Posts Tagged ‘sports’

Collectible football books

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

I spotted this NFL story this morning that begins with Bill Belichick’s collection of football books.

Bill Belichick’s library is believed to contain the world’s third-largest collection of football books behind only the Library of Congress and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

His collection of more than 800 titles is housed at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where Belichick’s father coached 33 years.

Talking of sports, check out our just-updated Rare Book Room - there’s a carousel of collectible sports featuring eight gems, including this 1891 copy of American Football by Walter Camp. It belonged to General Matthew B. Ridgway who succeeded Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe.

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It’s not about the retirement

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Anyone for a signed Lance Armstrong book?

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Joseph O’Neill interview

Monday, September 8th, 2008

The Observer interviews Joseph O’Neill, author of Netherland. In case you don’t know, the book concerns a cricket team in New York among other themes.

There is a wonderful quote in the interview.

As a teenager, O’Neill played cricket for the Netherlands’ under-19 side. He kept up the sport in England and, when he came to New York, he set about looking for a game. Eventually he called up the Staten Island cricket club. ‘Joe,’ asked the club official, ‘are you a white man?’ ‘Yes,’ O’Neill replied. ‘Well,’ said the official, ‘you better pack a helmet.’

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Michael Phelps’ signed books in high demand

Friday, August 15th, 2008

If news were to break that Michael Phelps was actually a sophisticated android and not actually human at all, it really wouldn’t surprise me. With the way he waltzes past world records, it’s a wonder how anyone else stands a chance. He now has six of his eight attempted gold medals and in doing this has managed to drum up a bit of attention… even on a bookselling website.

For the past week Michael Phelps’ book Beneath the Surface was the second most searched for item on our website behind Stephenie Meyer and her million-plus selling Breaking Dawn, until yesterday when he actually surpassed her as people were looking for ultra scarce signed copies of his book which are selling for about $300.

If you ever wanted to know what it takes to make champion like Phelps, the BBC has the answer, and it’s a a whopping 12,000 calories, listed below is a regular day in the diet of Phelps….

Breakfast: Three fried egg sandwiches; cheese; tomatoes; lettuce; fried onions; mayonnaise; three chocolate-chip pancakes; five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast; bowl of grits; two cups of coffee

Lunch: Half-kilogram (one pound) of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayonnaise on white bread; energy drinks

Dinner: Half-kilogram of pasta, with carbonara sauce; large pizza; energy drinks

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Signed Michael Phelps books up for grabs

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

Anyone for signed Michael Phelps books? Could be a nice investment if he bags eight out of eight?

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Olympic Boycotts and Scandal

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

First there were the near riots when the Olympic flame was making its way though Paris and then there were the reports of opressionwhile China tried to clean up its act.

Whispers of crisis in Beijing are nothing new to the Olympic Games. The Olympics have been plagued with accusations of lying, cheating, doping, racism, terrorism and warmongering almost since their modern inception.

Check out AbeBooks tribute to scandal at the Olympics.

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Soccer on the subway

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

From The New Yorker’s excellent book blog, The Book Bench…(this is one of my go-to blogs now)

9:45 A.M., Manhattan-bound D, Pacific to West Fourth. Young woman wearing red bandanna, light striped cotton T-shirt, and loose blue jeans, cuffed at the ankles. Smear of red lipstick. Intermittent scowls fail to cease even when acquiring a prime rush-hour seat. Green Crocs ventilate her feet. Large white plastic headphones hover over her ears. Just begun: a clean sepia paperback copy of Franklin Foer’s “How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization.” A glare, as though longing to kick something.

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Lawyers Attempting to block PEN Award Winning Author from Testifying

Friday, May 30th, 2008

National Book Award and PEN/Hemingway Award winning author Sherman Alexie wants to testify in trial to prevent local NBA franchise the Seattle SuperSonics from moving the team to Oklahoma City as the team’s owner wishes. As reported by the Seattle Times, the team’s lawyers do not want to let him. Alexie, an extremely vocal opponent to the proposed move has taken out a column called ‘Sonics Death Watch.’ Lawyers claim Alexie, and his ‘profanity filled column’ have “any relevant testimonial knowledge” and “nothing that aids the court in deciding this case.”

Sherman Alexie has never been one to back down from controversy, as is often demonstrated in his writings. Some of Alexie’s most acclaimed works include the PEN/Hemingway Award winning short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, as well as the 1996 novel Indian Killer, which Alexie himself referred to as ‘a feel-good novel about interracial murder.’

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Collectible baseball books

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Talking of baseball, our friends at Fine Books & Collections magazine have provided a fascinating article on rare baseball books. Now I can grasp the concepts behind many rare cricket books but baseball is not my strong point so this article was an education for me.

While the historians hit for accuracy in their books, the autobiographies of players often swing and miss by miles. Many early players were barely literate, and if the books weren’t ghostwritten, then their stories were as whitewashed as Tom Sawyer’s fence.

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Baseball and gardening

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Polar opposites but lots of people love America’s pastime or messing about in the garden….

The Chicago Sun-Times reviews the latest baseball books.

The St Louis Post Dispatch reviews some of the latest gardening books.

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From the wide world of books….

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

The Guardian has an obituary for the French author, Alain Robbe-Grillet.

A Harry Potter nutter is hoping to get a £40,000 pay day by flogging off his collection of 553 first editions reports the Ediniburgh Evening News.

Book recommendation of the day - Uppies and Downies: The Extraordinary Football Games of Britain by Hugh Hornby. Read this article about a real sport to find out why you should buy this book.

Ten literary suicides.

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Books for Super Bowl

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Sports books are one of my passions, particularly football books, American football that is, although I also read soccer books too but they are, of course, football books in reality.

With the Super Bowl around the corner, some of my thoughts and recommendations about great football books are currently on the site. Everyone should read Friday Night Lights.

Since I wrote that piece I’ve actually moved on to another football book - It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium by John Ed Bradley. I’m really enjoying it - the book is written by a former LSU center who turned to writing after his college career ended.

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Kicker writes novel

Friday, December 21st, 2007

NFL kicker Jason Elam, who plays for the Denver Broncos, has published a spy thriller - Monday Night Jihad (football, terrorism and spying).

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Game of Shadows

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

The world of baseball is officially imploding today with the publication of the Mitchell Report into steriod abuse among players. Stars like Roger Clemens and many others are now implicated. Let’s remember it was a book that really started the ball rolling here - Game of Shadows written by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, and published in 2006.

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Football books, cookbooks, art books

Monday, December 10th, 2007

A blogger at The Guardian has six football books for us (that’s David Beckham football rather than Peyton Manning football).

The Baltimore Sun recommends new cookbooks.

The NY Times recommends art and architecture books.

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