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/lit/ - Literature

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5147722 No.5147722 [Reply] [Original]

Anyone here read sports literature? Particularly auto/biographies about sporting icons?

"Straight Shooter" by Matthew Lloyd is probably my favourite. I'll admit that I'm biased because I'm a big fan of the man himself, but his work is surprisingly erudite.

This book is the story of a kid driven by a fear of failure to climb the highest peaks in football. A young man who taught himself how to achieve a zen-like state of mind when kicking for goal, to become an astonishingly accurate full forward.

It is a personal account of how he had to come to terms with a new coach, who as a previous player himself, envied Lloyd and dismantled his career in a clandestine fashion. Yet as the established captain of the Essendon Football Club, he continued to be a loyal servant to a club plagued by political scheming.

It contains an brutally honest account of how he nearly, but fairly almost made an opposition player a paraplegic. Society's hatred towards him as a direct result of the incident forced him into early retirement.

Above all, it is a fascinating read about an astonishing career from a man who is a Straight Shooter in more ways than one.

>> No.5147755

>being this strayan

>> No.5148346

>>5147722

Read 'The Silent Season of a Hero', it collects Gay Talese's sports writing.

Talese is one of the New Journalists, and he tends to do quite prosaic pieces about the non-newsworthy aspects of sports. He'll write about the time-keeper in a boxing match, or the audience at a badly attended college game.

Lot of stuff on Floyd Patterson, looking into what makes a boxer lose, what makes them afraid.

Boxing probably gets the most attention but there's other sports in there.

Really good collection, captures the people and places beautifully, and I'm not speaking as much of a sports fan.

Also George Vacsey's 'Baseball: A History of America's Favourite Game' is pretty fun. Nothing like Talese, just a well-told account of the game's past.

>> No.5148359

Arnold Schwarzenegger's is great, it's no small wonder how he achieved so much when you read about him and the lengths he went to to get where he is.

>> No.5148396

I enjoyed Mailer's book The Fight about the Ali-Foreman fight in what was then known as Zaire.

I enjoyed Rocky Graziano's ghostwritten autobiography, "Somebody Up There Likes Me" but to be honest I liked the slum kid hoodlum stuff better than the sports stuff.

I liked "The Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn about the Jackie Robinson Brooklyn Dodgers.

Bringing the Heat was a good book about the Buddy Ryan era Philadelphia Eagles.

>> No.5148400

I read Valentino Rossi's autobiography.

It was basically him talking about how great he is for three hundred pages, but he was the best in the world so it's difficult not to. Not a bad book though and he seems very humble and appreciative of his fans and doesn't take what he has achieved and the life he lives for granted.

>> No.5148405
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5148405

>>5147755