| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||

› Find signed collectible books: 'Ajax, the Dutch, the War: Football in Europe during the Second World War'
More editions of Ajax, the Dutch, the War: Football in Europe during the Second World War:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Among the Thugs'
A journalist who spent six years travelling with and gathering information on Britain's notorious soccer hooligans chronicles his extraordinary experiences with these dangerous, violent, and fiercely loyal fans. [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Ancient Olympic Games'
More editions of The Ancient Olympic Games:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons from the Tokyo Riot Police'
More editions of Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons from the Tokyo Riot Police:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Barca: A People's Passion'

› Find signed collectible books: 'Book of 2 Halves'
More editions of Book of 2 Halves:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Book of Two Halves'
More editions of Book of Two Halves:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer'
Brilliant Orange is a book about Dutch soccer that's not really about Dutch soccer. It's more about an enigmatic way of thinking peculiar to a people whose landscape is unrelentingly flat, mostly below sea level, and who owe their salvation to a boy who plugged a fractured dike with his little finger. If any one thing, Brilliant Orange is about Dutch space, and a people whose unique conception of it has led to some of the most enduring art, the weirdest architecture, and a bizarrely cerebral form of soccer-Total Football-that led in 1974 to a World Cup finals match with arch-rival Germany, and continues with its intricacy and oddity to mystify and delight observers around the world.
"In the hot summer of 1975 Wim van Hanegem was offered the chance to leave his beloved Feyenoord and join the French club Olympique Marseilles. . . He couldn't decide what to do. . . So he turned to his dog: 'We can't decide. It's up to you now. If you want to go to Marseilles, bark or show me.' For several minutes the dog and Van Hanegem stared at each other. The dog didn't move. 'OK' said Wim, 'he doesn't want to go. We're staying."
The cast stretches from anarchists and church painters to rabbis and skinheads, and of course, to Holland's beloved soccer players, whose eccentricities are wryly detailed by David Winner through hilarious anecdotes that call to mind Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. As idiosyncratic as its subject, quirky and provocative, Brilliant Orange reaches out to the reader from an unsuspected place and never lets go.
"Occasionally a book comes along that you fall in or out of love with on the basis of nothing more than the contents page . . . Brilliant Orange is one of those strangely informative books that will even entertain those who have little interest in either soccer or the Netherlands." (The Economist) [via]
More editions of Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer:
› Find signed collectible books: 'By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions'
Napoleon fenced. So did Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Grace Kelly, and President Truman, who would cross swords with Bess after school. Lincoln was a canny dueler. Ignatius Loyola challenged a man to a duel for denying Christs divinity (and won). Less successful, but no less enthusiastic, was Mussolini, who would tell his wife he was off to get spaghetti, their code to avoid alarming the children.
By the Sword is an epic history of sword fightinga science, an art and, for many, a religion that began at the dawn of civilization in ancient Egypt and has been an obsession for mankind ever since. With wit and insight, Richard Cohen gives us an engrossing alternative history of the world.
Sword fighting was an entertainment in ancient Rome, a sacred rite in medieval Japan, and throughout the ages a favorite way to settle scores. For centuries, dueling was the scourge of Europe, banned by popes on threat of excommunication, and by kings who then couldnt keep themselves from granting pardonsin the case of Louis XIV, in the thousands. Evidence of this passion is all around us: We shake hands to show that we are not reaching for our sword. A gentleman offers a lady his right arm because his sword was once attached to his left hip. Men button their jackets to the right to give them swifter access to their sword.
In his sweeping narrative, Cohen takes us from the training of gladiators to the tricks of the best Renaissance masters, from the exploits of musketeers to swashbuckling Hollywood by way of the great moments in Olympic fencing. A young George Patton competed in the 1912 Olympics. In 1936, a Jewish champion fenced for Hitler. Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone were ardent swordsmen. We meet their coaches and the man who staged the fight scenes in Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and James Bonds Die Another Day.
