Fever Pitch

Rating:
Summary: Great Stuff for Soccer Buffs
Review: This is an odd but compelling memoir structured around the author's lifelong obsession with the Arsenal Gunners (a football team in England). The book is organized into bite-size chunks which chronologically cover 1968-1982, from ages eleven to twenty-five. While the memoir is full of Hornby's commentary on various facets of modern life, make no mistake, this book is unlikely to captivate anyone not deeply interested in football. In that arena, there is buckets of opinion and analysis of English football, including such topics as hooliganism, decaying stadiums, escalating ticket prices and new demographics of fandom. These sections were the most interesting to me, and in the end, I found myself glad to have waded through the minutiae to discover them. Hornby's memoir is written with an openness reveals a somewhat deranged love for his team, one that exceeds rational fandom in my opinion. The book has been made into a film in the UK.

Rating:
Summary: Great book.
Review: I loved every word of this book. Hornby captures the obsession of every sports fan. Though not a huge soccer fan myself, the story of the rabid soccer fan can easily translate to any sport. This is a great, fun read.

Rating:
Summary: A Superb Book which can even relate to a Soccerless Society
Review: The US, as many of us realize, is certainly one of the least soccer oriented societies in the world today (On the Professional Level). Nonetheless, the traits of die hard fans like Hornby is universal. I could feel the pain of Ipswitch the same way I felt when Scott Norwood missed the fieldgoal in SuperBowl XXV (By the way I am from Buffalo and the Bills are life). Any true fan of any real sports team can appreciate this book, and I strongly reccomend it.

Rating:
Summary: A sports and literature classic!
Review: The essence of the book is captured in the following. After Arsenal lost the FA Cup final against Ipswich in 1978: "... to them (the business types), it really was only a game, and it probably did me good to spend time with people who behaved for all the world as if football were a diverting entertainment, like rugby or golf or cricket. It's not like that at all, of course, but just for an afternoon it was interesting and instructive to meet people who believed that it was." Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby is the search for an explanation of being an obsessive football fan. This search results in a brilliant book. Although not all football supporters are as obsessive as Hornby (some are even more obsessive), the vast majority will recognize the emotions that drive them to support a team fanatically and to remember the numerous, useless details about teams and matches. The (lack of) reason to do so will also apply to other sports like American Football, Baseball, Hockey, and Basketball. This book is a great self-analysis for all fanatic supporters of any sport worldwide and, if read by non-supporters, they can understand or at least accept supporters' behavior a little better. With Arsenal taking many trophies in England during the last seasons with their impressive offense Bergkamp, Overmars and Anelka and the resulting general recognition that Arsenal is not at all boring, I am pretty sure that Hornby had (and continues to have) many ecstatic moments.

Rating:
Summary: Note to Sports Execs: Read this book.
Review: I couldn't help thinking while enjoying this book that it should be part of a sports management curriculum. The people who run big teams, like the NY Yankees, or big companies, like Nike, need to understand the way fans think. I've seen how the prepackaging of sports here in the United States has sucked out much of the joy this book celebrates. In the end, sports aren't merely entertainment, they are tribal rituals and religous ceremonies. I especially liked Hornby's description of promotion and relegation in soccer. This is a system that should be employed in all professional sports. I am passing this book around to my friends now, so that they can begin to understand why it does matter that Chelsea not only win the ultimate Cup Winners Cup, the League this year, and as of this writing possibly the Double.

Rating:
Summary: What if he'd been a Cubs fan????
Review: Let me get this straight -- Hornby takes us through some two decades of his fanatic devotion to Arsenal and in the course of that time they win -- by my count -- at least four major championships of the endless variety that European football seems to offer. This is suffering???? Gees, he should be a San Francisco Giants fan like me and you folks in Chicago would find him even more of a whiner. Still, he's a lot of fun in his whiny fandom, and more than once you'll feel this book is a mirror of your own disproportionate affection for a sports team that has broken your heart too many times to count. Give this book to your wife, girlfriend (or for that matter, husband or boyfriend) who just doesn't understand why you have to slip away from the party, the restaurant, to seek out a TV, or call a scoreline and check how the lads are doing (although you know, of course, that they are losing). It's also worth noting that Fever Pitch was made into a pretty good movie which, to my knowledge, hasn't been released in the US. I saw it a couple years ago on an airplane across the Atlantic before I'd read the book or heard of Hornby's novels. Last thought: the best book ever of this biography/sports fan genre is Frederick's Exley's A Fan's Notes.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic book for anybody with a passion for anything
Review: I am a British lad studying here in America and I would like people to take the opportunity to read Nick Hornby's book "Fever Pitch". He captures the passion shared amongst British soccer fans leaving us thinking, I remember doing that or I wish I would have done that. But you don't have to be British or even a soccer fan to enjoy this one, the book gives a great insight into British culture and goes far beyond the tea and biscuits stereotype sometimes assosiated with the U.K. So come on Americans put down that issue of sports illistrated and find out how the rest of the world lives. I bet my bottom dollar you will come out wishing that your favorite /football /baseball /basketball or hockey team had the same patriotic support. If not, then you will see one man's love for a team that streches far beyond support. But the reason this book has sold millions of copies across the world and had a movie made on it is because there are so many soccer fans like it. I would love to bring two thousand away fans from any soccer team in Britain to the Superbowl, and let them take the place over with songs, chants and the odd bit of high temper. You have to support your team, not watch your team. Please give it a go, trust me it will open your eyes to another part of the world. As Fat Boy Slim says "I Have To Praise You Like I Should" It's a religion in Britain, go on read the bible- Fever Pitch.

Rating:
Summary: if you're not into soccer, don't bother
Review: "Fever Pitch" is basically the same story as "High Fidelity" only in this case the main character is obsessed with football (that's soccer to us North Americans) instead of music. Although my own experience with soccer is limited to the one summer I spent in a soccer league when I was six years old, I felt obligated to read this book because "High Fidelity" is one of my all time favorites and could have very easilly been *my* life story. Not surprisingly, I didn't like this book nearly as much and while it's probably obvious why, I do think there are other things which separate it from his other one. The characters and relationships in "High Fidelity" were compelling and given more detail while "Fever Pitch" is more focused on the sport. I never felt that someone would have had to have been familiar musical references in "High Fidelity" in order to enjoy it but I do feel that not knowing much about Arsenal or football in general would be a problem for anyone who tries to read "Fever Pitch." So, while I wouldn't warn everyone against reading this book, I still think it has very limited appeal.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is the best non-baseball sports book I've ever read. Part of what's great about it, aside from the humor, is that Hornby's defense of fandom is ultimately not convincing. I don't think he really can defend all the time and emotion he's invested on Arsenal over the course of his life, but I understand how he could become so obsessed.

Rating:
Summary: ?????????
Review: I NEVER READ IT SO I DONT GIVE A DAM