The Football Book For Everyone

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When I started the exercise on reading every football book in the Bridgend library area I never expected to be able to recommend one that could appeal to those who loved,hated or was just plain indifferent to the sport. Forever Young by Oliver Kay proved me wrong.

Obviously a knowledge of football helps in it's reading. But the key point in this book is the universal issue, not just in football but in other walks of life as well as life itself where you have an ambition and a talent to reach the pinnacle of that ambition only to have it suddenly and irrevocably taken away.

It's the story of the life of Adrian Doherty. A young man whose talent led him from Northern Ireland to the Manchester United youth team of the early nineties alongside people around that time as Beckham. the Neville brothers and particularly Ryan Giggs (a player who he was often compared more favourably than).Why he didn't reach that level I won't spoil. Let's just say that there's no stain on his character.

If you just read an outline of his life you would have then thought that it was one of tragic decline whilst people who had equal and/or lesser talent achieved superstardom. You would have also thought that Aiden Doherty would've lived the rest of his life racked with bitterness and resentment (I know I would have been). Oliver Kay shows that this wasn't case. Partly due to a quietly resilient personality and also because he had other passions to fall back on when football was no longer an option. And to those non sporting people his post football life takes up about half of the book.

Towards it's end Kay discusses a disturbing issue with regard to why Adrian Doherty left football. Again I won't spoil things by discussing it here, suffice it to say that it deserves an answer.

And how good is the book? If I was just to say I read in a two day period and was gripped perhaps that would be enough. It's a tribute to Oliver Kay's writing and of course the hero that is Aiden Doherty.

I won't be able to go to the library again until Monday so a new non Penguin/Pelican paperback is required. The book from the great unread is:

Helene Hanff - Letter From New York

This is from a series of monthly of broadcasts that the author of 84 Charing Cross Road did for BBC's Woman's Hour in the late eighties. When I finish reading it I think I'd have finished all of her books, certainly those published in Britain.

Until the next time.

On Books Borrowed and Bought, Why Age Cymru Porthcawl Showed I Might Need New Glasses and no change from Tesco

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Today (Monday) was the first and probably only day I could borrow and buy books for the week until at least Saturday. So Porthcawl I went first to the library and then amongst other bits of shopping to buy Penguin/Pelican paperbacks with my £1 a week budget (which as nothing was bought last week meant that the princely sum of £2.10 was burning a hole in my pocket).

So let's start with the library. My first intention was to get Sam Allardyce's autobiography and chortle but for the first time since I started this reading challenge of going through all the footballing books in the Bridgend library area it wasn't there. Someone else it appears had the same idea.

The book I chose was this.

Oliver Kay - Forever Young

This is a book about Aiden Doherty. I'd never heard of him until today but it appears that he was a contemporary of Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville but with greater talent but for some reason he never achieved footballing success. This intrigued me which was the reason why I picked it.

Once that was done it was time to buy books. The plan was to spend £1 in the Porthcawl Animal Welfare Shop (PAWS) and the rest in other Charity places in the town. Therefore my paws went into PAWS first.

I bought three books for a pound there. This was the first:

John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath

I must admit that I've never read a John Steinbeck novel before (all part of the so many books so little time curse that affects every reader). But at least here is one ready to join the great unread.

In line with my occasional title of the slight hypocrite. ie someone who laughs in the face of people who buy scripts of plays etc....unless they are with a classic Penguin book spine on them the next book was:

Ibsen - Peer Gynt

Not just a play but a play in verse....can't wait.

I was pleased that I got some Pelican paperbacks. This was the one I got at PAWS.

J C Kincald - Poverty and Equality in Britain

The next group of books I got at the Tenovus Charity Shop. They were on offer at 4 for a £1. The Pelican in the mix was.

Europe Since 1870 - James Joll

What's interesting about these Pelicans was that they were both published in 1973 and yet it would appear both might be timely because of recent events. We shall see.

The next one was:

H E Bates - Love for Lydia

You may remember how I didn't like the last H E Bates book I read. The last of the Larkin quartet. We'll see if I feel any different about this. I do vaguely remember the TV series the cover refers to. But I didn't watch it.

Paul Gallico - Ludmilla & The Lonely

I've never read a Paul Gallico book although there are a number on the great unread to tackle. This joins it.

And finally...

Christopher Hibbert - Africa Explored

I was to be honest unsure whether I should buy this book in view of the sub title and its connotations. Eventually I've assumed that the title was being ironic given the attitudes of the Europeans at that time. Hope I'm right on that.

Well that means my budget until next Monday is reduced to 10p.

In between my trip to PAWS and Tenovus I went to the Age Cymru charity shop. Imagine my surprise to see no books there at all. Just a load of other stuff including old satellite TV digiboxes! I was annoyed by this and tweeted them asking why they were the first ordinary charity shop ever not to sell any books.

Their answer...and I think you know where this going...was that they did.

The Books in the Age Cymru Charity Shop Porthcawl

Now in mitigation your honour they had moved the books from where they were at the back of the shop just two weeks ago to by the shop window. Still I was guilty of shortsightedness and I have promised them that Penguin/Pelican or no Penguin/Pelican I will buy a book from the shop next time I'm in Porthcawl. It's only fair.

One last thing I won't bore you by repeating what I've written about England football figures being sold in Tesco Bridgend South WALES. Just to say it's still continuing.

Still here

Until the next time.