Richard Cohen has the rare distinction of being both a compelling writer and a champion sabreur. He lets us see swordplay as graceful and brutal, balletic and deadly, technically beautiful and fiercely competitivethe most romantic of martial arts. By the Sword is a virtuoso performance that is sure to beguile history lovers, sports fans, military buffs, and anyone who ever dreamed of crossing swords with Darth Vader. [via]
More editions of By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Compleat Angler'
This book is part of the "Everyman" series, which has been totally re-set with wide margins and easy-to-read type. It includes an introduction, a chronology of the life and times of the author and a selection of criticism. It provides a blend of practical advice on fishing, anecdote, natural history, poetry and song. Taking the form of a dialogue between an angler, a falconer and a hunter, this book contains a wealth of advice to fishermen. In modern times, however, it is largely read for the attitude of life it embodies rather than the sport it commends - a celebration of a contented life in tranquil surroundings. [via]
More editions of Compleat Angler:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Compleat Angler'
ca. 1975 (no date listed) 2nd printing Weathervane Books hardcover with dust jacket. Flying Fishing classic with beautiful color illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Tight spine, clear crisp pages, no writing, no tears, unused bookplate inside front cover, smokefree. Jacket has light edgewear in new archival jacket cover. [via]
More editions of The Compleat Angler:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation'
For a book to stay in print for nearly 350 years, its merits must continually entice and allure. The Compleat Angler satisfies that on two counts. On the most obvious level, it remains as good a primer on fishing as any angler would want. But its most enduring distinction--what's raised an essential sporting how-to to the level of literary classic--is the one cast off by its subtitle; Izaak Walton's sometimes convoluted 17th-century grammar can still reel in our imaginations with his graceful evocations of a life free from hurly-burly in the company of friends intent on physical and moral sustenance. "He that hopes to be a good Angler must not only bring an inquiring, searching, observing wit," suggests the master, "but he must bring a large measure of hope and patience.... Doubt not but Angling will prove to be so pleasant, that it will prove to be like a virtue, a reward to itself." Just like Walton's magnificent literary catch. [via]
More editions of The Compleat Angler: Or the Contemplative Man's Recreation:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Compleat Angler, 1676'
More editions of The Compleat Angler, 1676:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete Angler 1653 Or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation'
Reprint of the First Edition published in 1653. With a Preface by Richard Le Gallienne [via]
More editions of The Complete Angler 1653 Or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Complete Angler or the Contemplative Man'
More editions of Complete Angler or the Contemplative Man:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete Book of Running'
More editions of The Complete Book of Running:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Corner Of A Foreign Field: The Indian History Of A British Sport'
More editions of Corner Of A Foreign Field: The Indian History Of A British Sport:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Death in the Afternoon'
Still considered one of the best books ever written about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon is an impassioned look at the sport by one of its true aficionados. It reflects Hemingway's conviction that bullfighting was more than mere sport and reveals a rich source of inspiration for his art. The unrivaled drama of bullfighting, with its rigorous combination of athleticism and artistry, and its requisite display of grace under pressure, ignited Hemingway's imagination. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick." Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great elegance and cunning.
A fascinating look at the history and grandeur of bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon is also a deeper contemplation of the nature of cowardice and bravery, sport and tragedy, and is enlivened throughout by Hemingway's sharp commentary on life and literature. [via]
More editions of Death in the Afternoon:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Dickie Bird Autobiography'
More editions of Dickie Bird Autobiography:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Dickie Bird: My Autobiography'
More editions of Dickie Bird: My Autobiography:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Encyclopedia of Sports'
More editions of The Encyclopedia of Sports:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'
If you're a Harry Potter fan and are desperate to fill the gap between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and the next instalment (sorry folks, no date as yet but as soon as we know we'll tell you), then this JK offering could be the answer to your Potter prayers.
JK Rowling takes her enviable ability to turn paper into gold to the next level by cleverly teaming up with Comic Relief 2001 to bring Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (a set text during Harry's first year at Hogwarts) and Quidditch Through the Ages (Harry's favourite book), to the masses--and all the money goes to charity.
