Every four years the publishing houses - thanks to their tiny imaginations - crank out books aimed at a perceived 'World Cup market'. Histories - written, pictorial and statistical - flood the market, or some ill-conceived compilation of essays loosely linked to each of the 32 countries. Now, I've read and still read a lot of football books, but when it comes to the WC I don't think I've read any good ones besides All Played Out, and Graham McColl's 78 - How A Nation Lost A World Cup. I own an edition of Glanville's The Story of the World Cup, but I've only ever dipped into it. My question is: Is anyone really interested in reading about the World Cup just before a major tournament? All I care about is the schedule, where I'm going to be so that I don't miss a single minute, getting my Panini stickers, and how humiliatingly hilarious will be England's exit? Or do any of you immerse yourselves in the culture of the competition's tradition to get in the mood?
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World Cup books
I read that one put out by Eggers and someone else before 2006. It had the nauseating title of "The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup" or something like that, and some of the entries for each country were written by people who said in their pieces that they didn't like watching soccer. -
World Cup books
I've been reading about the history of the tournament since I was a nipper. So I'm an old WC romantic at heart. I suppose that's why I find it hard to get excited about the current incarnation. There's little romance in it.
I mean, it's a South American WC and there isn't even a military junta in power.
Grumpy Glanville's account of the WC belongs to a bygone age, but is no less welcome for that. Rarely used words like 'gallant' and 'coruscating' leap off the page in the 21st century.Comment
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World Cup books
I liked these two:
http://www.amazon.com/Englands-Quest-World-Cup-Histories/dp/1897850409
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-World-Cris-Freddi/dp/0002188317/ref=la_B0034NGYJG_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8& qid=1396698904&sr=1-1Comment
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World Cup books
This is a good one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-Home-En.../dp/0752848437
It's been a few years since I read it, but for me it captured the zeitgeist of England in the summer of 1970 and what it was like for those back home watching the tournament.
The brand, spanking new technologies of satellite coverage and colour TV blended together into the paradox of a space age WC that was also the last of its innocent kind.Comment
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World Cup books
Ha ha, Jaysus, I'm glad I didn't buy that one. I do have a weakness for "preview" articles in newspapers and magazines. If there were a good one for the World Cup I'd buy it.Incandenza wrote: I read that one put out by Eggers and someone else before 2006. It had the nauseating title of "The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup" or something like that, and some of the entries for each country were written by people who said in their pieces that they didn't like watching soccer.Comment
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World Cup books
I reviewed that when it came out for the long since defunct Matchnight web site - I got loose proofs, long since lost, so I can't vouch for the following any more. Needless to say, I no longer recollect a single one of the 32 essays, and I don't ever remember seeing it on sale:
The Thinking Fan’s Guide To The World Cup is a book with the kind of title to put you off before you even open it. Its implication is that those fans who don’t read books can not possibly think, and that while they’re busy hooting their horns and jumping up and down in the stands in primitive fashion, the more erudite amongst us are viewing the game from a comfortable leather chair through little round glasses, while smoking a pipe and nodding sagely.
The book is a collection of essays from 32 writers, each taking on one of the 32 teams at this month’s World Cup. As such, its shelf life must be one of the most limited in publishing history, given that it came out only on May 30th. And although the book boasts its fair share of fine writing, you can’t help but feel that London- or New York-based novelists and journalists in the pertinent literary circles, and with a passing interest in soccer, snapped up all the commissions.
If the editors had wanted to make a proper job of it, they might have found someone from, say, Angola to write about Angola instead of a Swedish playwright who “divides his time between Sweden and Mozambique”. Aleksandr Hemon is Chicago-based, born in Sarajevo and can’t speak French, and so consequently his essay about France is very poor. And Londoner Tim Adams’ explanation of why he loves Czech literature is all fine and good, except that it has virtually nothing to do with soccer. I guess he was thinking so hard he forgot to mention it, but given central Europe’s literary tradition, it beggars belief that the editors were unable to find a Czech writer better able to articulate the country’s relationship to the game.
