56 Books Like Sports Illustrated

This one scared me. Who wants to think about dying during a hiking trip?! Yet, while I’d never wanted to conquer Mount Everest, I did long to undertake other (less extreme) adventures.

Reading Jon Krakauer’s account of his Everest experience inspired me to continue to dream big about other outdoor excursions more suited to my personality. I credit this book as one reason I wasn’t afraid to start hiking and backpacking long-distance trails—mostly solo—when I was in my 50s.

I’d already bought the book when we decided to drive from our home in Sonoma, California, to visit friends who live in the San Juan Islands off the Washington Coast. I packed the book but also downloaded the Audible version. We started listening as we got on the road. I never opened the book.

It’s just a great story set in the time my parents were in high school and college. It was a world with which I was made familiar by their stories. The main character’s difficult early life resonates with anyone who has listened to the greatest generation talk about what it was like growing up during the Depression.

Yes, the action during the rowing was exciting, but I enjoyed the development of the characters, especially Joe Rantz, and his personal challenges and victories, more than all competition scenes.

I loved this book for the flavor it evokes of the early days of the game: the clowning, rough play, and inconsistent pay; the bus rides, bedbugs, and vexations of segregation. All are told in the voice of an everyman Negro Leagues player.

The conceit allows author Kadir Nelson to bring the reader closer to the feel of the times and to provide interpretations that avoid sounding pedantic: “You couldn’t change those folks’ minds anyhow. We were just a bunch of ballplayers. They were long set in their ways.” Nelson’s bold, full-page illustrations are surely the most striking feature of this book. They imbue each Negro Leaguer with unequivocal dignity; they stimulate the viewer to imagine himself there, in the stands, looking on.

There is an old adage in sports writing: the smaller the ball the better the writing. 

According to that adage, golf, with its small ball, should inspire the very best writing. I am a golfer and I have read a lot of golf books. The adage is certainly true for The Match.

The setup is that a wealthy auto dealer attending the Bing Crosby Pro-Am golf tournament in 1956 declares he has two amateur golfers working for him – Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward - who can beat any other two golfers in a match.

Another well-heeled golf fan takes the bet and shows up the next day with a team of two professionals: Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson.

Pretty good setup. The 18-hole match played on the legendary Cypress Point golf course on the Monterey Peninsula is even better.

Joe Louis was one the greatest boxers of all time and a symbol of hope for Black Americans.

Joe famously fought Nazi Germany’s representative Max Schmeling, but what isn’t widely known is that Joe Lewis fought him twice, the first time losing to him. His rematch, in 1938, united Americans against Adolf Hitler. After his victory, he enlisted in the Army, fighting twice more. By the time he retired, Joe Lewis was described as perhaps the best heavyweight fighter of all time.” 

This gifted author I have yet to meet but do hope our paths will cross before the final bell. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published over 50 novels, several plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her personal, yet insightful, view of the sport will resonate with every fan of the sweet science.

In a very British list, there has got to be something from the great American tradition. Liebling wrote for the elite New Yorker but as a New Yorker in every sense he liked to think of himself as a sort of Pierce Egan of the Bronx. So, in the heyday of American fighting, take a ringside seat at The Garden to see the fighter with a face like a worn penny, and see Jersey Joe Walcott take a fall like flour out of a chute.

When I was a little girl my only goal was to become a surgeon. And no sooner had I made it then I had to retire thanks to recurrent breast cancer.

I started answering questions and giving talks about my experiences, writing blogs and articles to feel like the doctor I used to be. But I was drained. I’d forgotten to focus on what I now wanted from life. This book was the key.

Every decision Ben made over four years was based on whether it would help him win gold in the mens’ eight at Sydney. My free time was precious and I had to start thinking that way too. Could I justify giving up my time for free to help other people if it meant not looking after myself?

Published in 1979, Anderson’s collection of columns preserves seminal sports moments, primarily from that decade. Anderson’s on-deadline work for The New York Times revisits Hank Aaron’s 715th MLB home run, which broke Babe Ruth’s all-time record. He was in the right place at the right time for an interview with Negro Leagues pitching legend Satchel Paige in 1976, a column in which the old fireballer praised Slim Jones, Bob Feller, and Dizzy Dean as the “best pitches I ever saw.” Jimmy Connors, Joe Namath, Gordie Howe, Julius Erving, and Muhammad Ali are among the icons that Anderson highlights with exceptional portraiture, capturing Howe’s career as he approaches his 50th birthday. Anderson also produces a splendid profile of Wilt Chamberlain playing volleyball.

Like many of the premier sports journalists of the post-World War II era, Anderson traveled widely and covered prominent events throughout the United States and around the… show more.

John Schulian, one of the premier American sports journalists from the 1970s to the present, has recommended The Red Smith Reader with unsparing enthusiasm: “Quite simply the most thorough collection ever of the master’s work... a joy to everyone who picks it up.” A compilation of 131 Smith columns published in 1982, the year of his death, the book showcases his literary prose, which elevated the profession. The biggest games (Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, Reggie Jackson’s three home runs on three consecutive at-bats in the 1977 Fall Classic) and individuals (Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Secretariat) are the foundation of Smith’s invaluable contributions to the understanding and appreciation of sports culture. His profiles of boxing and horse racing trainers are also exceptionally astute portraits.

Red Smith was a deadline artist, crafting timeless columns. As a fan of good writing and an admirer of his literary… show more.