Booking Through Thursday: Gold Medal Reading
August 16th, 2008
This weeks Booking Through Thursday:
You, um, may have noticed that the Olympics are going on right now, so that’s the genesis of this week’s question, in two parts:
First:
Do you or have you ever read books about the Olympics? About sports in general?
Fictional ones? Or non-fiction? Or both?
No, I don’t think I have read any books about the Olympics yet. I imagine the Michael Phelps biography isn’t too far away at this point. I have, however, read a ton of sports books in my life…both fiction and non-fiction. In fact, I have reviewed some of them on this website…which you can find here! I can’t even count the number of sports books I have read over the year. Wait, that’s wrong. It is 174. I guess I can count it
My favorite book when I was younger was The Kid Who Only Hit Homers by Matt Christopher. I loved that book. I probably read it 200 times. My favorite part of the book was the box score at the end of each game. Unfortunately, the book is kind of creepy now because the plot has an old man waiting under the bleachers after each game to talk to this kid in private and give him lessons. Where are this boy’s parents?!?!
Second:
Do you consider yourself a sports fan?
Because, of course, if you’re a rabid fan and read about sports constantly, there’s a logic there; if you hate sports and never read anything sports-related, that, too … but you don’t have to love sports to enjoy a good sports story.
(Or a good sports movie, for that matter. Feel free to expand this into a discussion about “Friday Night Lights” or “The Natural” or whatever…)
If you know me at all, this is a pretty obvious one. Yes…I am a HUGE sports fan. I will watch almost any sporting event. (I say almost because there are a few sports that are really awful for me). The Olympics have been a blast so far, though I imagine I will fade out a bit as the track & field kicks into gear.
The sports books I tend to enjoy the most are either biographical (like Hurricane Season) or educational (like Moneyball). Bur really…I just like to read about sports 
What about you? Do you read sports books?
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August 17th, 2008 at 1:24 am
I was thinking about whether I have read any sports books and the answer is…I have read biographies of some athletes, so I guess I have. Also (and I’m not sure this counts) I have read a boatload of Civil War history and that includes some biographies that include accounts about Abner Doubleday, who was a Union General…and the rest is sports history!
August 17th, 2008 at 11:20 am
I have not ever read a sports book. Never thought about it ’til now, but, no. Unless you count the Black Stallion books. I’ve read every one of them including and any other Walter Farley books. But I’m pretty sure that doesn’t count. (sigh) Your total in the sports category alone is impressive!
August 17th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I don’t ever read sports books, but i did read “Playing for Pizza” because it was a John Grisham book, not because it was about sports. However, i found it to be extremely informative about football played in Italy,(and i didn’t even know football WAS played in italy) as well as a great travel info book about the culture of Parma, Italy. I’m assuming it was pretty accurate, as Grisham usually does massive research on his subject matter.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Ha! I just came over to see your blog after reading your question on LibraryThing about how many book bloggers are women. And lo and behold, I find that here at your guy’s blog, you are talking about sports! The stereotype is funny to me.
No, I have never read a book about the Olympics. I don’t remember ever reading any book about a particular athlete or sports in general. Although maybe I did as a child. Growing up in Nebraska, I was required to write a 6th grade essay on the history of football and in the 8th grade had to take an essay exam on the rules of football — so maybe I read some books to prepare for one of those scholastic endeavors.