It's World Book Day today, so we decided we'd give you a heads up on some of the best sports books to get your hands on.
There's a decent spread across different sports here and all are of a high enough standard that even if you can't tell a pedal from a saddle the level of reporting and storytelling present in these books will win you over, quickly.
While admittedly this isn't a comprehensive list, it's a good spread of titles that almost everyone - regardless of their favoured sport - can enjoy.
This is nowhere near a complete list (that would take all week) but it's, we feel anyway, a good balance.
Is there a better book on GAA life than The Club, or on a footballer's internal demons than Full Time? Can the story of the Dutch footballing rise, and Johan Cruyff, ever be topped?
Let us know what you think of our picks and what glaring omissions we've made via the comments section below or @Newstalksport
Rough Ride, by Paul Kimmage
Paul Kimmage won’t mind us saying this isn’t his most beautifully written work. He admits as much in the foreword to the latest edition. It is rough, it is awkward in parts and it feels raw. Kimmage decided against tidying it up when revising the text. It is what it is, and it is brilliant. Rough Ride remains one of his most impressive works – and that is no mean feat - and one of the most impressive and important books in sport.
If you only know Kimmage through his dogged pursuit of dopers then you will find in these pages the explanation, the building blocks, for his pit-bull like ferocity in the face of adversity and his seemingly bottomless well of resolve. It’s all here, every minor detail that was hidden behind the code of silence in pro-cycling that prevailed when Kimmage competed in the Tour de France. It was a code that remained largely in place until last year, with Kimmage all the while chipping away at it and its poisonous effects.
What is even more impressive is that the book was written by a young journalist, a man with no formal training who had just left his life’s work behind him to enter the world of the hacks. There can’t be many better starts than this.
Full Time: the Secret Life of Tony cascarino, by Tony Cascarino (with Paul Kimmage)
Like most sports books that win over the hearts of hard-core sports fans Tony Cascarino’s book had one key element – the admittance that professional sportsmen were just as riddled with self-doubt and anxiety as the rest of us. It transpired that Tony Cascarino was actually far, far ahead of the most of us.
The former Marseille and Ireland striker didn’t appear to hold anything back when allowing Paul Kimmage to put his life on the page - admitting everything from his fraudulent nationality, infidelity, gambling issues and on to detailing the torturous internal monologues that haunted him during every game.
Admittedly it is an intense read at times, but this is considered a modern classic for a reason.
The Club, by Christy O'Connor
Winner of 2010 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, The Club is the story of one year with Clare senior hurling side, St. Joseph’s Doora-Barefield.
The author, Christy O’Connor, was goalkeeper with the team for the year and he tells a story of aging men desperate for one last tilt at the glory of a Clare championship, while dealing with tragedy in their personal lives. The season, and the men’s personal lives, are set against the backdrop of a small Clare town, and rural society, rapidly evolving in to a late Celtic Tiger commuter belt town before their eyes.
Newstalk’s in house GAA guru, Oisín Langan (he takes the term “Hurling obsessive” as a compliment), says this is the best GAA book of all time. It’s hard to disagree, The Club can stand comfortably at the top level of sports writing from all sports.
Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic genius of Dutch Football by David Winner
This is possibly the most interesting non-biography book ever written on football. That’s quite a claim, I know, especially for a book about something as seemingly mundane and niche as the evolution of Dutch football traditions and styles of play.
The evolution of Dutch football might not sound like something to have you huddled beside the bedside lamp well past turning in time. Really, it shouldn’t be. David Winner, however, places the story of Dutch football into the larger context of Dutch society and tells the story of the incredible rise of Dutch football (and, concurrently, Dutch society) - from semi-pro whipping boys in the late 50s and early 60s, to the most dominant footballing nation in the world, little over ten years later.
It also doesn’t hurt that in Johan Cruyff he has one of the factual world’s most interesting and entertaining protagonists. The story of Dutch football is the story of Cruyff and his mad genius - and that's a story unlike any other in football.
Winner explains the nuances of the Dutch way of thinking and, roughly speaking, explains why growing up in nation where you build the world’s narrowest homes with the steepest stairs can be quite the fine education for finding a pass on a football pitch.
The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle
One of Newstalk Sport’s books of the year for 2012 (along with pretty much everyone else who went to the trouble of honouring the craft of the printed word) this will surely go down in history as one of the most influentuial sports books written.
This was a book that went beyond entertainment or education in their normal senses. This is the book that opened the world’s eyes to the incredible doping scandal in cycling and the crimes of Lance Armstrong. Clearly this is some heavy subject matter, but it is handled deftly by the excellent writing of New York Times journalist Daniel Coyle with the story of drugs and deception reading more like a thriller than a factual report.
