New Books in Sports

Our own John Harms is interviewed by Bruce Berglund on this fascinating podcast from the “New Books in Sports” website.  The link is http://newbooksinsports.com/2013/10/07/the-nbs-fall-seminar-sports-memoirs/

The podcast is nearly 2 hours long, and interviews authors from all over the world who come at different sports from crazy diverse angles.  John is the second author interviewed and his piece starts about 15 minutes into the podcast.  It ranges from John’s personal life; philosophical beliefs; and initial books through to the Almanac compendiums and website.  Wonderful stuff and a credit to our glorious leader – but he is first among equals in this exalted company.

Do yourself a favour, and download the podcast to your computer or MP3/Iplayer.  The whole 2 hours is like a supercharged version of Almanacker Barry Nicholls “110%” podcast on the ABC Grandstand website.  In my case I download Barry’s monthly podcast to the laptop and then burn it to a CD.  I put it in the CD player and dip in and out of Barry’s interviews with authors as I travel to and from work.  Sure beats talkback radio and Gold FM.

The other brilliant thing about New Books in Sports is their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/newbooksinsports. It provides almost daily previews and summaries on the endless world of new sports books coming onto the market.

If all this isn’t extraordinary enough, the New Books in ……………… network extends to 80 sub-genres for the inner nerd amongst all of us.  From ‘ageing’ to ‘digital culture’ and ‘terrorism’.

The whole experience of browsing for a few hours left me enriched and intimidated.  My interests are a mile wide, and my knowledge is an inch deep.

Browsing bookshops these days makes me feel slightly depressed, like a sightseer in an orphanage or a lost dogs home.  So many fascinating, deserving cases – so little time.

It reminds me of what Howard Jacobson said in the aftermath of winning the Booker Prize.  The trouble with the digital age is that we have too many authors and too few readers.

So time to saddle up and broaden my horizons by dipping more into the New Books in Sports podcasts (this is one of a series you will find linked through the website), and challenging my other interests through a wider trawl of the New Books Network.

Comments

  1. Phil Dimitriadis says

    PB,

    This was a terrific interview and Harmsy was in fine form. Highly recommended to all the Almanackers. Great stuff JTH!

  2. Neil Anderson says

    Just finished reading the JTH article of 2008 regarding clinging to the idea of imagination in regard to our AFL clubs. About not being overwhelmed by commercialism and ending up as a ‘unit’ as someone described it and to not be regarded a valued member of a club.
    The idea that I couldn’t retain my imagination frightens the shit out of me. If I didn’t dream of success and just checked the financial situation of the club and how much my membership and going to the footy cost, I would have given up being a footy fan long ago. I might be naive but I’m still loving every minute of my footy even if my head’s in the sand.
    The only time I had a twinge of going over to the dark-side i.e. VFL instead of big-brother AFL , was last Saturday when I checked out the ‘new’ Footscray Bulldogs home ground. The imagination kicked in again and I pictured myself parked around the boundary like they do in the country and tooting every time the Bulldogs kicked a goal. In my imagination I was tooting a lot.

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