Official Boxing Book Review Thread

[Sharkey]

Originally Posted by Spoonking

Why was that?

It's been some time, like I said, but I think I found the book to be too fancy in it's analization of fighters or something like that, and with not enough actual & factual (some inaccuracies from what I remember, which are quite noticable) information on the few fighters she talks about.

I also have a preference for books that are much, much longer in length than that one, as I seem to remember it being way too short for my liking.

[Spoonking]

yeah it was quite short. I thought she wrote well on what underlies boxing and makes it attractive to us.

[mschatz]

Originally Posted by Sharkey

It's been some time, like I said, but I think I found the book to be too fancy in it's analization of fighters or something like that, and with not enough actual & factual (some inaccuracies from what I remember, which are quite noticable) information on the few fighters she talks about.

I also have a preference for books that are much, much longer in length than that one, as I seem to remember it being way too short for my liking.

My main problem with JCO is that I find her writing to be overly romanticized. It smacks of the intellectual class reading more into the sport than the fighters ever thought about. Sure, boxing explores man's darker side and other sorts of psycho-babble, but its also just boxing. Her writing just strikes me as comin from someone who's never taken or thrown a punch before.

On the other hand, AJ Liebling is the man. Another writer who was always "just" a spectator, his writing just comes across as much grittier to me. I just finished his collection of essays, "A neutral corner," and its some of the best boxing writing Ive ever come across. Ill do a summary on it when I get home, so that I can give a couple quotes from the book.

[GlassJaw]

Originally Posted by mschatz

My main problem with JCO is that I find her writing to be overly romanticized. It smacks of the intellectual class reading more into the sport than the fighters ever thought about. Sure, boxing explores man's darker side and other sorts of psycho-babble, but its also just boxing. Her writing just strikes me as comin from someone who's never taken or thrown a punch before.

On the other hand, AJ Liebling is the man. Another writer who was always "just" a spectator, his writing just comes across as much grittier to me. I just finished his collection of essays, "A neutral corner," and its some of the best boxing writing Ive ever come across. Ill do a summary on it when I get home, so that I can give a couple quotes from the book.

I agree completely on the JCO thoughts. I've always thought she was writing to say "she wrote boxing" and little else.

I'll do a write up on Christian Giudice's "Manos De peidra" book on Duran.

[Veedon Fleece]

SWeet thread mschatz. I've been on a boxing book binge lately and need some more ideas.

No pics, don't know how.


My view from the corner- by Angelo Dundee Great book, haven't finished it yet. It's Muhammad Ali's trainer. He's old school as hell, been in boxing for almost 60 years so he's got stories and stories, and then more stories. Great stuff.

Soul of a butterfly- Muhammad Ali I don't know, picked this up from the bargain bin and have only skimmed it. It looks like a lot of philsophical and religious stuff from the great one. Meh, I'll give it a try.

Atlas- Teddy Atlas Great book as already has been said. A must read by anyone, in my opinion.

Becoming Holyfield- Evander Holyfield I wasn't expecting much, but I was still disappointed. It's just boring and vanilla. There were some interesting parts I guess, but I can't think of them right now. Not recommended.

[mschatz]

Thanks Veedon. I actually need to update this thread with quite a few books that I read lately.

*adds task to day planner*

[Coster]

Joe Calzaghe- No Ordinary Joe

Great read, though I must point out I'm a big Calzaghe fan. Lot of interesting bits, such as Naseems run ins with Eubank & Thompson. Good success story that really peaks with his victory over Lacy.

Sam Sherdian- A Fighter's Heart

Boxing related part about Andre Ward which I found one of the best parts of the book. Andre's trainer seems like a real interesting character. The book in itself is very good but I'm sure it's been discussed elsewhere on this site. Definitely recommend to anyone on here.

[Sharkey]

Originally Posted by mschatz

My main problem with JCO is that I find her writing to be overly romanticized. It smacks of the intellectual class reading more into the sport than the fighters ever thought about. Sure, boxing explores man's darker side and other sorts of psycho-babble, but its also just boxing. Her writing just strikes me as comin from someone who's never taken or thrown a punch before.

On the other hand, AJ Liebling is the man. Another writer who was always "just" a spectator, his writing just comes across as much grittier to me. I just finished his collection of essays, "A neutral corner," and its some of the best boxing writing Ive ever come across. Ill do a summary on it when I get home, so that I can give a couple quotes from the book.

Overly romanticized...Yes, and I've used that decription of Oates' book in the past and I think that about sums the book up best. The lady obviously has immense writing talent and a way with words, no doubt, but when it came to a boxing book, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Anyways, most of my reading in recent months have been read overs like Brunt's 'Mean Business', Mullan's 'Illustrated History of Boxing', Heller's 'Bad Intentions', Sugar's 'Greatest Fighters', Hurricane Carter's '16th Round', but I did purchase Thomas Myler's 'The Sweet Science Goes Sour' a couple of months back and enjoyed it quite a bit, as it attempted to deal with and help explain some of the more intriguing controversies of the distant and recent past.

[Spoonking]

Maybe JCO's book was a touch overromanticized, but what other books offer an in depth analysis of the sport of boxing as a whole. Im kind of sick of reading ghostwritten autobiographies that offer little or no insight into the sport.

Im reading Liebling's Neutral Corner at the moment. A great writer, I particularly liked his piece on Duilio Loi, "an Old Thuburban Custom". Has anybody read Torres, one of my lecturers reccomended him...any good?

[Sharkey]

Originally Posted by Spoonking

Has anybody read Torres, one of my lecturers reccomended him...any good?

If you're meaning Jose Torres, then yeah, I've read his books on Tyson ('Fire & Fear') and Ali ('Sting Like a Bee') in the past, and while neither of them were all that bad, with those two subjects and the many, many different choices you have for each of them, there's probably better works to choose from.