Sports books...

[fajrdrako]

From August 14, 2008: Do you or have you ever read books about the Olympics? About sports in general? Fictional ones? Or non-fiction? Or both? And, Second: Do you consider yourself a sports fan?

The easy answer is "no", and "no". Whatever instinct makes people like sports, I don't have it.

There are some sports I love: fencing, equestrian sports, archery, gymnastics. But I don't find myself making any time to watch them. I just love them in theory.

I watched a few minutes of the Olympics coverage with josanpq the other day - swimming events - and was somewhat amazed at how boring I found it, how uninteresting even the most beautifully toned and muscled bodies, how full of platitudes the announcers and the athletes were. I was more interested in catching glimpses of China.

The only sport I like watching on TV is European football.

So - do I read about sports? No, though sometimes sports come into things I read. I once (in my teens) went on a spree of reading Paul Gallico, after seeing and loving the Disney movie, The Three Lives of Thomasina, based on his novel. Paul Gallico was a sports reporter for years, and I read all his short stories about sports - and loved them because I liked his style of storytelling. Subject matter was irrelevant.

The Olympics have been featured in some books I've read about ancient Greece. Now, that was fascinating. Cynisca, winning the Olympic gold in 396 BC - yes! Go for it, girl! But it was history, not sport, I was reading.

I can't recall otherwise reading books about sports, ever. Most movies about sports bore me. The only sports movie I can think of offhand that I actually enjoyed was Bend it Like Beckham.

Comments

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

Watching sports bores me, mostly. I have no interest in the Olympics. I've watched beach volleyball on occasion, but not for long. I did love the movies Field Of Dreams and Bend It Like Beckham (but both of those were character-driven plots). And, OMG, The Three Lives Of Thomasina! I adore that movie -- I have it on DVD. I had no idea who had written it -- I may need to go check his books out now, too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I would highly recommend Paul Gallico - though I probably haven't read a book by him in forty years! He also wrote The Snow Goose and Mrs Arris Goes to Paris. He seems to have lapsed into obscurity now - undeservedly so, in my opinion.

And wasn't The Three Lives of Thomasina a gem of a movie?

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

I can still watch Thomasina today and enjoy it. Thanks so much for the link about Paul Gallico -- I'll definitely want to read his cat books. I had no idea he wrote The Poseidon Adventure, too (not a fan of that one, I have to say).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I didn't much like the orignal movie of The Poseidon Adventure, and haven't seen the remake. But I have such good memories of some of his other books! He wrote a couple of mysteries that I really enjoyed, too, though I can't recall the titles now.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I didn't much like the orignal movie of The Poseidon Adventure, and haven't seen the remake.

The Doctor Who version was best!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Much better!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

And wasn't The Three Lives of Thomasina a gem of a movie?

I beg to differ. Non-Highlanders tend to impose whimsical or patronising or annoying "noble savage" fantasies on the Highlands. This is one of the whimsical sort. (The likes of Gabbled-On fall into the other categories.) You becomes a sort of Disneyland themepark on which others impose their version of "authenticity", which bears little relation to reality.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, but I don't expecting anything more than whimsey from Disney. I'm not usually a big Disney fan but that movie came out at just the right time for me, to think Patrick McGoohan and Susan Hampshire were wonderful, and - though I've never been much of a lover of cats - to love the whole cat-mystique thing going on. I never thought of it as authentic anything, but a kind of romantic fantasy that include circuses and Egyptian gods.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

I loved all his Mrs 'Arris books, and the Snow Geese is a classic. (Did you know that a British author named William Fiennes was so inspired by reading The Snow Goose while recuperating from an illness, that he made a trip from Texas to the Arctic following the migrating snow geese? His book about the trip (The Snow Geese) is beautifully written.)

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

I don't have the sports gene either, and haven't bothered with the Olympics at all. Though I did used to like watching Wimbledon years ago, and had quite a crush on Boris Becker when I was sixteen or so. *g* Football bores me to tears.

