The Meaning of Sport

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Binding: Paperback EAN: 9781904977858 ISBN: 1904977855 Label: Short Books, London Manufacturer: Short Books, London Number Of Pages: 352 Publication Date: 2007-08-02 Publisher: Short Books, London Studio: Short Books, London
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Some beautiful writing but.... Comment: I'd never knowingly read a Simon Barnes article, being neither a Times reader nor a fan of the sports pages. I do like sports (well, except football) but I don't much care to read about them - I'd rather either do them, or watch them. On the basis of this book I won't be changing my habits, but Barnes makes a pretty good fist of persuading me. There is some fine writing here, and he helps A S Byatt to lay the ghost of the sports fan as mere meathead. His interests outside sport - birdwatching, the works of James Joyce - occasionally intrude, and it's rather irritating to be informed that if you don't like Joyce you're beneath the salt, but Barnes understands sport and its meaning and importance in society and he communicates these very effectively. The chapters are short, and while the book jumps between different sporting events, it retains coherence. He's particularly sound on boxing, which he rightly despises, arguing that it relies for its success on the deliberate infliction of irreversible brain damage, but for me there's too much football, and I skimmed the last few chapters on the World Cup and Wayne Rooney. He co-opts Steve Redgrave as a measure of sporting greatness, but he's wrong to exclude Paula Radcliffe from inclusion in the list of sporting greats. Customer Rating: Summary: Not quite what I was expecting, but still a very enjoyable read... Comment: This book wasn't quite what I expected. For a while I found that difficult, but in the end I really, really enjoyed it. What did I expect? From the quotes surrounding the book (and the title) I was hoping for a structured dissection of the way sport works - what makes heroes, what makes villains; why we play it, why we watch it; what is good sport, what isn't. Instead, the Meaning of Sport is a meandering journey of a couple of years with Simon Barnes, Chief Sportswriter at the Times newspaper. It is roughly structured around his trips over that period: including Euro 2004, the Athens Olympics, Ellen MacArthur's return, the London Olympic bid, Liverpool's miraculous Champion's League Final win, a couple of Wimbledons, The Ashes 2005, and rounding off with England's Germany 2006 journey, and also including many other events in between. This journey gives Barnes reference points from which to digress - and chances to discuss all the questions I hoped he would discuss and more. It also gives him the chance to tell some wonderful stories and give some intriguing opinions and views on the world of sport: past, present and future. Like I said - I really enjoyed the book, and once I'd settled for what it was I didn't have any worries. But at the start I didn't really get it. There were bits and pieces that seemed irrelevant: indeed the autobiographical structure also gives way to autobiographical aspects - such as Barnes' love for bird watching - and at the start especially, I found this frustrating. This is not a structured discussion on the meaning of sport. It is more a stream of consciousness discussion of a man's thoughts on it. But because the man is Simon Barnes - intelligent, empathic, funny and extremely experienced - the book is interesting. There are some fabulous stories, some great observations (the sort I've found myself bringing up in conversation with everyone I think might be interested for the last two weeks). And the climax - following the hopes of the nation in Germany 2006 - is brilliant and apt. I really enjoyed this read and would recommend it - but be prepared for a mixed bag of thoughts and observations. Some you'll like, some you won't. But the overall book is one well worth reading. Customer Rating: Summary: Oh dear Comment: Like another reviewer, I often buy The Times for the sole purpose of reading Simon Barnes. I have always defended him sub-consciously whenever he makes his regular appearances in Private Eye's Pseuds Corner. But this book really is laughably self-indulgent. It's not so much the regular name-dropping of Proust, Joyce etc. regardless of the authors' relevance to the topic in hand, nor the torturous, repetitive, paradoxical paragraphs about "will" and "greatness". What really drove me to despair is the author's apparent belief that his job - the mundane technicalities as well as the pseudo-philosophical babbling about being a "teller of tales" - is as fascinating as the stars he covers. "Destiny," he declares on page 138, apparently without irony, when he is given a job as a sportswriter on the Surrey Mirror. I finally gave up two pages later when he started plugging his earlier books while regretting, "I have not established myself as a novelist". A great shame. A collection of his Times' columns would have been altogether more readable. Customer Rating: Summary: Original and thought-provoking Comment: Since sport relies on opinion and quite a bit of bias in the spectator, I was amazed by how often Simon Barnes' arguments and examples rang true to my (biased !) opinions as well. For example, his defence of Tim Henman and his near-misses at Wimbledon rightly points out that while he may have failed to win the title, to be ranked as high as number five in the world is not a career-failure. Every page has something of interest, although the punctuation meant quite a few sentences needed re-reading to get the meaning; surprising for such an accomplished journalist. The quality of the book overall meant that when an argument was made that I disagreed with it rankled more than it should. To say that McEnroe was never the same player after Borg retired in 1981 is hard to believe, if you saw him destroy the opposition at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1984. Simon also continues the myth that England's third goal in 1966 must have crossed the line, because otherwise Roger Hunt was "perfectly positioned to put in the rebound". Any review of the tape - and we've all seen it many times - would show it certainly wouldn't have been the "tap-in" Simon contends. As I said earlier though, sport is fuelled by opinions, and much the better it is for it. The world of sport writing is much the better for both this book and the ongoing work of Simon Barnes. Customer Rating: Summary: Homer, Dostoyevksy, Proust, Bob Dylan, and even Morecambe and Wise - all life is here. Comment: Sometimes the Amazon star rating simply doesn't do a book justice. For me, The Meaning of Sport is a *. But it's so much more. And less. You'll find numerous references to Homer, Dostoyevksy, Proust, James Joyce, Bob Dylan, and even Morecambe and Wise. Often these literary and cultural metaphors, alongside his many allusions to birdlife, work wonderfully. But sometimes, rather than establishing the book's "intellectual" credentials, one suspects the author is imploring "it's ok! I've got a life, I'm not one of those fools who is obsessed by sport and has no other interests!". It is a deeply introspective book, with much on the nature of being a sportswriter, as opposed to a sportsman. As a "chief" sportswriter Barnes knows how to delight and provoke his audience, so for example, if you're a fan of gymnastics you'll love his eulogies to the sport of flight. Boxing fans however might not much appreciate his "philosophical" objections to the sport he describes as a "death duel", and golfers will have fight past multiple "blazer" and "sports you can smoke while playing" cliches. Honestly - one minute I loved it - **, and the next minute I was infuriated by it - . So I plumped for ***. But I'm very glad I read it. More Reviews