To be one of the first to lay your hands on these books, simply order now. And on Friday, March 16 just watch as the money you pay goes into the Comic Relief coffers... --Susan Harrison [via]
More editions of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Far Corner'
More editions of The Far Corner:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Fever Pitch'
In the States, Nick Hornby is best know as the author of High Fidelity and About a Boy, two wickedly funny novels about being thirtysomething and going nowhere fast. In Britain he is revered for his status as a fanatical football writer (sorry, fanatical soccer writer), owing to Fever Pitch--which is both an autobiography and a footballing Bible rolled into one. Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year--the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved "way beyond fandom" into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation: "Football may have provided us with a new medium through which we could communicate, but that was not to say that we used it, or what we chose to say was necessarily positive." Girlfriends also played second fiddle to one ball and 11 men. He fantasizes that even if a girlfriend "went into labor at an impossible moment" he would not be able to help out until after the final whistle.
Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir--there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). While watching the May 2, 1972, Reading v. Arsenal match, it became embarrassingly obvious to the then 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a wimp with no sense of identity: "Yorkshire men, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish, blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about." But a boy from Maidenhead could only dream of coming from a place with "its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, insoluble social problems."
Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humor and honesty--the "unique" chants sung at matches, the cold rain-soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prisonlike conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of policemen waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life--making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles. --Naomi Gesinger [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fight'
There are sporting events that transcend the world of sports, and the 1974 heavyweight title fight in which Muhammad Ali regained his crown by improbably kayoing George Foreman in the middle of the African night was certainly one of them. Metaphorically, it was a writer's dream: two imposing black warriors, one all grace, the other brute force, one the iconoclast, the other the blind patriot, battling each other. Fatefully, the appropriate writer threw his pen into the ring. Norman Mailer's masterful account goes far beyond the ropes to capture the primal ethos of the sport, the larger social canvas this particular fight was drawn on, and the remarkable cast of personalities--not the least of which is Mailer himself--who converged to make this "Rumble in the Jungle" a landmark in sports history and a clear knockout in Mailer's journalistic portfolio. [via]
More editions of The Fight:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fight: Norman Mailer'
More editions of The Fight: Norman Mailer:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Football Against the Enemy'
Throughout the world football is a potent force in the lives of billions of people. Focusing on national, political and cultural identities, football is the medium through which the world's hopes and fears, passions and hatreds are expressed. Simon Kuper travelled to 22 countries from South Africa to Italy, from Russia to the USA, to examine the way football has shaped these countries. At the same time he tried to find out what lies behind each nation's distinctive style of play from the carefree self-expression of the Brazilians to the anxious calculation of the Italians. During his journeys he met an extraordinary range of players, politicians and - of course - the fans themselves, all of whom revealed in their different ways the unique place football has in the life of the planet. [via]
More editions of Football Against the Enemy:

› Find signed collectible books: 'French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour De France'
More editions of French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour De France:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, a Dream'
More editions of Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, a Dream:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream'
Secular religions are fascinating in the devotion and zealousness they breed, and in Texas, high school football has its own rabid hold over the faithful. H.G. Bissinger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, enters into the spirit of one of its most fervent shrines: Odessa, a city in decline in the desert of West Texas, where the Permian High School Panthers have managed to compile the winningest record in state annals. Indeed, as this breathtaking examination of the town, the team, its coaches, and its young players chronicles, the team, for better and for worse, is the town; the communal health and self-image of the latter is directly linked to the on-field success of the former. The 1988 season, the one Friday Night Lights recounts, was not one of the Panthers' best. The game's effect on the community--and the players--was explosive. Written with great style and passion, Friday Night Lights offers an American snapshot in deep focus; the picture is not always pretty, but the image is hard to forget. [via]
More editions of Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Futebol: Soccer, the Brazilian Way'
More editions of Futebol: Soccer, the Brazilian Way:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Futebol: The Brazilian Way'
More editions of Futebol: The Brazilian Way:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life'
More editions of Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Glory Game: The New Edition of the British Football Classic'
The classic inside view of soccer