Sports movies are okay if the sports content just provides the framework for the plot and character stuff. Like Bend It Like Beckham, which I thought had tremendous charm. If (and it's a BIG if) you consider boxing to be a sport, then Cinderella Man is another one I liked. Can't think of any others...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Football bores me to tears.

It isn't so much the sport that I like as all those hunky men running around with bare knees. Especially the Italians. Sometimes I even notice scores. Occasionally.

I haven't seen Cinderella Man, which I'd forgotten all about, though now that you mention it, I've wanted to see it. Do the Rocky movies count? I kinda liked the first one, way back when.

[mommimus-prime.livejournal.com]

I've read both fictional and non fictional sports books. I don't consider myself a great fan but because Tom is, I guess he's rubbed off on me. I've read books about baseball, football, auto racing but not about the Olympics. I recommend The Paper Lion by George Plimpton. And the movie too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Paper Lion - noted for my To Be Read list. Thank you!

It helps to have someone like Tom around. When I was married to Zanvil I got a whole new appreciation of sports. It didn't exactly convert me - I was still bored by a full game of anything - but I took an interest.

And I didn't think of martial arts as sports, but they are, aren't they? I really like martial arts. Mind you, I still don't pay much attention or go to competitions or anything. But I might. I really might.

[laitosto.livejournal.com]

I am at the other end of the sports interest spectrum. My SO has said (probably true) that I would watch two people playing tidily-winks if they put it on ESPN.

I would watch the Olympics, but I'm personally boycotting watching the coverage due to the commercial exploitation of sport by the large companies and the political exploitation of the games by the host country. I get the results on-line or in the newspaper.

Favorite sports book: The Amateurs by David Halberstam

David Halberstam was a Pulitzer prize author of political non-fiction. After a large project, he would indulge himself with a short project he found interesting, usually something about sports. This was a wonderful book written by a wonderful writer.


Favorite sports movie: Bull Durham

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You mean tiddly-winks isn't on ESPN? I thought it was. It seems amazing to me that they put poker on TV. Poker! I just wish there was more figure skating and fencing - but it's probably just as well as there isn't a lot that I'd want to watch. I don't have the time.

Thanks for recommending The Amateurs.

[elebridith]

Books about the Olympics, no. Sports fan in general, no.
I *would* watch more of the Olympics, but due to the time difference the show it here in the morning when I'm at work. Duh. I'm mildly interested - I go Yay! when Germany scores a medal, but that's it. I'm more interested in the winter olympics, I love to watch figure skating, ice dance and such. In other sports, I actively watched the European Championships in football although I don't consider myself a football fan *g*, and everything with horses, if I stumble on it.
Movies... I watched "Cinderella Man" mainly because of Russell Crowe, I really don't like boxing. I liked "Remember the Titans".
Books... does Dick Francis count? *lol* Long time ago I read Jekaterina Gordejewa's "My Sergej", but I can't remember a lot. I don't actively seek out books about sport.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

If Dick Francis counts - yes! I read him enthusiastically. Not because of the horseracing (though he makes it very interesting) but because he tells such good stories.

I like figure skating, too. But again, don't generally make time to watch it.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I will only get interested in sport if there's a serious revival of jousting. Or if they take the buttons off fencing foils. If it's not a real matter of life and death, why treat it as such?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I will only get interested in sport if there's a serious revival of jousting.

If only!

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

Sigh. As I noted in our phone call, Paul Gallico is one of those authors who seem to be totally forgotten these days -- and definitely does not deserve that treatment. [The Zoo Gang, The Bubble Gun, Thomasina ...]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Quite an impressive body of work, I'd say. But I haven't so much as heard his name in years. (Except when I've been the one mentioning it!)

