Dimitri, excellent idea. I thirst for the suggestions! Mine? How about Victor Davis Hanson's "The End of Everything"? It's about..well..about $25 on Amazon.
War is a team sport, isn't it? We always claim to visit the ultimate conquest on the Toe Jams, do we not? Who wouldn't want to tear down the Mausoleum and sew salt into the grounds of their domain astride the 11 FWY hard by the crack neighborhoods?
In jest, of course, but not about the book. It's a good read if somewhat tangential.
One of my basic approaches in life is this...if someone suggests a book to me, I buy it and read it.
It typically pays off, but not always. I'm currently reading David Deutsch's The Beginning of Infinity (why can't I italicize text here? Gah. Anyway...) on the recommendation of one of my young coworkers in the ER who said it was fantastic and it changed his life. I'm half way through and it's fucking horrible so far, but I'm gonna finish it in case there is something worthwhile hidden inside its pages. Within that book, Deutsch recommends a sci-fi book called [italics] Dragon's Egg [/italics] by Robert Forward, so it's on the list, but I'm moving Study Hall ahead of that since I don't trust fiction recommendations lol. And now WarPlanner's rec is on the list, even as a hardback because it looks like the kind of stuff I love to study. This batch should cover the next month or so.
I'm looking forward to you continuing this series, DD!
I love the Book Club idea! I hope the TMB community embraces it and you have interesting conversations about sports, literature and society.
I read Study Hall years ago on a train in Europe. I’m looking forward to seeing the perspectives of TMB readers.
I won’t suggest any books here as I don’t intend to add to gbruin’s reading list, but I hope you will consider choosing books that connect in some way to
the notable sporting events this summer (Tour de France, Wimbledon, the Olympics, Euro 2024, Copa América 2024, etc…).
I’ve recently finished Hannah Ross’ <i>Revolutions</i> which, to be fair, is more of a social history than a book about cycling. Decades ago, I read <i>The Rider</i> by Tim Krabbé which is a highly regarded work of sports fiction and certainly worth checking out if you haven’t already read it.
I am currently reading Michael Chabon’s <i>Summerland</i> to my children every evening. It’s a fun, baseball-themed book for a younger audience.
The last book I’ll mention is <i>Heaven is a Playground</i> by Rick Telander. I recently discovered this book after helping my father unpack some of his old books. It was written in the mid-70s (IIRC) about inner-city basketball in Brooklyn. I really enjoyed the snapshot of the Foster Park scene at that time and an insight into the socioeconomic and racial dynamics of the era.
First of all, I'm really glad you've posted again Bruinette, you always raise the discourse here on the site!
OK, my suggestion for books that relate to notable events of this Summer would include a classic "The Soccer Tribe" by Desmond Morris which is not only an inside study of fandom in a difficult time (late 70's-early 80's England and Europe) but also views fandom and loyalties from a sociological lens with chapters on rituals, heroes, and traditions - while also being a fun read - there's a new updated edition from 2019...
and a newer book, Adin Dobkins' "Sprinting Through No Man's Land" the story of the absolute craziness and blind dedication it took to resurrect the Tour de France in 1919 in the aftermath of The Great War while helping to define the new post-armistice borders of France (no support vehicles, rest days, or transfers in sight!)
"Revolutions" sounds really intriguing, as does "Study Hall" - look forward to reading both
Thank you so much for the kind words and the fantastic book recommendations!
“Sprinting through No Man’s Land” is a fabulous book. The story is compelling and the prose is wonderful! I highly recommend it.
I have read many books by Desmond Morris but somehow missed his tribute to English football in the 70s. Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention! I’m really looking forward to reading it.
Dimitri, excellent idea. I thirst for the suggestions! Mine? How about Victor Davis Hanson's "The End of Everything"? It's about..well..about $25 on Amazon.
War is a team sport, isn't it? We always claim to visit the ultimate conquest on the Toe Jams, do we not? Who wouldn't want to tear down the Mausoleum and sew salt into the grounds of their domain astride the 11 FWY hard by the crack neighborhoods?
In jest, of course, but not about the book. It's a good read if somewhat tangential.
I'll show myself out.