Well, at any major tournament there are going to be some poor showings and a clutch of early exits from underperformers (in this case, further flops include Portugal, Poland, Australia, Argentina, Germany and the US), but on the plus side there are plenty of fine displays to compensate, and this book works best when, logically enough, it places a country’s soccer team into its social and cultural context. Paul Laity’s essay on Ivory Coast, for example, examines the team’s qualification in terms of the country’s colonial history and its recent civil war, currently halted by a threadbare peace deal.
In fact, by an alphabetical quirk, the book gets better the further you read. While it’s refreshing to read Nick Hornby on soccer again, his conclusion seems rushed, as though he’d run out of time or inspiration, but Tim Parks’ touching story of his Italian father-in-law, Peter Stamm’s connection between football and the troubles of Swiss identity, Robert Coover’s evocation of fanhood in Spain, Binyavanga Wainaina’s fascinating trip to a Togolese market, and Cressida Leyshon’s brief sporting-colonial history of Trinidad & Tobago are all outstanding reads.
The remainder of the collection lies somewhere between second-round triers (Iran, Sweden, Costa Rica) and thwarted quarter-finalists (Tunisia, Ukraine, Ghana) and may or may not please according to literary taste. The essays are at their best when they place the game in relation to politics, culture and history. Soccer’s the best game in the world, of course, but as Tim Parks writes, it is 'in the end…only an intermittent enchantment'.Comment
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World Cup books
I bought the FIFA Official Guide last time (the one published by Carlton) and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised - it didn't skip over the stats or the history of the tournament, something a lot of published books seem to do in the internet age, and it had a fairly balanced and well-written assessment of each of the 32 teams chances, their key players, etc. Also each team was credited with the same 2 pages, something else I don't like in preview books that dedicate 20 pages to England then 1 page to "the Africans". About the only downside was that (because of publication date) the book didn't include full squad lists. Certainly as the group stage progressed, I found myself armed with more knowledge of many of the teams I was watching, even most of the European ones, than I ever would have got from reading the English press.
I've pre-ordered this year's, too, but I don't think it's out until May.Comment
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World Cup books
I remember reading Grumpy Glanville's history during the 1982 tournament. The descriptions of the early tournaments were rather stirring, as I recall.Comment
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World Cup books
Here's the 2010 thread:
http://www.wsc.co.uk/forum-index/34-world-cup-2010/362588-world-cup-books
I agree with most of Imp's reflections on that Thinking Fan's 2006 book. The chapters that I enjoyed, I thought were excellent. Others were mostly forgettable. Unfortunately, there were some writers who I like but they didn't really have anything to say about football (e.g., the Portugal chapter).
Pete Davies also wrote a book prior to WC 94 that seemed to be directed at US readers that bounced back and forth between the WC and his experiences following Wrexham. It was pretty good.
The WSC book about WC 98 was also good.
I also read another book about WC 94 written by a guy loosely affiliated with WSC at one point (can't remember his name but he was following Ireland and Italy). Maybe he also had a chapter in the My Favourite Year collection. The story was mostly good but there was some proof-reading stuff that really should have been caught (e.g., Joe DiMaggio was described as a Dodgers player).
I picked up a couple of the books listed in the 2010 thread but haven't had a chance to read them. I was hoping to do some double-duty by reading as I watched DVDs from those tournaments but time is an elusive bastard.Comment
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World Cup books
Got the official FIFA guide this morning. It's a jolly good read, I'm pleased to say. Colombia, I learnt for the first time, are nicknamed "Los Cafeteros", literally "the coffee growers".Comment
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World Cup books
Yes, in principle I do get very into the whole history and tradition thing, though mainly either in superficial "watching clips of top moments" mode or statto-ish mode, checking results etc. from the Wiki or FIFA website pages on past tournaments. Haven't read any books* on it, too many books on other stuff competing for my time.My question is: Is anyone really interested in reading about the World Cup just before a major tournament? All I care about is the schedule, where I'm going to be so that I don't miss a single minute, getting my Panini stickers, and how humiliatingly hilarious will be England's exit? Or do any of you immerse yourselves in the culture of the competition's tradition to get in the mood?
