Sport & Sporting Culture
Last updated: December 10, 2024
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The Racket
by Conor Niland -
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These Heavy Black Bones
by Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell -
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When I Passed the Statue of Liberty I Became Black
by Harry Edward -
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Unique: A Memoir
by Kelly Holmes -
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Munichs
by David Peace -
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My Beautiful Sisters: A Story of Courage, Hope and the Afghan Women’s Football Team
by Khalida Popal
The Best Sports Books of 2024: The William Hill Award, recommended by Alyson Rudd
The Best Sports Books of 2024: The William Hill Award, recommended by Alyson Rudd
Good sports writing should appeal not only to fans but also to readers with no special connection to a sport, says Alyson Rudd, chair of the judging panel of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. She talks us through the six excellent books that made the 2024 shortlist, from life on the lower rungs of the tennis circuit to women’s football in Afghanistan.
The best books on Surfing, recommended by Gerry Lopez
The second best thing about surfing is talking about it afterward. Surf legend Gerry ‘Mr Pipeline’ Lopez’s collection of surfing stories Surf is Where You Find It, now out in its third edition, relates some of the epic waves he’s encountered, and the legendary individuals he met along the way in a lifetime’s pursuit of the glide on the ocean and on the land. Here, he picks five books on surfing by friends and heroes who have found lessons in surfing about what it means to live life well.
The best books on Wanderlust, recommended by Matthew Brookes & Zack Raffin
What does it mean to live wild and young and free? We asked the authors of a photography book on surf van culture along the California coast—”a story of youth choosing to follow their dreams, living out of vans, existing for surf and travel and freedom, and always chasing the best waves”—for references that help answer this question. Wanderlust can be a philosophy for life, as these books illustrate beautifully.
The best books on The Olympic Games, recommended by Philip Barker
The Olympics are one of the world’s great celebrations of sport. Here Philip Barker, Olympic historian and sports journalist, chooses five books that help you to understand the games, their origins and their traditions—and to relive the sporting drama of past Olympic Games.
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The Politics of the Olympic Games
by Richard Espy -
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Five Ring Circus: Money, Power, and Politics at the Olympic Games
by Alan Tomlinson and Garry Whannel -
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The Lords of the Rings: Power, Money, and Drugs in the Modern Olympics
by Vyv Simson and Andrew Jennings -
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Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism
by Helen Jefferson Lenskyj -
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Hosting the Olympic Games: the Real Costs for Cities
by John Rennie Short
The best books on The Dark Side of the Olympics, recommended by Helen J Lenskyj
The best books on The Dark Side of the Olympics, recommended by Helen J Lenskyj
The Olympics are big business—but the extent to which they benefit their host cities is increasingly called into question. They’ve also long been enmired in political controversy. Here Helen J Lenskyj, the academic and anti-Olympics activist, discusses the malign influence of big business, and the inseparability of sport and politics, as she chooses her best books on the bad side of the Olympics.
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The Inner Game of Tennis
by W. Timothy Gallwey -
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Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect
by Bob Rotella -
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Zen Putting: Mastering the Mental Game on the Greens
by Joseph Parent -
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Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time
by Ken Ravizza & Tom Hanson -
5
The Champion’s Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, And Thrive
by Jim Afremow
The best books on Sports Psychology, recommended by Bill Cole
The best books on Sports Psychology, recommended by Bill Cole
What do you think about when you’re training at the gym, or on the tennis court? And what should you think about, if your goal is maximizing performance and results? Seasoned sports psychologist Bill Cole, coach for numerous Olympic teams and top-level international athletes, reveals that the number one road block to athletic performance often isn’t physical—it’s overthinking.
Novels with Sporting Themes, recommended by Chad Harbach
Sport is central to American culture but there are surprisingly few great novels devoted to it. Chad Harbach, author of the bestselling novel, The Art of Fielding, picks his favourite ‘novels with sporting themes.’
The best books on The Spirit of Sport, recommended by Tanni Grey-Thompson
The 11 times gold medal-winning Paralympian athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson, now a peer in Britain’s House of Lords, tells us about the spirit and legacy of the Olympics. She picks books on “the spirit of sport.”
The best books on Champions, recommended by Matthew Syed
Table tennis champion and author of Bounce: How Champions are Made, Matthew Syed believes that winning is partly the placebo effect of confidence.
The best books on Sportsmanship and Cheating, recommended by Debanjan Chakrabarti
Debanjan Chakrabarti, head of the Intercultural Dialogue Programme of the British Council in India, says good sportsmanship is a 19th-century imperial construct. He walks us through five engaging books on sportsmanship and cheating.