One of my basic approaches in life is this...if someone suggests a book to me, I buy it and read it.
It typically pays off, but not always. I'm currently reading David Deutsch's The Beginning of Infinity (why can't I italicize text here? Gah. Anyway...) on the recommendation of one of my young coworkers in the ER who said it was fantastic and it changed his life. I'm half way through and it's fucking horrible so far, but I'm gonna finish it in case there is something worthwhile hidden inside its pages. Within that book, Deutsch recommends a sci-fi book called [italics] Dragon's Egg [/italics] by Robert Forward, so it's on the list, but I'm moving Study Hall ahead of that since I don't trust fiction recommendations lol. And now WarPlanner's rec is on the list, even as a hardback because it looks like the kind of stuff I love to study. This batch should cover the next month or so.
I'm looking forward to you continuing this series, DD!
I would have expected Substack to implement Markdown in comments (as it did with Notes), but clearly it hasn’t, unfortunately.
If you want to indicate boldface or italics nevertheless, you might consider using Markdown syntax anyway. For example,
**The Mighty Bruin**
represents boldface, while
*The Mighty Bruin*
represents italics.
Alternatively, you could use HTML tags:
<b>The Mighty Bruin</b> for bold,
and <i>The Mighty Bruin</i> for italics.
I realize this isn’t a satisfactory solution, but it’s the easiest substitute I can suggest.
Yeah, I've used HTML some bit but I didn't think it worked here. Let's see...
<i>They Call Me Coach</i>
[i]They Call Me Coach[/i]
¡Qué triste!
Well, at least those work...
"Sooley" by John Grisham. Fiction. Great basketball story.
Basketball and a Grisham novel? Sign me up!
I love the Book Club idea! I hope the TMB community embraces it and you have interesting conversations about sports, literature and society.
I read Study Hall years ago on a train in Europe. I’m looking forward to seeing the perspectives of TMB readers.
I won’t suggest any books here as I don’t intend to add to gbruin’s reading list, but I hope you will consider choosing books that connect in some way to
the notable sporting events this summer (Tour de France, Wimbledon, the Olympics, Euro 2024, Copa América 2024, etc…).
I’ve recently finished Hannah Ross’ <i>Revolutions</i> which, to be fair, is more of a social history than a book about cycling. Decades ago, I read <i>The Rider</i> by Tim Krabbé which is a highly regarded work of sports fiction and certainly worth checking out if you haven’t already read it.
I am currently reading Michael Chabon’s <i>Summerland</i> to my children every evening. It’s a fun, baseball-themed book for a younger audience.
The last book I’ll mention is <i>Heaven is a Playground</i> by Rick Telander. I recently discovered this book after helping my father unpack some of his old books. It was written in the mid-70s (IIRC) about inner-city basketball in Brooklyn. I really enjoyed the snapshot of the Foster Park scene at that time and an insight into the socioeconomic and racial dynamics of the era.
Best of luck with the Book Club project, DD!
First of all, I'm really glad you've posted again Bruinette, you always raise the discourse here on the site!
OK, my suggestion for books that relate to notable events of this Summer would include a classic "The Soccer Tribe" by Desmond Morris which is not only an inside study of fandom in a difficult time (late 70's-early 80's England and Europe) but also views fandom and loyalties from a sociological lens with chapters on rituals, heroes, and traditions - while also being a fun read - there's a new updated edition from 2019...
and a newer book, Adin Dobkins' "Sprinting Through No Man's Land" the story of the absolute craziness and blind dedication it took to resurrect the Tour de France in 1919 in the aftermath of The Great War while helping to define the new post-armistice borders of France (no support vehicles, rest days, or transfers in sight!)
"Revolutions" sounds really intriguing, as does "Study Hall" - look forward to reading both
Thanks for creating this idea Dmitri!
Hey Clio,
Thank you so much for the kind words and the fantastic book recommendations!
“Sprinting through No Man’s Land” is a fabulous book. The story is compelling and the prose is wonderful! I highly recommend it.
I have read many books by Desmond Morris but somehow missed his tribute to English football in the 70s. Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention! I’m really looking forward to reading it.