* Edit: Although, before the growth of Internet pages made such things largely superfluous, I did buy a statto-ish "Complete record" book, possibly in 1998. A pretty crap one I have to say, as I found out the other day when following up on a Pointless question. I wanted to confirm my recollection that the 1986 final was played in the Azteca stadium, only to find that the bloody book didn't give the venues.Comment
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World Cup books
I've been reading the revised (for 2014) version of Brian Glanville's book. As mentioned above and on the thread Danielmak links to, it is not really revised at all. You definitely don't want to say to some football newbie "Here's one to get you started, he's the doyen, you know". When they start reading about "Pele, the negro" from 1958 they'll start to wonder about you.
But for that very reason, it is an intriguing historical document. Feel the author's outrage at innovations like 24 teams and penalty shootouts. Chuckle as he suggests future developments (like solutions for England, next time, and the next ...). After Mexico 1970, he hopes 'lessons have been learned', and the tournament won't go back there. Etc.
But the publishers really need to add a foreword. Until then, I'm not lending it to any Americans, for starters.Comment
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World Cup books
Glanville is a god, but the book is undeniably very much of its time. "The black Tigana had been brought in to give France's midfield extra drive . . ." "The powerful mulatto Luis Pereira was Brazil's linchpin . . ." "By the time Cardenosa shot, the black Amaral had scuttled back to clear off the line . . ."
I don't think he is or was racist in the least, it's not like he's calling any player a "fucking lazy thick nigger" or anything. It was just the phraseology that people used back then.Comment
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World Cup books
Agree, his writing is simply of its time, and his anti-racism/xenophobia is pretty well established.
But it wouldn't kill the publishers to point out the book's origins, especially when it's presented in a glossy new cover and prominent on bookshelves now.Comment
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World Cup books
While I would normally begin with an apology for potentially derailing a thread, it seems like this thread is dormant for the moment. There seems to be regular discussion each 4 years about good WC books, but I have not seen any discussion of good books about the Euros. Does anyone have any good recommendations on that front?Comment
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World Cup books
[Sound of half-empty pints wobbling on pub tables as hacks rush, or wheeze, towards the gap in the market. 120,000 words, crap 4-figure advance, deadline January 2016.]
I don't know of any at all, which is odd. I wonder why there's no Glanville-like précis and analysis on a tournament-by-tournament basis.Comment
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World Cup books
All that really exists on the European Championships is Romeo Ionescu's book, which is stats-only and gives the line-ups for every qualifier and finals match from Euro 60 to Euro 2008.
Cris Freddi wrote a load of match reports of old games for the official site of Euro 2000 (euro2000.org), in the same style as his World Cup book, but that site has long since been taken down by UEFA.Comment
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World Cup books
It's good that quality writing on blogs/Web sites can find their way into books, but given how quick things drift away I will often Save as PDF if I think the piece is one that I would like to revisit. But this digital pack rat approach isn't radically different than other parts of my life. It is a shame, though. that so much of the Web-related media is treated as disposable or functions in some temporary fashion. And often the people who produce the work don't keep the work. I tried to chase down sole old Betfair versions of the European Football Show podcasts and nobody at Betfair and none of the producers involved with the re-launched podcast (which now seems to be dormant again) had these.Selected Ambient Works 85-92 wrote: Cris Freddi wrote a load of match reports of old games for the official site of Euro 2000 (euro2000.org), in the same style as his World Cup book, but that site has long since been taken down by UEFA.Comment
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World Cup books
You are a true podcast archivist, danielmak.Comment
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World Cup books
I see that World Soccer have both a World Cup supplement bundled with their latest issue, AND a standalone World Cup magazine...which to buy?!Comment
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World Cup books
Probably neither - they'll both be fucking tedious and already out-of-date.nareik wrote: I see that World Soccer have both a World Cup supplement bundled with their latest issue, AND a standalone World Cup magazine...which to buy?!Comment
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World Cup books
I usually go with the so-called Collector's Edition. I have yet to see why the magazine would be a collectible other than the focus on the Cup (or the European Championship). As imp noted, they can be out of date mostly because of injuries, although World Soccer seems to cover for these things by listing a much larger possible squad. I do like the magazine for some of the nations that I haven't followed. Perhaps there are blogs that are doing a better job with these things, but the magazine works well for commuting on the train and sometimes can inspire conversations with other football fans, which I like.Comment
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