenas, so instrumentals bring the most power.

2) Public Enemy, "Lost at Birth": Pure. Sonic. Warfare. Even its use in Pineapple Express hasn't taken any of the fear  and force out of it. Not the song I'm going with if I punch like Chris Byrd, though.

3) David Holmes, "Don't Die Just Yet": Low, cool (it's a Serge Gainsbourg reworking...doesn't get much cooler), purposeful, with flourishes of violent sound.

Honorary mentions: Lil' Flip v.s. Radiohead, "Game Over, Sit Down," Gang Starr, "B.Y.S.," Big Daddy Kane, "Ain't No Half Steppin'," David Byrne and Brian Eno, "Mea Culpa."

And what are you walking into the ring to?

FanPost front-paged by Scott.

Thinking of Vinny Pazienza's clowning-without-punching during the Roy Jones Jr. beating the other day, and watching Barrera-Hamed for the first time today, I've realized that there are a ton of boxers who fight/fought with the perfect combination of cartoonish exaggration and odd physicality. You could probably make a great edition to Nintendo's Punch-Out!! series using real fighters alone. Such as:

-Peter Buckley: A 32-256-12 fighter, for the Glass Joe slot.

-Vinny Pazienza: in late-career format. He never actually throws many punches, but he has the power to debiltate you through clowning alone.

-Prince Naseem Hamed: no defense whatsoever, but make sure to avoid his Power Prince Left. Here's a hint: he yells "Allah Akbar!" and several fireworks from his ring entrance go off just before he throws this power punch.

-Nikolai Valuev: his hideous visage alone will give this version of the game a Teen rating. Really doesn't do much in the way of fighting, but it's hard to reach his head, and be warned: if this fight goes the distance, you will always lose the decision.

-Emmanuel Augustus: In spite of Nintendo censorship, we'll have the Drunken Master actually take swigs of wood alcohol and spit fire in the middle of rounds. Vodka Drunkenenski has nothing on him.

-Shannon Briggs: Punch-Out!! characters always have big, loud indicators that let you know it's time to strike back. This asthmatic annihilator can throw heavy blows early in the fight: get him while he's wheezing.

-Antonio Margarito: I'd just love to see his ugly mug and hair made into 8-bit graphics. His Tornado punch is a classic 16-punch combo that's very hard to block, and you'd better knock him out early, because in later rounds, his fists start to...harden.

-Paul Malinaggi: Already the model for the last incarnation of Little Mac, here he fights by whipping hair extensions at you. Punch him three times in a row, and he gets tangled up in them until his corner cuts them off.

-Joe Frazier: Mr. Sandman already seems to have stolen his game anyway; we just replace uppercuts with the baddest left hook around, and add a little more awkward flapping.

-The Klitschkos: Super Punch-Out!! for the SNES ended with the Bruiser brothers, twin brothers who fans of the series were unenthused with, finding them personality-less and rather drab champions. Sound familiar?

-Floyd Mayweather Jr: Not actually in this game, but like Sheng Long in Street Fighter II, everyone claims they have the code to unlock him. The latest rumor involves him appearing when you lose 15 times in a row. Don't believe it.