As I write this, Bradley Wiggins: My Time: An Autobiography is at the top of the Amazon.co.uk Sports and Hobby list. No doubt an interesting read. As a cycling fan myself I’d love to read about how Wiggins came to conquer the Tour de France in 2012. It would be kind of cool to know what he thought of his team mates who basically dragged him to the finish line, his monster effort in the individual time trials and it would be especially interesting to read his thoughts on Chris Froome, the one that many believe should have gone for it himself.
But then I dig a little deeper into into the great depths of Google and I find On Tour by Bradley Wiggins (11 Nov, 2010), In Pursuit of Glory: The Autobiography of Bradley Wiggins (24 Sep, 2009) and then also, due out in 2013, Bradley Wiggins: My Story by Bradley Wiggins (28 mar 2013). So which one should I read? Which one is the best? I have no idea, so, sadly, I don’t read any of them. This particular problem of abundance isn’t specific to Bradley Wiggins’ autobiographies either. What if I want to read about David Beckham? I have 6(!) different books to choose from and I expect there’s many more to come.
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read. – Groucho Marx
So after many sleepless nights pondering this problem an idea came to me. Why not start an online sports book club? A book club for people like me who want to read sports books, but only want to read good ones, based on suggestions from my peers. I want to start a book club that will get people talking in their local pub over a beer or while standing around an oval watching the local team play (if you’re in Australia that is). This is an idea to bring people together to read some great sports books, to get a sense of a sport or time that they wouldn’t normally take the time to consider. To read about all sports, ranging from athletics, baseball and cricket to wrestling, xare and zourkhaneh.
Over the next days,weeks and months you’ll find on this site is a full calendar year of sporting events and possible coinciding books that are in some way linked to that event or that sport more broadly. Together we’ll select a book from that list each month, then I’ll review it and you’ll all jump in with your thoughts as well. Let’s keep it interesting: if the African Cup of Nations is on let’s read something about the role of soccer in Africa like Africa United: How Football Explains Africa or maybe Feet of the Chameleon. If Wimbledon is on, let’s read Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi. I should mention here that if we’re going to read an autobiography in any particular month, let’s make it a good one. Autobiographies can have a repetitious feel to them. If we were to choose one, I’d want to it to be new and exciting in some way, to tell me something I don’t know and make me see a sport through the eye’s of one of its greatest. Agassi’s would pass that test.
I hope you’re getting the picture now. Over the next little while, I’ll ask you to join in. I want you to recommend books, I want you to vote for our monthly book club book and maybe even host your own little sport book club gathering.
We’re in this together now. See you on the field.
Ronan.
Picture by Martin Miskelly.