Sometimes when I read a book, I get infatuated with a character or person in the story and I can't stop thinking or talking about him or her. Last fall when I read The Making of a Chef, Thomas Keller became the object of my obsession. Back then it was, "Thomas Keller does…" and "Did you know that Thomas Keller…" non-stop.

Now it's Seabiscuit, or The Biscuit. Did you know most horses sleep standing up? But not The Biscuit — he liked to bed down in a big ol' pile of hay. And The Biscuit liked to eat the hay even though he'd already had dinner. And The Biscuit had funny front legs that didn't straighten quite right so people thought he couldn't run fast. And did you know that The Biscuit…

Yesterday on the way to the airport I realized I'd forgotten to bring a book (since I'm between books, I put-off my final decision on what to read next until the morning of departure, having narrowed down my choices the evening before) to read on the plane. Faced the the grim prospect of purchasing something in the airport bookstore, I slogged in, expecting to settle for the latest from Oprah's book club. Imagine my delight when I saw two copies of Seabiscuit: An American Legend sitting on the display table.

I'd put Seabiscuit on my wish list ages ago, when it first came out. So I snapped it up and settled in for some good reading over breakfast on my way to New York. What a book! "A first-rate piece of storytelling" says the New York Times, and I couldn't agree more. I'm already half-way through and would like nothing more than to spend the rest of the day reading about the Depression and horse racing.

I'm really enjoying this book for several reasons: 1) I don't know anything about Seabiscuit, so hearing his story is compelling in and of itself, 2) the book opens up the world of jockeys and Thoroughbred racing, something about which I'm not very familiar, 3) I love it when books do that — absorb you into unfamiliar surroundings and make it engaging and real, 4) I love this horse! There's a picture of his face about a third of the way through and I found myself thinking, "that's such a Seabiscuit expression!" when I saw it. That's how thoroughly and wonderfully Ms. Hillenbrand pulls you into the world and character of Seabiscuit.

We've decided we're going to post the entire contents of our new book, We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs online at the book's website, Blogroots.com. We've posted the first chapter (which isn't the book's first chapter, it's actually the book's eighth) entitled, Using Blogs in Business. I really like this chapter a lot — it's chock-full of ideas about ways in which weblogs can be used in a business environment and I think it contains some really neat stuff.

Correction: One Million Dollars! Those stupid Friends get $1,000,000 each per episode!! I knew $100,000 seemed too low…and isn't that show finishing up after next season? Couldn't they take just a fraction of the $6M they were spending on each episode and pay Rob Lowe with it? Or are they going to instead pour it into some worthless "The Osbournes" rip-off?

Looks like Rob Lowe will be departing the West Wing at the end of the next season because of a salary dispute. Hopefully NBC will realize the error of their ways before this happens and give him a raise. Heck, if those stupid Friends can get $100,000+ per episode, Rob Lowe should be able to. Lowe is great on that show and Sam Seaborn is a wonderful character. I'll be sad to see him go, West Wing is far and away my favorite program on TV these days and I can't get enough of it.