[Archived] Holiday Reading

[Flopsy]

Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football and the authors new book, Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics

which are rather good

Edited June 29, 2008 by Flopsy

[b12_simon]

I'm loving Tim Parks's A Season With Verona at the mo but always an eye on the next book. Sooo can any of you recommend any books about Spanish football?

[FourLaneBlue]

Barca: A people´s Passion by Jimmy Burns was a particularly good read as was White Storm by Phil Ball(about Real Madrid). Not read Morbo which is also by Phil Ball but that is also supposed to be good.

[blue phil]

I'm just getting to the end of an extremely good book by Mary Alexander entitled The Bounty .

This is the definitive account of the mutiny on the bounty - one of the most fascinating episodes in our history - and takes in the build up to the mutiny itself , and the nigh on incredible tales of Bligh and the mutineers in the years after .

I can assure anyone that the range of remarkable characters involved in this whole episode go far beyond that of the cliched Christian and Bligh and include more or less the whole ship's company . The story of the colony that evolved on Pitcairn island and the merging of Tahitian and British culture is fascinating .

[b12_simon]

Barca: A people´s Passion by Jimmy Burns was a particularly good read as was White Storm by Phil Ball(about Real Madrid). Not read Morbo which is also by Phil Ball but that is also supposed to be good.

Cheers FLB - will add to the pile

Edit: just bought the pair of em. Barca for ~£2, Real for ~£4. Ain't the Internet wonderful?

Edited July 3, 2008 by b12_simon

[Eddie]

Just finished reading "How Football Explains the World"...yawn.

[rosie]

I've just ordered this to keep us entertained on holiday - “We Don’t Know What We’re Doing” – Adventures with the extraordinary fans of an ordinary team" - thanks Colin - I'll report back.

Also ordered this as we're into going to the Highlands and islands: Searching for Crusoe: A Journey Among the Last Real Islands by Clarke, Thurston.

Recently finished "As I walked out one Midsummer Morning" by Laurie Lee - an outstanding book - I would recommend this to anyone. I deliberately took ages to read it because I didn't want it to end. I want to go out and order everything he ever wrote now.

Depressing, but eye opening and brilliantly written, I'm currently reading "If this is a man / The Truce" by Primo Levi which is about living in Auschwitz as an (Italian) Jewish prisoner of war in WWII. To say it is harrowing doesn't do it justice. Suffice to say it's taking me a long time to read, but I would totally recommend it.

Edited July 3, 2008 by rosie

[FourLaneBlue]

Cheers FLB - will add to the pile

Edit: just bought the pair of em. Barca for ~£2, Real for ~£4. Ain't the Internet wonderful?

By the way the best book I have ever read on Italian football is The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss Castel at Amazon

Other recommended football books...The Far Corner by Harry Pearson (about football in the north east), Brilliant Orange by David Winner (about Dutch football) and Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life by Alex Bellos.

I posted about some football books on the old thread here...First holiday reads thread.

Edited July 3, 2008 by FourLaneBlue

[percy]

By the way the best book I have ever read on Italian football is The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss Castel at Amazon

Brilliant book, really well written. Real eye opener in terms of how corrupt Italian football can be...

[FourLaneBlue]

Atonement by Ian McEwan is an excellent book. It was much-hyped but in this case it was well deserved. Haven´t seen the film yet but if it is anything like the book it is not surprising that it won so many awards.

[b12_simon]

Atonement by Ian McEwan is an excellent book. It was much-hyped but in this case it was well deserved. Haven´t seen the film yet but if it is anything like the book it is not surprising that it won so many awards.

Atonement is great although I prefer McEwan's shorter books. Actually I've never read a McEwan book I didn't enjoy and I've read most of them.

The film's worth seeing, too.

Following recommendations on this board I've recently read Tim Parks' A Season With Verona and Phil Ball's Morbo - both of which are excellent.

"Verona" should strike a chord with many Rovers fans detailing obsession with an occassionally successful, often struggling but always unfashionable club.

"Morbo" is a great history of Spanish football from the point of view of an English ex-pat. Very informative, often funny (the author has a great eye for the absurd - something very common in Spanish football) and dispels some lazy myths about regional separatism. Rovers even get a mention, which was a bit of a surprise.

Currently taking a break from footie books (Chuck Klosterman's "Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto"). I'll be reading Phil Ball's "White Storm" very soon.

[Roost]

Just readin 'world without end' by Ken Follett - its a sequel to 'pillars of the earth' and so far every bit as amazing.

One problem - its hardback and over 1000 pages - a bugger when trying to read it on the bog.......................................

One of the best writers around for me must be Carl Hiasen - sick puppy and tight fit are hilarious.... all about the seedier side of Florida and the wierdos that live there.

[broadsword]

Just finished reading "Home Run" by John Nichol and Tony Rennell.

