Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 7/28/2007

7/28/1995:
After a 27-month interval following her on-court stabbing by a deranged fan in Hamburg, Germany, Monica Seles makes a sprightly comeback with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Martina Navratilova in an exhibition match at the Atlantic City Convention Hall. The two great champions, both Iron Curtain expatriates, practiced together often before today's match. Seles displays much of her sharp stroking ability and gritty demeanor right from the outset, and she'll go on to win the Canadian Open next month.

Birthdays:
Barry Ashbee b. 1939
Bill Bradley b. 1943
Vida Blue b. 1949
Doug Collins b. 1951
Manu Ginobili b. 1977


Vladimir Nabokov said that Don Quixote “stands for everything that is gentle, forlorn, pure, unselfish, and gallant.” Milan Kundera said, “Don Quixote is practically unthinkable as a living being, and yet, in our memory, what character is more alive?” Carlos Fuentes calls Don Quixote “perhaps the most eternal novel ever written,” and adds that Grossman’s new translation of the classic is “a major literary achievement.” If you haven’t read the beloved tale of knight and squire, then dive into this wonderful new edition.

DON QUIXOTE, by Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Edith Grossman (1605; Perennial, 2005)