Weekend Review - Mon 26th March
Tennis books, Stealing the Wave and Barry Bonds
It's long been accepted in sports publishing that Tennis books just do not sell. At Sportspages we found that aside from the perenially popular Winning Ugly and the odd instructional book, Tennis books, and biographies in particular, just left the punters cold.
Whilst there's not been too much to get the pulse racing of Tennis fans - an unathorised biography of Tim Henman anyone? - there have been titles featuring the heavyweights of the game that you would have thought would be successful. In the last couple of years alone, books have been released on Borg and McEnroe and Navratilova and Evert - and even these, despite featuring such legendary names, have performed (at best) ordinarily.
Perhaps we should let the latest batch of publishers who are lining up to sign the proposed Andre Agassi book in on our news - preferably before they sign the cheque for $4m. Agassi certainly has an exceptional story to tell and with the added bonus of his marriage with Steffi Graf providing a de facto first couple of Tennis, publishers will be hoping his book can break the mould. We remain doubtful - that's an awful lot of books to shift to cover that level of advance.
But enough of books that haven't been published, what about those that have been? Another week and another prominent review for Stealing the Wave. This time the Telegraph reviews in detail. Not sure who's responsible for all the publicity surrounding this book, but I hope their boss is watching - they're doing a sterling job!
I've only had a brief look at The Kings of New York so far, but the bit that I've read was excellent. That's also reviewed in the Telegraph and I think it's going to be well worth a look. Memo to Jacques Claw - get your review done and let me have a look!
There's also brief reviews of the new paperback releases of Game of Shadows and Love Me, Hate Me in the New York Times. I've read the first 100 pages or so of Game of Shadows and it's extremely good. It's forensic in its approach and you can't but help reassess Bonds' career in a different light. Expect much more of the Bonds story and these books in particular, as he closes in on Hank Aaron's record.
About This Entry
‘Weekend Review - Mon 26th March’ was posted by Liam Doyle on Mon, 26th March 2007 at 11:53:42 BST and filed under tennis, surfing, baseball.