It's a great piece of non-fiction, the story of war-time evaders in occupied territory. something that's quite close to home for John Nichol (one of the RAF pilots caught and tortured by the Iraqis and put on TV in Gulf War 1).

Evocative is definitely the word, it brings it all remarkably to life with the help of the accounts of the people who were there. You feel like you're there yourself, it's that good.

One account in particular brought a tear to my eye, it was quite affecting, but I shall say no more, and let you find out for yourself.

Best book I've read in many a year. Gripping, informative and most of all, very humbling.

[colin]

"Sing When You're Winning" Football Fans. Terrace Songs And A Search For The Soul Of Soccer (Soccer?)

Colin Irwin

Another football book: funny & enlightening. Irwin travels from Stamford Bridge to Wick to (gag) Turf Moor to Lllansantffraid (the home of "Total Network Solutions") as they play against "Airbus UK." he takes in everything from the fans' point of view and hates the commercialisation of the game.

The Bovril & Wagon Wheels theme keeps going, he even reports on games that he can't get into because he doesn't have a ticket.

The book makes me go "Hey, I think exactly the same way about that too."

Which is a good thing

[colin]

List No 9

Here we go - a quick summary of the most recent recommended reads for the

most well-read set of football supporters this side of the Booker Prize

'Cadbury's Purple Reign' -John Bradley,

recommended by Exiled In Toronto

"just appeared in Waterstones All you chocoholics out there would definitely enjoy."

“We Don’t Know What We’re Doing” – Adventures with the extraordinary fans of an ordinary team.” - Adrian Chiles

recommended by me

"Many people will Know that Chiles is a Baggies fan, but what most will not know is just how much of one he is. He goes to as many games, home and away, as he can fit in. He is in fact, a real committed fan.

This book is the story of the 2005-2006 season, unfortunately for him it was the season they were relegated."

"The Widow of the South" - Robert Hicks

recommended by Rovermatt

"a beautifully written and affecting Civil War novel. I would recommend it to anyone interested in this period of history."

"The Damned United" - David Peace

recommended by Mr Creosote.

"it's a fact based novel based on Brian Clough's ill fated tenure at Leeds in the mid seventies written from the perspective of the man himself. A real "page turner" as the airport paperback blurbs like to say. "

"A Passage to India". - EM Forster

recommended by Rovers6

"I really like it but I'm not sure why. Not that I didn't want to like it - but it isn't a particularly exciting book in the orthodox sense but there's something profound about it that is hard to put my finger on. "

Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller

recommended by Four lane Blue

"...which was recently made into a film. Interesting take on a middle aged female teacher having an affair with a student and then the media frenzy when it is found out. Very good narrator as well...a bit creepy and very voyeuristic."

Sunday at the pool in Kigali -Gil Courtemanche

recommended by Four Lane Blue

"..which is about a Canadian expat in Rwanda during the days leading up to the genocide in the nineties there. Eye-opening and brutal...it has plenty to say about Africa and the role of the white man there...as well as just how messed up colonialism has left some places even to this day. "

The Bounty - Mary Alexander

Recommendeed by Blue Phil

"This is the definitive account of the mutiny on the bounty - one of the most fascinating episodes in our history - and takes in the build up to the mutiny itself , and the nigh on incredible tales of Bligh and the mutineers in the years after . I can assure anyone that the range of remarkable characters involved in this whole episode go far beyond that of the cliched Christian and Bligh and include more or less the whole ship's company . The story of the colony that evolved on Pitcairn island and the merging of Tahitian and British culture is fascinating . "

"As I walked out one Midsummer Morning" - Laurie Lee

Recommended by Rosie

"an outstanding book - I would recommend this to anyone. I deliberately took ages to read it because I didn't want it to end. I want to go out and order everything he ever wrote now."

"If this is a man / The Truce" -Primo Levi

Recommended by Rosie

"Depressing, but eye opening and brilliantly written, I'm currently reading by which is about living in Auschwitz as an (Italian) Jewish prisoner of war in WWII. To say it is harrowing doesn't do it justice. Suffice to say it's taking me a long time to read, but I would totally recommend it. "

"Home Run" by John Nichol and Tony Rennell.

Recommended by Bryan

It's a great piece of non-fiction, the story of war-time evaders in occupied territory. something that's quite close to home for John Nichol (one of the RAF pilots caught and tortured by the Iraqis and put on TV in Gulf War 1).

Evocative is definitely the word, it brings it all remarkably to life with the help of the accounts of the people who were there. You feel like you're there yourself, it's that good.One account in particular brought a tear to my eye, it was quite affecting, but I shall say no more, and let you find out for yourself.Best book I've read in many a year. Gripping, informative and most of all, very humbling.

