Promoting his new book has Mattoon native Will Leitch thinking it's 10 or 15 years ago.

"I'm living like a college kid again now," Leitch said via phone while driving to another reading on his book tour. "I have to go home and do laundry."

The 32-year-old University of Illinois graduate is making a number of appearances in support of the book, including a reading Tuesday in Champaign and a signing in Mattoon on Feb. 16.

The book's lengthy title is "God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It Back)."

Carol Speakman, manager of Waldenbooks in Mattoon, said she is looking forward to Leitch's return.

"He was here last year during Bagelfest," she said, "and between that and him being here at the store, we maybe sold 150 books. Mattoon is very good about supporting people from here."

Released last month, the book has been a hot topic on sports blogs. That's fitting, since Leitch is the founder of Deadspin, the sports-based Gawker Media blog that is the second most-read sports blog and was named the most influential by JuicedSports.com.

The book has also been a topic of discussion at newspapers across the country. Its cover appears to be a foam finger with the middle finger instead of the index finger extended.

"The foam finger does not have a thumb," Leitch insisted. "If you think the cover of the book is an obscene gesture, you just betrayed your dirty mind.

"We did run it by Barnes and Noble first, to be sure it was OK. It's one thing to have a book cover that annoys newspapers and another to annoy Barnes and Noble."

Leitch's book isn't so much a call to action as it is an attempt to remind fans that they have some control over their sports entertainment - with an emphasis on the word "entertainment."

"People forget that everyone to do with sports is an entertainer," Leitch said, "and that includes me. We forget about that sometimes. To me, that's how sports should be discussed.

"People who read the book and aren't really into sports seem to enjoy it."

Of course, Leitch makes it fun. One of the features of the readings is a re-enactment of an infamous interview Leitch conducted with pitcher John Rocker, criticized for racist and homophobic comments in a 2000 Sports Illustrated story.

"That's my little gimmick," Leitch said. "The dirty little secret about readings is most of them are boring. I've been to tons, supporting friends who have written books. And I always feel like my friends should come out, since I supported their lousy bands.

"One advantage to my readings is a lot of people who come to mine have never been to one before, so they don't know how boring they can be. I'm like Obama, bringing in people who haven't done this before.

"I knew I needed to come up with something different, so I came up with the Rocker thing. There's always been at least one woman in the room, so she's Rocker's girlfriend, and then I try to find a person who's got the voice of Zeus. That person plays me. And I'm Rocker, and the footnotes."

This is Leitch's third book, and he understands that with a larger publisher come larger responsibilities along with larger possibilities.

"This is Harper Collins," he said. "They're sending me out on this tour. Which is to say it needs to sell. And it could lead to other things.

"The question to be answered after this tour is what's the next thing I can do that's not just idling."

WHO: Will Leitch, author of "God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It Back)."

WHEN: Book-reading, 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12, Illini Union Bookstore, Wright and Daniel streets, Champaign; book-signing, 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16, Waldenbooks, 700 E. Broadway Ave., Mattoon.

ON THE WEB: www.deadspin.com.

For more on Will Leitch, see Tim Cain's blog entry today at www.herald-review.com/blogs/timcain.

Tim Cain can be reached at timcain@herald-review.com or 421-6908.