As my TBR shelf is straining under the number of books currently sitting on it, I've decided to send this one out as a bookring.

From Amazon.co.uk ....
"Fever Pitch is both an autobiography and a footballing bible rolled into one. Nick 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 fantasises that even if a girlfriend "went into labour 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 humour 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 prison-like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of police officers 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."


NB - "Football" refers to proper football ... i.e. soccer ;-)


This book is out on a bookring. Please see MY BOOKSHELF for the list of participants and current progress.

Released on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 at ... by mail :) in Sent to a fellow BookCrosser, Bookring Controlled Releases.

Received in the post from Glasgowgal.

Its a great book, I've only had it so long because the other half nicked it to read.

I'll be sending it onto momomorison next.

This was great! I'll send it on tomorrow! Sarah

If John Cusak had not had the lead part in the movie "High Fidelity", think I would not be holding Fever Pitch in my hand right now. It just came via bookring from momomorrison thanks to Glasgowgal. I anticipate reading this book with both excitement and dread. i have always preferred "true" football to American football, even played in high school and college, but I am not eager to read play-by-play descriptions of games. I have been, however intrigued by the football culture and have wondered at the fervor that could cause fans to riot at a game. I will journal again after I read the book.

I just can't make it more than halfway through this book. All the football stats are truely boring.
However, this is an excellent example of obcession. Now i know how other people feel when i continually talk about my current obcession (of which there are several). If you aren't into the thing a person is obcessed about, their constant reference to the subject is tiresome. i guess, i will keep my mouth shut a little when I have a new love. i will figure out who is next and send it on.

Received in the mail from Morpha; a few rings ahead of it in the TBR line...

6/25/04 - started reading this morning - I think the bus drivers are ready to have me locked up - I kept laughing out loud. So far, my favorite quote is about attending his first away game: "I hadn't ever come across opposing fans before, and I loathed them in a way I had never before loathed strangers." From my side of the pond, this is like being at a Subway series baseball game - Mets vs. Yankees - to me, those pinstripe people are just vile when you are actually at the game and everyone is all riled up!

6/28/04 - More favorites....his comparison of groupies with (male) fans is a hoot (pp. 62-63) and the bit about the sugar mice and other odd rituals to help the team was great. Thanks, GG, for sharing this one! Oh - one more thing - I almost fell off my seat when he mentioned Rodney Marsh, early on in the book; Marsh played in the North American Soccer League for "my" team - the Tampa Bay Rowdies - in the late 1970's/early 80's.

7/3/04 - mailed to newcomer

just received it. Thank you, Albuquerque Lady for the view :-)

I sent the book two days ago to Dazydad.
It will not become one of my favourite ones, but still it is ok to have read the half of it :-)

Received in the post this morning from newcomer. Looking forward to reading it.

Really enjoyed the book and as a life long football fanatic (supporter of Ossett Albion for more years than I care to remember) I can relate to most of the situations in it.
Many thanks to Glasgow Gal for allowing me to be part of this ring.
I will post to DianeO first thing tomorrow.

Received this last week - sorry i didn't journal it at the time! To be honest, I'm not a great football fan - give me Formula 1 anyday! However, I do love Nick Hornby, so maybe this book will change my opinion?

I feel awful that I have given this it's lowest rating! Sorry, but I just couldn't get past the first 50 pages. Even the magic of Nick Hornby's usual humour didn't seem apparent as he droned on about players I have never heard of!
It's going back home to Glasgow soon...

Returned home! Thank you to everyone who's looked after this book so well.
:-)

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