"Sing When You're Winning" Football Fans. Terrace Songs And A Search For The Soul Of Soccer (Soccer?) - Colin Irwin

Recommended by me

Another football book: funny & enlightening. Irwin travels from Stamford Bridge to Wick to (gag) Turf Moor to Lllansantffraid (the home of "Total Network Solutions") as they play against "Airbus UK." he takes in everything from the fans' point of view and hates the commercialisation of the game.The Bovril & Wagon Wheels theme keeps going, he even reports on games that he can't get into because he doesn't have a ticket. The book makes me go "Hey, I think exactly the same way about that too." Which is a good thing

& apologies for those I have left out. It was getting a bit too busy. I'm going to ask the mods to tighten this up a bit.....

[rebelmswar]

Just finished "The War of Wars" by Robert Harvey

It is a great pacey narrative about the struggle between France and Britain from 1789-1815.

Lots of in depth facts about the people as well as the squabbles and wars.

If you have ever read the Sharpe series, Mr Cornwell rates this book very highly.

[Paul]

As an alternative to books I've just loaded my iPod with:

The Uncommon Reader - written and read by Alan Bennett

Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre, read by Ewen Bremner

The Summons - John Grisham

After You'd Gone - Maggie O'Farrell

Ladies of Letters Say No - read by Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge

And a selection pof poetry by Siegfried Sassoon, WH Auden, TS Eliot, Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Sylvia Path and Seamus Heaney

plus 66 podcasts from Radio 4

Some serious beach time coming up!

[colin]

I'm currently ploughing through "The God Delusion" by Richard snikwaD. (it's backward to hopefully avoid the sweary filter)

It's a step by step rebuttal of all kinds of religion, So, if like me, you're an atheist, it's a good read. Even if you beleive in a god it's probably worth reading just to test your belief.

I like it just because it debunks so much of the sediment and accepted belief that religioin holds on or lives. It's a real eye opener.

It's reasonably easy reading, if you take it a bit at a time but he puts forward some very salient aguements. I particularly liked the bit (and I am going to horribily misrepresnt snikwaD here:) Where he (maybe ) talks to the Archbishop Of Canterbury (AOC)

snikwaD "Do you believe in the Muslim Allah"

AOC "No."

snikwaD "Do you beleive in the Jewish god Yehway?"

AOC "No."

snikwaD "Do you beleive in the god Thor?"

AOC "No."

snikwaD "Do you beleive in the gods worshipped by the Egyptians?"

AOC "No."

snikwaD "Do you beleive in the gods worshipped by the Romans & the Greeks

AOC "No."

snikwaD "We're quite similar then. I don't beleive in any of them. It's just that I've added another one to my list."

edit not sure why "D*a*w*k*i*n*s" has been obliterated

Have we been taken over by Christian fundamentalists? Is Ste B now selling "The Watchtower?" Or is it possibly that "snikwaD" has an anagram in it?

Edited August 19, 2008 by colin

[American]

Or it is possibly the last name of a journalist.....

[broadsword]

Have we been taken over by Christian fundamentalists? Is Ste B now selling "The Watchtower?" Or is it possibly that "#######" has an anagram in it?

Yep, the server is now being subsidised by that Church in Texas that demonstrates at soldiers funerals.

You and I are going to have to have words now, boy! You've turned yer back on Jesus, and that simply won't do!

[Rovermatt]

Taking on board Sidders's advice, I got stuck into Takashi Matsuoka's Cloud of Sparrows and found it to be excellent fun if a little cheesy. It's well constructed in parts (though the author clearly wrote it with a thesaurus to hand along with some sort of 'guide to writing like you know what you're talking about') but some of the forced creation of tension, ambience and coincidence is excruciating. Still, I enjoyed it enough to buy the sequel Autumn Bridge.

For now, I've moved on to Cormac McCarthy's The Road which is really very good.

Edited August 19, 2008 by Rovermatt

[Flopsy]

rm- Autumn bridge is such a disapointment.

I'm re-reading the dune trilogy at the moment

[blue phil]

I particularly liked the bit (and I am going to horribily misrepresnt ####### here:) Where he (maybe ) talks to the Archbishop Of Canterbury (AOC)

The author whose name we must not mention has a lot of praise for the AOC - like most of his type teh latter is a rather befuddled and harmless old dreamer .

I'm looking forward to Wanksid's tour of the sub-continent to promote his book there ..........

[colin]

I'm looking forward to Wanksid's tour of the sub-continent to promote his book there ..........

Not much chance there. "The God Delusion" can't even get published in the USA. His hate-mail is mostly USA based.

At the other end of the spectrum is

More sksollob to alton towers click to go there

Read, enjoy, it is a complete delight. It's set me off to

the forbidden corner

click to go there

The Salt Museum in Nantwich is next. My daughter will kill me

Edited August 19, 2008 by colin

[Nelsta]

Watchmen.

I dont know wehter most folks would read this due to it being a graphic novel(comic for big kids), But it's superb and a very new way of looking at "superhero's" and what drives a person to become one.

Also best to read it before the film comes out.