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Good Ebooks (preferably Sports Autobiographies)

Gravesend_Addick
Gravesend_Addick Posts: 7,299
in Other Football and Sports
HI all

I'm going on holiday next week. I'm planning on it being a very relaxing holiday on the beach. With that in mind, can anybody recommend any good books to download on the kindle for me to read whilst soaking up the sun?

My personal preference is sporting autobiographies but am open to any recommendations.

Many thanks in advance

Comments

  • kigelia
    kigelia Posts: 2,582
    A couple of more obscure ones:

    Flying Scotsman about Graham over the cyclist is good

    There is a book by Charlie speeding who was a British marathon runner in the 80's that is not bad either.
  • guinnessaddick
    guinnessaddick Posts: 28,617
    Tony Cascarino's book is a very good read.

  • eaststandmike
    eaststandmike Posts: 14,956
    'Success to Failure' by Roland Duchâtelet is supposed to be a good read
  • cfgs
    cfgs Posts: 11,476
    Just started to read Zlatan Ibrahimovich's it looks likely to be great, he simply describes himself as marvellous or amazing and full of goals.
  • North Lower Neil
    North Lower Neil Posts: 22,949
    Andre Agassi's book Open is very good.
  • cfgs
    cfgs Posts: 11,476
    Also liked How Not to be a Football Millionaire.
  • guinnessaddick
    guinnessaddick Posts: 28,617
    eaststandmike said:

    'Success to Failure' by Roland Duchâtelet is supposed to be a good read

    How does it end?
  • Leeds_Addick
    Leeds_Addick Posts: 4,698
    Soccernomics is next on my list. Not a autobiography but supposedly really interesting.

    The only football autobiography I've ever read was "Gerrard - my autobiography" which I read when I was about 15. I enjoyed it but it was probably a bit shit.
  • AFKABartram
    AFKABartram Posts: 57,824
    Paul Lake (ex Man City) book is meant to be very good
  • EdgeleyAddick
    EdgeleyAddick Posts: 939
    AFKABartram said:

    Paul Lake (ex Man City) book is meant to be very good

    Read it a few years ago. Very good. "I'm not really here" is the title I think. City fans always used to bang on and on about Lake. Would've been England captain etc etc.

    Secret footballer books are a good read too Chrissy, if you've not read them.
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  • Charltonparklane
    Charltonparklane Posts: 5,786
    edited May 2016
    The secret footballer books are such an easy read.
    Loved em.
  • SDAddick
    SDAddick Posts: 14,467
    Soccernomics or "Why England Lose." It's not the lightest of reading, because it is about data analysis in football (stay with me), but it's really gripping (I know, I know, but trust me) and it will make you look at the game differently.

    "The Italian Job" by Gianlucca Vialla and Gab Marcotti is really, really good. It's party GV autobiography, part comparisons between English and Italian football with insight from a variety of important people (keep in mind it was written around 2006). Good read, light read.

    Inverting the Pyramid, Jonathan Wilson. Want to be a football hipster? This is your "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." Seriously though, it's a wonderful look at football history and how tactics evolve down the years. He's a great writer, and it's far more gripping than it sounds. Also, his book "Football Behind the Curtain" is really good, and lighter. Anecdotal stories about football in the former USSR.

    "English Football: A German View of the Beautiful Game" by Rafa Honigstein. stories of his time as a German reporter in English. Similar to The Italian Job in that it takes an outsiders' cultural perspective on English football. Really interesting and enlightening.
  • superclive
    superclive Posts: 1,809
    The nowhere men is a great. All about football scouts and their existence. The author, Michael Calvin also has a new one out now called living on the volcano.
  • RodneyCharltonTrotta
    RodneyCharltonTrotta Posts: 14,827
    Mike Tysons autobiography is great
  • ricky_otto
    ricky_otto Posts: 22,600
    AFKABartram said:

    Paul Lake (ex Man City) book is meant to be very good

    Really good read that one.
  • guinnessaddick
    guinnessaddick Posts: 28,617
    Paul McGrath's book is not a football story but a human story that goes from a hard, hidden childhood in Dublin’s orphanages to a public struggle with alcoholism and a life lived on the edge of chaos.

    At times a very touching story.
  • All_Thaid_Up
    All_Thaid_Up Posts: 2,293
    Ian Poulters book is worth a read, for something slightly different try Shoe Dog it is the autobiography of Phil Knight founder of Nike
  • GreenWithEnvy
    GreenWithEnvy Posts: 1,841
    Not os much a biography as an account of football pressures from a manager's perspective called Living On The Volcano by Michael Calvin.
  • ScrappyCAFC
    ScrappyCAFC Posts: 278
    I think therefore I play, Pirlo's book. Good read!
  • LenGlover
    LenGlover Posts: 31,651
    If you are an old git and remember him then Jimmy Connors' autobiography is a good read.
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  • McBobbin
    McBobbin Posts: 12,051
    If Garry Nelson's booms are ebooks... buy them. Soccernomics is great
  • Redweb
    Redweb Posts: 37
    Slightly off topic as you'd prefer sports autobiographies, but consider American Sniper by Chris Kyle. You may already know of the story as it was made into a Hollywood film, it's written be Chris Kyle himself. I usually prefer sports bios myself but I read this whilst on holiday and couldn't put it down.
  • tricky
    tricky Posts: 1,291
    Probably not your traditional holiday read but the book A Life Too Short by Ronald Reng about Robert Enke is incredibly moving.

    From what I recall, the two were friends and had planned to write Enke's autobiography before he took his own life after a battle with depression.

    A very sad story but brilliantly covered.

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