Off Topic Art & Literature
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Ah, right. Tried continuing it last night. Book ended up hitting me in the face after about 2 pages. Which is a right bugger 'cause it's a great book. But even as a paperback, it's heavy.
You might also enjoy the BBC Radio dramatisation from 1981, which is just brilliant. A fantastic cast and a wonderful soundtrack. All 13 hour-long episodes available for free here:Just started listening to Lord of the rings..........didn’t realise the version I have is all three books in one. I wondered why it said 44 hrs worth........
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I just finished reading Maya Yoshida's "Unbeatable mind" as he is a player for whom I had a great deal of respect as a person. He is someone who is a gentleman and an absolute credit to the club. I have to say , however, that this is a really strange autobiography. I got the impression that a lot of the football stories must have already been covered in his previous books aimed at the Japanese market. It is not difficult to be impressed by his determination, effort and modesty as he strove to find a place for himself in the Saints side. Despite this, I was staggered at how little he actually featured for Saints as a player. Comments about former colleagues and managers are diplomatically omitted from this account and the recollection of football matches largely absent. I was quite staggered by the content of this book. It underlines the factors which ensured that he was a player held in great affection by the fans yet you could argue that football is pretty much a side issue in this account. I polished it off in a couple of sittings.
I recently was offered a read of the same book but declined as I’d heard it was nothing to write home about.You obviously thought different.
Yep I loved it too - easy reading and I made me realise how much I love Maya
I should have made it a bit more clear. I was really surprised that there was so little about playing football in Maya's book. His background in Japan was interesting yet I was surprised how little there was in the book about playing for Japan. There was even surprisingly little about his experience playing for Saints and only a handful of colleagues get mentioned although it is clear that he has some empath with Jack Stephens.
I have to be honest and say that I tend to steer clear of football autobiographies as a rule since they are usually stereotypical and lightweight - usually a consequence of being ghost written by tabloid journalists. I thought that Maya's book might be different. It certainly was although not quite in the fashion I had imagined ! Football books used to be a by-word for being longer versions of articles you might have once read in "Shoot!" but these days the quality of research and writing on the subject as produced some incredible books which have substantially raised the bar. I am thinking about writers like Michael Calvin, Duncan Hamilton, Jonathan Wilson or even David Bolchover's book about Bela Guttman. Over the last few years I have tended to appreciate these kinds of books about football in addition to those specifically about Southampton. I would also have to add that I love reading about football in the Victorian era.
On the same subject of historical sporting history, I have recently read a couple of books about the origins of cricket. This was prompted by last year's visit to Lords when I went to the museum to try to find out about a couple of relatives who had played there in the late teens and early 20's of the 1800s foe the Players in matches against the Gentlemen. Both brothers had come from Hartley Wintney. The first book was David Underdown's "Start if Play" which is like O level Social & Economic 18th century History but centred around cricket. The other book was "The glory days of cricket" by Ashley Mote who I have subsequently discovered has done a couple of stretches inside for fraud. His book is about the Hambledon Club. It is a reprint of a book written in the 1990s. I enjoyed it but the constant references to the honesty and integrity within cricket seemed greatly at odds with his own reputation. This made is a strange read indeed.
Back to reading anther Bernie Gunther novel now.
I have to be honest and say that I tend to steer clear of football autobiographies as a rule since they are usually stereotypical and lightweight - usually a consequence of being ghost written by tabloid journalists. I thought that Maya's book might be different. It certainly was although not quite in the fashion I had imagined ! Football books used to be a by-word for being longer versions of articles you might have once read in "Shoot!" but these days the quality of research and writing on the subject as produced some incredible books which have substantially raised the bar. I am thinking about writers like Michael Calvin, Duncan Hamilton, Jonathan Wilson or even David Bolchover's book about Bela Guttman. Over the last few years I have tended to appreciate these kinds of books about football in addition to those specifically about Southampton. I would also have to add that I love reading about football in the Victorian era.
On the same subject of historical sporting history, I have recently read a couple of books about the origins of cricket. This was prompted by last year's visit to Lords when I went to the museum to try to find out about a couple of relatives who had played there in the late teens and early 20's of the 1800s foe the Players in matches against the Gentlemen. Both brothers had come from Hartley Wintney. The first book was David Underdown's "Start if Play" which is like O level Social & Economic 18th century History but centred around cricket. The other book was "The glory days of cricket" by Ashley Mote who I have subsequently discovered has done a couple of stretches inside for fraud. His book is about the Hambledon Club. It is a reprint of a book written in the 1990s. I enjoyed it but the constant references to the honesty and integrity within cricket seemed greatly at odds with his own reputation. This made is a strange read indeed.
Back to reading anther Bernie Gunther novel now.
This was (in my opinion) amazing and well worth listening to. We listened to it in the car during many road trips and it kept us going through Christmas week in a log cabin (stuga) in Dalarna, Sweden a couple of times when there was no tv for the kids!
I’m still struggling to get through the lord of the rings trio..........I’m on book three “The return of the kings“....... must say I’m enjoying it immensely. Very different to the film in some ways but non the less a very good read.
I've watched the films a few times, and I have to say that spectacular as they are, they are not a patch on the books and disappointing, both in what they leave out and in the silly extra bits they put in.
Be sure to read the appendixes at the end of ROTK, a lot of historical background and sets you up nicely to read the Silmarillion, which you will also love.
I was married to Sauron's first wife. I can see why he's got a bad attitude to be fairI divorced a Nazgul .......
It’s also by JRR Tolkien, but it’s about the early Elvish days. I must confess to struggling through it. I found the language quite hard to comprehend. To me it reads almost like a non-fiction history, which is possibly what JRRT wanted. Preferred LOTR by a long way though!
My daughter is a librarian in a big school and, obviously, hasn’t been at work for a while, but has come up with little surveys to keep the children (and adults) interested. “Best non-fiction book”, “Best trilogy” etc ....
This week she did “Best book(s) written in the decade you were born. Now, I’ll make no secret of the fact that I’m an old bugger and was born in the Fifties, so (as I have loads of time on my hands!) I went and looked up some of the books which were written (or published) in that decade. Crikey - there are some classics!
On The Beach and A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
The Illustrated Man and Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
A Bear Called Paddington - Michael Bond
HMS Ulysses - Alistair McLean (one of the best naval war books I’ve ever read)
The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas (though I confess to never having read this, I just LOVE the narrated version by Richard Burton)
The Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos, The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
Was wondering if anyone else would like to have a go and list some of their favourite books which were written in the decade they were born? All except Fat Le Tiss, of course, as, being an ex-footballer, he probably never got past the front page of The Tiger (and do we know who was on that front page?) (sorry FLT - couldn’t resist!)
Hope everyone is safe and well and reading ......
This week she did “Best book(s) written in the decade you were born. Now, I’ll make no secret of the fact that I’m an old bugger and was born in the Fifties, so (as I have loads of time on my hands!) I went and looked up some of the books which were written (or published) in that decade. Crikey - there are some classics!
On The Beach and A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
The Illustrated Man and Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
A Bear Called Paddington - Michael Bond
HMS Ulysses - Alistair McLean (one of the best naval war books I’ve ever read)
The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas (though I confess to never having read this, I just LOVE the narrated version by Richard Burton)
The Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos, The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
Was wondering if anyone else would like to have a go and list some of their favourite books which were written in the decade they were born? All except Fat Le Tiss, of course, as, being an ex-footballer, he probably never got past the front page of The Tiger (and do we know who was on that front page?
) (sorry FLT - couldn’t resist!)Hope everyone is safe and well and reading ......
