The reading journey continues unabated, even if the writing journey has come to a standstill, as it often tends to do.
I managed to finish 16 books between April and June, to go with the 14 I read in the first three months of the year.
2 Fiction Books
Must Read
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Men in the Sun and other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani
Shuggie Bain genuinely transported me into a world that is distant, geographically, socio-politically, and socio-economically, from the one I inhabit. That I was able to lose myself in it is testament to Stuart’s characters and writing. It’s very easy to see a version of the same book which would have lost me by the second chapter - the margins are fine!
Men in the Sun and the other short stories in Kanafani’s book was also eye-opening. Not a voice or a perspective we hear a lot of, and I believe one that is extremely important to comprehend.
9 Non-Fiction Sports Books
Must Read
Last in the Tin Bath by David Lloyd
Steve Smith’s Men: Behind Australian Cricket’s Fall by Geoff Lemon
Worth the Effort
Able by Dylan Alcott
Fearless: The Amazing Underdog Story of Leicester City by Jonathan Northcroft
Miracle Men by Nikhil Naz
Sec, Drugs, & Rebel Tours by David Tossell
Who Wants to be a Batsman by Simon Hughes
Find something else to do
The Fix by Declan Hill
The Vincibles by Gideon Haigh
David Lloyd was David Lloyd - no surprises there, but a fun read that taught me a little more about a cult legend, and also about the cutting edge nature of the sweep shot in the 1960’s.
Geoff Lemon has written a minor masterpiece, in the context of sports books. Well written, well constructed, authentic, and willing to hit hard where it needed to.
Miracle Men and Fearless were both books that had they been better written, would have hit my top category. The stories of India’s 1983 World Cup win and Leicester’s 2016 Premier League title are amazing ones, and deserve more. But they’re still great stories, and the vignettes and leaderships lessons contained in both are worth it.
The real disappointment here, which shattered me, was The Vincibles. When you pick up something by one of the greatest cricket writers ever, your expectations are pretty high. The whole book felt like a hastily put together afterthought that somehow failed to capture the essence of club cricket, despite putting words and characters to it. I’m barely convinced that Haigh wrote it.
6 Other Non-Fiction Books
Worth the Effort
Greatness by Don Yaeger
Beyond Lion Rock: The Story of Cathay Pacific Airways by Gavin Young
Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir
Quantum Physics for Beginners by Carl Pratt
Find something else to do
15 habits of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp
I loved Don Yaeger’s book, but having just recorded a podcast with him I’m countering my bias by not labeling it a Must Read. I’m also a sucker for the connection between leadership and success in the sporting arena and the same in the business arena, so my views may not represent others.
I normally don’t find the return on investment in such books (“The <number> <plural noun> of <set of people we must all aspire to be like>”), and tend to rate them very low. The Conscious Leadership book above falls into that category - not because I have a particular quibble with the theses behind it, but because the majority of such books are 3 page papers extended ad infinitum.