Hailed as probably the best book about soccer ever written, The Glory Game gives a unique insight into the inner workings of a major-league soccer club. Author Hunter Davies was allowed unparalleled access to the inner sanctum of a top professional soccer team, the Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs), and his pen spared nothing and no one. This 30th-anniversary edition will appeal to new and enthusiastic audiences. [via]
More editions of The Glory Game: The New Edition of the British Football Classic:
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Good Walk Spoiled: Days And Nights On The PGA Tour'
On those magnificent days on which your drives split the fairway down the middle and your wedge shots leave you putting for birdie, you think: "I wonder if I could do this for a living." After all, guys in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, guys no one heard of until recently, are making planeloads of money on the various golf tours (and buying private planes to take them from one big-money tournament to the next). A Good Walk Spoiled is a bit of a reality check. John Feinstein chronicles the struggles of the top golfers in the game, as well as those trying to get onto the PGA Tour. These are gifted players who've devoted their lives to the game, and on any given day they could just flat out stink. A Good Walk Spoiled is a completely engaging book from first page to last, a wonderfully observed and masterfully told story of pain and profit in the world's most frustrating sport. [via]
More editions of A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the Pga Tour:

› Find signed collectible books: 'How I Play Golf'
More editions of How I Play Golf:

› Find signed collectible books: 'It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life'
People around the world have found inspiration in the story of Lance Armstrong--a world-class athlete nearly struck down by cancer, only to recover and win the Tour de France, the multiday bicycle race famous for its grueling intensity. Armstrong is a thoroughgoing Texan jock, and the changes brought to his life by his illness are startling and powerful, but he's just not interested in wearing a hero suit. While his vocabulary is a bit on the he-man side (highest compliment to his wife: "she's a stud"), his actions will melt the most hard-bitten souls: a cancer foundation and benefit bike ride, his astonishing commitment to training that got him past countless hurdles, loyalty to the people and corporations that never gave up on him. There's serious medical detail here, which may not be for the faint of heart; from chemo to surgical procedures to his wife's in vitro fertilization, you won't be spared a single x-ray, IV drip, or unfortunate side effect. Athletes and coaches everywhere will benefit from the same extraordinary detail provided about his training sessions--every aching tendon, every rainy afternoon, and every small triumph during his long recovery is here in living color. It's Not About the Bike is the perfect title for this book about life, death, illness, family, setbacks, and triumphs, but not especially about the bike. --Jill Lightner [via]
More editions of It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Keane : The Autobiography'
More editions of Keane : The Autobiography:
› Find signed collectible books: 'King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero'
"Succeeds more than any previous book in bringing Ali into focus . . . as a starburst of energy, ego and ability whose like will never be seen again." -The Wall Street Journal"Best Nonfiction Book of the Year" -Time"Penetrating . . . reveal[s] details that even close followers of [Ali] might not have known. . . . An amazing story." -The New York TimesOn the night in 1964 that Muhammad Ali then known as Cassius Clay stepped into the ring with Sonny Liston, he was widely regarded as an irritating freak who danced and talked way too much. Six rounds later Ali was not only the new world heavyweight boxing champion: He was "a new kind of black man" who would shortly transform America's racial politics, its popular culture, and its notions of heroism. No one has captured Ali--and the era that he exhilarated and sometimes infuriated--with greater vibrancy, drama, and astuteness than David Remnick, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lenin's Tomb and editor of The New Yorker . In charting Ali's rise from the gyms of Louisville, Kentucky, to his epochal fights against Liston and Floyd Patterson, Remnick creates a canvas of unparalleled richness. He gives us empathetic portraits of wisecracking sportswriters and bone-breaking mobsters; of the baleful Liston and the haunted Patterson; of an audacious Norman Mailer and an enigmatic Malcolm X. Most of all, King of the World does justice to the speed, grace, courage, humor, and ebullience of one of the greatest athletes and irresistibly dynamic personalities of our time."Nearly pulse-pounding narrative power . . . an important account of a period in American social history." -Chicago Tribune"A pleasure . . . haunting . . . so vivid that one can imagine Ali saying, 'How'd you get inside my head, boy?'" -Wilfrid Sheed, Time [via]
More editions of King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Laptop Dancing and the Nanny Goat Mambo: A Sportswriter's Year'
More editions of Laptop Dancing and the Nanny Goat Mambo: A Sportswriter's Year:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Le Tour: A History of the Tour De France, 1903-2003'
More editions of Le Tour: A History of the Tour De France, 1903-2003:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro'
More editions of The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'
Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball, had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. Conventional wisdom long held that big name, highly athletic hitters and young pitchers with rocket arms were the ticket to success. But Beane and his staff, buoyed by massive amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data, believed that wins could be had by more affordable methods such as hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground outs. Given this information and a tight budget, Beane defied tradition and his own scouting department to build winning teams of young affordable players and inexpensive castoff veterans.
