Camp Fire Site

  A Load of Old Balls.   The QI History of Sport.   James Harkin and Anna Ptaszynski. A holiday gift from my spouse, this book took me a while to start but finishing was not a problem and largely worth the effort.     It is a humorous title, A Load of Old Balls , but appropriate for the topic pertaining to many of the three hundred and forty-six pages.   We like the fact that this book addressed many off-beat sports and activities that may or may not have required the use of a ball.     The authors clearly researched plenty of history as noted in many of their findings.     It is also worth noting that the authors are British and come across as quite worldly.     As a PE instructor, several examples of the books content fell right into my personal wheelhouse.     That was namely facts and interesting trivia, which is part of what the book comprises anyway.    An examp...

Football.  Chuck Klosterman. Football has maintained a dominance over America and its culture for three quarters of a century. The game has changed considerably over time and continues to do so now particularly at the collegiate level.     All of the transactions may get one to ponder how long football can maintain its seemingly unbreakable hold as the most popular sport in the United States.      One author has done just that, Chuck Klosterman, and we can find out what he thinks and predicts in his latest book, Football .    Yes, this is the title.    It is blunt, concise and bland all at the same time.    However, content inside very likely belies the understated book heading.     Klosterman, an accomplished magazine writer and book author of more than 10 publications, expresses his vast knowledge of the sport and how his life was shaped and influenced at an early age by all that the game has to off...

  The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2025.    As one might expect from looking at the cover of this book, The Year’s best sports writing, is a compilation of thirty relatively short stories written by different authors who are not likely well known.    One author familiar to me, Hanif Abdurraqib, was deemed the guest editor of the Year’s best sports writing 2025.    Readers can access following link to read our review of his 2024 Book https://richardcampsie.blogspot.com/2025/01/theres-always-this-year-hanif-abdurraqib.html .    He writes a beautiful introduction.      If one reads through this carefully, they will learn that he selected the stories for this book based on not so much what he thought readers wanted to see but more so that the authors were very comfortable in writing what they wanted to print.     He goes on to explain his concept of “aboutness” and how he admires and is influenced by authors that w...

True. Kostya Kennedy. The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson.    As we begin another baseball season, I decided to check out a book about one of the most famous and influential players of all time.     True , by Kostya Kennedy, explains a refreshed, detailed account of the life and times of Jackie Robinson, who did break the color line in major league baseball during the 1947 season but was also one on the most influential players of the 20 th century.        The author breaks the story down in four “seasons”.   The segments were not necessarily Robinson’s best on the field performance but better described as important milestones that occurred in his life.  Part 1 describes some of Robinson’s time playing spring ball in Montreal as a new member of the Brooklyn Dodgers.    Part 2 expands upon his experiences during the summer of 1949, his third season with the Dodgers, where he and his family naviga...

The Magnificent Seven.    College Basketball’s Blue Bloods.    Mark Mehler and Jeff Tiber II.    It seems fitting to have finished reading about seven different prominent college basketball programs on the eve of another march madness (March of 2026).     The Magnificent Seven , authored by Mark Mehler and Jeff Tiber II, argues their list of blue blood basketball programs and provides a rich history and culture of each school along with how they ascended to be considered among the elite programs. The opening section of the book discusses several criterions supporting their choices.    Readers will note that all schools chronicled here won at least four NCAA basketball championships.     Of course, some were more recent successes than others such as Kansas and Connecticut while others have not won a championship for several decades like Indiana or UCLA.    In any case, beyond the wins the total package in...