The wonders of Wisden

Each morning this week I woke up early to listen to online commentary of the ENGLAND v. PAKISTAN cricket Test being played in neutral DUBAI.
Pakistan (338 & 15-0) defeated England (192 & 160) by 10 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Spinner Saeed Ajmal took 10 wickets in the match for Pakistan.
Each lunchtime this week, I buried my nose into one of my CHRISTMAS gifts.
The WISDEN CRICKETERS' ALMANACK is the 149-year-old, annual Bible of the sport, a yearbook, record book and rule book all wrapped in one hefty package.
I've always wanted one, so I was delighted when I received the 2011 edition at Yuletide.
Open the book to any of the 1,648 pages, and you can find nuggets about the sport and its personalities.
For example:
* Page 199, where the obituary for Gerald Percival Plumbly notes that the former president of the Stoics Cricket Club "was a Marylebone vet who treated an astonishing variety of animals in Central London, ranging from the Queen's horses to circus animals, and once had to rescue a Soho stripper who has being strangled by a boa constrictor."
* Page 703, where we're told the Birmingham & District League is the oldest such cricket league in the world, and that Shrewsbury won the 2010 title -- its first -- after bowler Elliot Green took nine wickets for only 77 runs scored against.
* Page 1,187, where we learn cricket is being revived in the Solomon Islands, where it had previously thrived during British colonial rule. Games are played every Sunday on a concrete wicket covered by a grass-colored mat.
I don't I will ever read every single page of my Wisden -- there are simply so many -- but I love being able to thumb through it, collecting bits of cricket knowledge and adding them to my ever increasing pile, like a religious zealot compiling shells and other trinkets while constructing a grotto.