Bach sport bookshelf guide
Sport Review #281
If you are like Sport Review, your first action upon entering the Book A Bach is claiming the best bedroom. The second is checking out the bookshelf. What you choose to display to guests shows you are either a serious sport person that digs deep to understand athletes’ lives and loves, or into, like, novels or some shit.
And so, Sport Review presents all the books you need to read and put on display to have any sporting credibility whatsoever should a bookabach guest be a podcaster or blogger or something.
Men in White / Men in Black
The ticket to entry. Weighty, authoritative. Out of date. The signal that you are standing next to a serious bach bookshelf, and do not concede women play or sport and / or exist. If you ever hire Josh Kronfeld’s Raglan bach, you can bet your scrumhat he’s got MIB just sitting there all casual like.
Some Wisdens
These more you have, the more cred you earn. These golden yellow bricks show you love nothing better than passing a cold winter’s evening wearing wooly socks and a holey jumper, digging into the archives to gain a deeper understanding of the summer sport. That work pays off in the pub when the boys are discussing the Blackcaps’ latest follow-on fail - when you clear your throat, everyone will listen, because you are The Wisden Guy.
At least three Sir Richard Hadlee books
The great man is an alarmingly prolific author, pumping out tome after tome. Take your pick from his multi volume biographies to the instructional cricket guide to the joke book. You will be relieved to know that if you can’t find your fix at the local second hand bookshop, several important editions are available as eBooks at hadlee.co.nz, alongside Sir Richard’s consultancy services.
A recriminatory epic
NZ sporting bios tend to be either an end of career cash in that no-one particularly asked for, or an explosive get-it-off-my-chest-and-screw-you-guys page turner. Martin Crowe’s Raw is a great example of the latter, along with Boots’n All, Andy Haden’s attempt to show he could run the game better than the guys that were doing it at the time.
No less than four 1980’s cricket biographies
There’s no doubt our greatest second greatest era’s players knew how to write, smashing out biographies left right and centre. Gossip gluttons will skim read these looking for clues or backhanded compliments to back up their theories about difficult relationships behind the scenes.
A stack of unsold Dan Carter post career coffee table books
Really versatile as a modern art conversation starter or kindling.
I am so smart
To make you stand out from the Breakdown-watchers, you need some books that signal you really REALLY get in deep to understand not just sport, but also life. And business. Classics of the genre include The Art of Captaincy, Moneyball and The Inner Game of Tennis, all of which will give you untold fodder for overthinking your social sports league and also LinkedIn content.
A battered Stephen King paperback
When you need something to actually read when you’re tired of all the drama.
Thanks for reading - Richard
This week's best NZ sport content
Paul n’ Dylan are back with the BYC podcast just in time for the World T20 as well as a smorgasboard of cricket violence [Apple Podcasts]
How are the Crusaders so shit? has been one of the most enjoyable talking points of this year’s Super Rugby - Jamie Wall has a few ideas and yes, media relations features [RNZ]
Suzanne McFadden meets some of the support team who’ll be travelling to Paris to keep the athletes happy and healthy through the games [Locker Room]
Benji Crossley with reaction to Turkeys not voting for Christmas over at NZR, thereby ensuring the internal drama quicksand will continue for the foreseeable [Sportsfreak]
Wellington scene report from the Phoenix’s semi final sellout [Spinoff]
Video nasty
The politician Britain needs now.
Long read
As a person with an ongoing telco issue, Greg Bruce’s account of navigating call centres and managers and trying to make it make sense was too real [NZ Herald]
Recommendation
The Rest Is Football has become my number one football podcast (along with The Fighting Cock of course) - as a pre-Euros-treat, here’s part one of a chat with Gazza [Apple Podcasts]