Lewis was in the room with the A's top management as they spent the summer of 2002 adding and subtracting players and he provides outstanding play-by-play. In the June player draft, Beane acquired nearly every prospect he coveted (few of whom were coveted by other teams) and at the July trading deadline he engaged in a tense battle of nerves to acquire a lefty reliever. Besides being one of the most insider accounts ever written about baseball, Moneyball is populated with fascinating characters. We meet Jeremy Brown, an overweight college catcher who most teams project to be a 15th round draft pick (Beane takes him in the first). Sidearm pitcher Chad Bradford is plucked from the White Sox triple-A club to be a key set-up man and catcher Scott Hatteberg is rebuilt as a first baseman. But the most interesting character is Beane himself. A speedy athletic can't-miss prospect who somehow missed, Beane reinvents himself as a front-office guru, relying on players completely unlike, say, Billy Beane. Lewis, one of the top nonfiction writers of his era (Liar's Poker, The New New Thing), offers highly accessible explanations of baseball stats and his roadmap of Beane's economic approach makes Moneyball an appealing reading experience for business people and sports fans alike. --John Moe [via]
More editions of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game:

› Find signed collectible books: 'One-Eyed: A View of Australian Sport'
More editions of One-Eyed: A View of Australian Sport:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Only a Game?: The Diary of a Professional Footballer'
More editions of Only a Game?: The Diary of a Professional Footballer:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Out of My Comfort Zone: The Autobiography'
More editions of Out of My Comfort Zone: The Autobiography:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Penguins Stopped Play: Eleven Village Cricketers Take on the World'
More editions of Penguins Stopped Play: Eleven Village Cricketers Take on the World:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Playgrounds of the Gods: The Fulfilment of a Sporting Fantasy'
More editions of Playgrounds of the Gods: The Fulfilment of a Sporting Fantasy:
More editions of Quidditch Through the Ages:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Quidditch Through the Ages'
Grade 4-8-These slim paperbacks are made to look like actual Hogwarts tomes, complete with creased covers and plenty of marginalia scribbled by Harry and other students. Fabulous Beasts, a facsimile of Harry Potter's very own textbook, contains descriptions of 75 magical beasts, written in a wonderfully dry yet droll style by a renowned magizoologist. Quidditch is the facsimile of a Hogwarts library book, which had to be literally pried from the hands of librarian Madam Pince. It gives a comprehensive history of the game and its rules, as well as a rundown of each of the 13 league teams of Britain and Ireland. Harry Potter fans who pride themselves on knowing every minute bit of Hogwarts trivia will devour both books. From Professor Dumbledore's introductions to the price listed on the back cover (14 Sickles 3 Knuts), readers will find a wealth of detailed magical lore and laugh-out-loud humor. Neither book is as gripping as the actual series, of course, but fans who are waiting for the fifth installment will be entertained by these volumes in the meantime. Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. [via]
More editions of Quidditch Through the Ages:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Quidditch Through the Ages'
More editions of Quidditch Through the Ages:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Rugby's Strangest Matches: Extraordinary but True Stories from over a Century of Rugby'
More editions of Rugby's Strangest Matches: Extraordinary but True Stories from over a Century of Rugby:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Seabiscuit: Library Edition'