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I take it you haven't seen Bull Durham. Then again, it's really not about baseball... [eg]

I have two baseball movies in my collection, which is really odd given that baseball bores me to tears (the other one is A League of Their Own). I'm an American football gal, myself. I inherited it from my father.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I take it you haven't seen Bull Durham. Then again, it's really not about baseball... [eg]

Yes, I saw Bull Durham. I didn't like it the way everyone else seems to, but I confess, I hardly remember it now. I think I was bored. Could you remind me what it was about?

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

It's about two men (Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins) competing for the love of one woman (Susan Sarandon), basically, although I'm sure someone will jump in and tell me that that's not what the movie is about At All. Has one of the hottest movie sex scenes I've ever watched [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think I've heard that from others! I have almost no memory of that movie at all.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I rewatch it every year or so just because. I rather hanker after Costner at that age, and Susan Sarandon, well, she's just brilliant no matter what she does. It's also a Really Smart Movie, IMHO. The script has way too many good moments for its own good.

So I forgive it its baseball setting [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I liked Costner until I realized that all his movies bored me, except the Alan Rickman bits of Robin Hood. And I hold a grudge for what he did with The Postman, which had been a book I loved. So soon after that I just stopped going to his movies. Soon after that, he stopped making them. Just coincidence, I'm sure. [g]

I don't like Susan Sarandon, though I agree with you that she's good. It's just one of those things, like my reaction to Burn Gorman.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I absolutely loved, and still love Dances With Wolves. And I adore Bull Durham. I agree with you that the only redeemable parts of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves had Alan Rickman onscreen (gods, that man can chew scenery), and that the rest of Costner's movies are all but forgettable.

I've never seen The Untouchables. I understand Costner was good in that, too, though.

Oh, and Costner does still make movies [g]. He's got a new one coming out in the next few weeks.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well - Dances With Wolves may be one of my least favourite movies ever, so there you have it! Waterworld had its moments, especially with good visuals, but the story was dull.

Yes, I liked Untouchables, though I don't remember it well now. And I really, really loved The Bodyguard - not so much because of Costner (who was adequate but not much more) but because of the story.

Costner's still making movies? Really? I shake my head in wonder!

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I hated Waterworld with a passion. Ridiculous and my suspension of disbelief got drowned utterly.

I suspect this dichotomy in our taste may have more to do with genre than Mr. Costner -- I noticed from your reading of the first couple of chapters of my book that you don't have much interest in the Old West. Might that have something to do with it?

Oh, and don't get me started on The Bodyguard. Costner in the running for worst haircut ever, not to mention that Whitney Houston is probably my least favorite non-rap singer of all time.

But, yeah, Costner's still making movies [g] -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1027862/. He went to college about eight blocks from my childhood home, so I admit to some positive bias in his direction...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

you don't have much interest in the Old West.

It might. It isn't a conscious reaction, but it isn't a setting I gravitate towards.

Whitney Houston is probably my least favorite non-rap singer of all time.

[g]

He went to college about eight blocks from my childhood home, so I admit to some positive bias in his direction...

Cool. I was a big fan of his, at first. But then after being bored by some of his movies... and disliking Dances with Wolves... disappointment set in and it was downhill from there.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Whereas I became a fan of his with DWW. I didn't discover Bull Durham till after I'd seen DWW, even though it was made first.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I've read most of what Paul Gallico wrote, but I'm not sure if I ever read the sports stuff or not. I probably did since as you say his storytelling style is so good that the subject matter doesn't matter much. The Snow Goose has always been one of my favorties. I can remember watching The Three Lives of Thomasina when I was quite young. It gave me nightmares about a cat being buried when it wasn't really dead. We got a cat after that who was supposed to be named Thomasina although she actually ended up being called Pom-pom.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

If I was scared by anything in Thomasina, it was the circus peope abusing the bear. I loved the way Thomasina's extra-life experience took her through Egyption symbology.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I really ought to find a copy of that movie to watch again. I don't really remember it having been no more than 6 when I saw it the first time. Or maybe I should just read the book again. I do have a copy of that somewhere.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can't recall the age at which I saw it. 10? No, wait, it came out in 1964, so I must have been 11 or 12.