Jump to content

What Are Your Favourite Sports Books?


Jack Dawkins

Recommended Posts

I think I have only read one bok which could be classed as a sports book & that was Shoeless Joe Jackson come to Iowa, which was what the movie Field of Dreams was based on. I read the book after seeing the movie & there were some major differences, as one would expect, but I loved both. Shoeless Joe goes into a lot more detail (obviously) about the White Sox & the Black Sox Scandal. All in all, a great book!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I have only read one bok which could be classed as a sports book & that was Shoeless Joe Jackson come to Iowa, which was what the movie Field of Dreams was based on. I read the book after seeing the movie & there were some major differences, as one would expect, but I loved both. Shoeless Joe goes into a lot more detail (obviously) about the White Sox & the Black Sox Scandal. All in all, a great book!

 

That sounds like a fashinating read, I'll have to look it up! I've been meaning to get more into baseball, as given my love of sports statistics that should be my kind of game. *laughs* But I've postponed that until/if I move back to States... It's really hard to get into the game in Europe.

 

I haven't really read that many sports books. Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike is wonderful, though. If asked about movies, you cannot top Slap Shot. It's THE sports movie of all times!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not kidding when I write this.. It was literally about 2 days ago that I said to myself: "Okay.. there are just two types of books I CANNOT read. War books, and sports books." :lol: There are some war stories in "Q&A," which I was reading at the time and my eye just glaaazzee over.. same w/sports stories.

 

I DID read John Grisham's "Playing for Pizza" one day though.. all about football in Parma, Italy. I only made it through it because it talked about Italy and its restaurants and people more than it talked about football. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, I'd have to say What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami as it's the only sports book I've ever read (with the exception of one or two books about Formula 1).

 

That's actually a pretty good book. Although quite weird, too.

 

Otherwise I'd suggest Fever Pitch, of course. And I read a really fascinating book about doping in cycling called Breaking The Chain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That sounds like a fashinating read, I'll have to look it up! I've been meaning to get more into baseball, as given my love of sports statistics that should be my kind of game. *laughs* But I've postponed that until/if I move back to States... It's really hard to get into the game in Europe.

 

I haven't really read that many sports books. Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike is wonderful, though. If asked about movies, you cannot top Slap Shot. It's THE sports movie of all times!

 

ii, I think that you'd like it. It's one that I read in High school for a project & just loved. I've been meaning to re-read it myself, but have yet to get around to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ii, I think that you'd like it. It's one that I read in High school for a project & just loved. I've been meaning to re-read it myself, but have yet to get around to it.

 

*writes the name down in her notebook* I'll look around. (like I haven't enough books to read as it is!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yes.

 

How the hell could I have forgotten Beyond A Boundary.

 

Probably the best sports book ever written. Also possibly the best book about race and politics too.

 

Genuinely brilliant.

 

And yes, Raven, Fever Pitch is really about obsession. But I rememer when I first read it, in the early 90s, it really touched a nerve with me as a footy fan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've probably read more sports books than an intelligent human being should admit to, but almost none of them has made an impression on me. The only ones I'd recommend are Beyond A Boundary by C L J James, and The Soccer Syndrome by John Moynihan.

 

Ooops! If anyone's moved by my recommedation to buy it (which is probably unlikely), it's by C L R James, by the way. My fingers apologise ....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

I am yet to read a good sports book, but I plan on getting The Fight by Norman Mailer and The Sweet Science by A. J. Liebling for christmas, as I have a massive interest in boxing; and it is a sport that can make for interesting literature in my eyes.

 

Being a boxing journalist is definitely my dream career.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

It's not my favourite, but I recently read 'The Blinder' by Barry Hines (the guy who wrote Kes) and it was really good. It's about an up and coming footballer in a mining town in the 60s. Apart from being a good story, the contrast betweem football then and now is very interesting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting topic but if you allow me i would like to enlarge to books using the sport as a dramatic tool and body as a literary matter.

 

- American Psycho, Brett Easton Ellis for fitness delirium

- 3 Men in a boat, Jerome K Jerome for rowing misadventures

- The Game, Jack London for his depicture boxing masculinity

- Confessions of a mask, Yukio Mishima for bodybuilding homoeroticism

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...