He didn't look like much. With his smallish stature, knobby knees, and slightly crooked forelegs, he looked more like a cow pony than a thoroughbred. But looks aren't everything; his quality, an admirer once wrote, "was mostly in his heart." Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of the horse who became a cultural icon in Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Seabiscuit rose to prominence with the help of an unlikely triumvirate: owner Charles Howard, an automobile baron who once declared that "the day of the horse is past"; trainer Tom Smith, a man who "had cultivated an almost mystical communication with horses"; and jockey Red Pollard, who was down on his luck when he charmed a then-surly horse with his calm demeanor and a sugar cube. Hillenbrand details the ups and downs of "team Seabiscuit," from early training sessions to record-breaking victories, and from serious injury to "Horse of the Year"--as well as the Biscuit's fabled rivalry with War Admiral. She also describes the world of horseracing in the 1930s, from the snobbery of Eastern journalists regarding Western horses and public fascination with the great thoroughbreds to the jockeys' torturous weight-loss regimens, including saunas in rubber suits, strong purgatives, even tapeworms.
Along the way, Hillenbrand paints wonderful images: tears in Tom Smith's eyes as his hero, legendary trainer James Fitzsimmons, asked to hold Seabiscuit's bridle while the horse was saddled; critically injured Red Pollard, whose chest was crushed in a racing accident a few weeks before, listening to the San Antonio Handicap from his hospital bed, cheering "Get going, Biscuit! Get 'em, you old devil!"; Seabiscuit happily posing for photographers for several minutes on end; other horses refusing to work out with Seabiscuit because he teased and taunted them with his blistering speed.
Though sometimes her prose takes on a distinctly purple hue ("His history had the ethereal quality of hoofprints in windblown snow"; "The California sunlight had the pewter cast of a declining season"), Hillenbrand has crafted a delightful book. Wire to wire, Seabiscuit is a winner. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney [via]
More editions of Seabiscuit: Library Edition:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Seabiscuit: An American Legend'
He didn't look like much. With his smallish stature, knobby knees, and slightly crooked forelegs, he looked more like a cow pony than a thoroughbred. But looks aren't everything; his quality, an admirer once wrote, "was mostly in his heart." Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of the horse who became a cultural icon in Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Seabiscuit rose to prominence with the help of an unlikely triumvirate: owner Charles Howard, an automobile baron who once declared that "the day of the horse is past"; trainer Tom Smith, a man who "had cultivated an almost mystical communication with horses"; and jockey Red Pollard, who was down on his luck when he charmed a then-surly horse with his calm demeanor and a sugar cube. Hillenbrand details the ups and downs of "team Seabiscuit," from early training sessions to record-breaking victories, and from serious injury to "Horse of the Year"--as well as the Biscuit's fabled rivalry with War Admiral. She also describes the world of horseracing in the 1930s, from the snobbery of Eastern journalists regarding Western horses and public fascination with the great thoroughbreds to the jockeys' torturous weight-loss regimens, including saunas in rubber suits, strong purgatives, even tapeworms.
Along the way, Hillenbrand paints wonderful images: tears in Tom Smith's eyes as his hero, legendary trainer James Fitzsimmons, asked to hold Seabiscuit's bridle while the horse was saddled; critically injured Red Pollard, whose chest was crushed in a racing accident a few weeks before, listening to the San Antonio Handicap from his hospital bed, cheering "Get going, Biscuit! Get 'em, you old devil!"; Seabiscuit happily posing for photographers for several minutes on end; other horses refusing to work out with Seabiscuit because he teased and taunted them with his blistering speed.
Though sometimes her prose takes on a distinctly purple hue ("His history had the ethereal quality of hoofprints in windblown snow"; "The California sunlight had the pewter cast of a declining season"), Hillenbrand has crafted a delightful book. Wire to wire, Seabiscuit is a winner. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney [via]
More editions of Seabiscuit: An American Legend:

› Find signed collectible books: 'A Season With Verona: Travels Around Italy in Search of Illusion, National Character and Goals!'
More editions of A Season With Verona: Travels Around Italy in Search of Illusion, National Character and Goals!:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Soccer Against the Enemy: How the World's Most Popular Sport Stars And Stops Wars, Fuels Revolution And Keeps Dictators in Power'
More editions of Soccer Against the Enemy: How the World's Most Popular Sport Stars And Stops Wars, Fuels Revolution And Keeps Dictators in Power:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Stretching'
Anderson started running and cycling during the salad days of the fitness boom, when the goal was simply to go farther and farther. No one knew what all those miles would do for a body--or do to a body. One day he realized he could barely reach past his knees while sitting on the floor in a straight-legged position. His tight muscles thus revealed, he began a lifelong quest to figure out the secrets of flexibility.
His main discovery--and his core message to readers--is this: "Stretching feels good when done correctly," he writes. "You do not have to push limits or attempt to go further each day. It should not be a personal contest to see how far you can stretch."
The world of sports may have shifted away from Anderson's style of "static" stretching--holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds or longer--but in the everyday world, it's still considered the safest and easiest way for people to become more flexible.
The key to successful stretching, Anderson says, is not trying to do too much. "It's better to understretch than overstretch," he writes. The point of flexibility exercise, after all, is to protect yourself from injury or immobility. The worst thing you can do is hurt and ultimately immobilize yourself while trying to prevent those consequences.
Stretching contains hundreds of exercises, simply and clearly drawn by Jean Anderson, the author's wife. (In an eccentric twist, most of the figures in the drawings are shown wearing wool hats, which Mrs. Anderson designs and sells.) Routines are shown for getting up in the morning, for before and after walking or sitting, and for watching TV. Sport-specific routines include programs for weight training, basketball, golf, running, and many others. All are simple, safe, and as easy as you're willing to let them be. --Lou Schuler [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'Stretching: 20th Anniversary'
More editions of Stretching: 20th Anniversary:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Quidditch Travers a Les Ages / Quidditch Through the Ages'
Il a fallu toute la persuasion d'Aldous Dumbledore, directeur de l'école des sorciers, pour persuader Mme Pince, la bibliothécaire, de lui confier un exemplaire de ce livre pour le diffuser auprès des Moldus. Et encore& Même après lui avoir expliqué que le produit de la vente des ouvrages serait entièrement versé à l'organisation caritative anglaise Comic Relief, qui finance des projets destinés à aider les enfants des pays les plus pauvres du monde, il a fallu lui arracher des mains. Enfin, c'est chose faite, ce qui nous permet aujourd'hui d'avoir accès à un livre qui ne traîne pas souvent sur les rayons de la bibliothèque de Poudlard, comme le prouve d'ailleurs la liste des emprunteurs qui figure en première page. Il faut avouer que c'est passionnant, car on y apprend absolument tout sur le sport préféré des sorciers : ses origines, ses règles, ses figures& On y découvre aussi l'histoire du balai volant, indispensable accessoire pour pratiquer cette discipline aérienne, le nom des principales équipes de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande, la pratique du Quidditch à travers le monde, et comment les sorciers s'y prennent pour tenir les Moldus à l'écart des matchs. Quelques schémas et dessins permettent de mieux suivre. Comme le dit très bien Balai-Magazine : "Les passionnés de Quidditch le trouveront aussi instructif que divertissant." À partir de 9 ans. --Pascale Wester [via]
More editions of Quidditch Travers a Les Ages / Quidditch Through the Ages:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Muerte En La Tarde/ Death in the Afternoon'
More editions of Muerte En La Tarde/ Death in the Afternoon:
