An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
Tis the season for recommending thoughtful gifts for tennis players. Today we will consider the three books that every tennis player should own, rather than read. A book that is a “must read” can usually be cast aside after initial consumption. The books that should be owned are those which get re-read and consulted over time. They are enduring.
Tennis Hits the Books With all the craziness of 2020, Thanksgiving is the perfect time to remember all the things that we have to beRead More
I have been reading Warren F. Kimball’s book The United States Tennis Association: Raising the Game almost all year. It has been an invaluable resource for me as I have explored the purpose and culture of the USTA. This book has frequently been listed in my resources/citations section of my posts. It is a fabulous account of the early history of the USTA and the development of tennis in the United States.
I have to confess that Late to the Ball: A Journey into Tennis and Aging was undoubtedly an influence on my conscious thought when this site was launched. I first read this book back in 2017, shortly after it was initially published. My initial journey through Late to the Ball at that time invoked a mixture of awe, annoyance, and jealously.
The fact that I am writing about Loving the Battle by Mark Tjia this week is an unanticipated side effect of the review I posted last week. Last week’s selection remains a mystery, and I continue to decline to name either the book or the author since my comments were less than flattering. That omission triggered a couple of guesses as to the identity of the book. One of the guesses started “Surely you don’t mean Loving the Battle…”
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I am pre-disposed to like tennis books. I usually manage to find some redeeming value in every tennis book that I read. For the first time in my life, I have encountered a book that breaks that generalization. I would assign it one star on an amazon review, but only because there is no option for zero stars. It is that bad.
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In late 2018 and early 2019 Julie Heldman appeared on a couple of podcasts that I regularly listen to. She was promoting her new book, Driven: A Daughter’s Odyssey. Julie Heldman is the daughter of Gladys Heldman, the promotor who drove the inception of the women’s professional tennis tour. Julie Heldman herself also played on the tour that her mother created.
The Fiend at Court spousal unit gave me a really thoughtful birthday gift this year. Per the usual, I asked him if he wanted to know what he was getting me in advance of the date or if he preferred to be surprised this year. It is a very workable solution for the apparent fact that I am hard to shop for.
Live the Best Story of Your Life: A World Champion’s Guide to Lasting Change is a book by Bob Litwin that haunted my nightstand at the top of my “next to read” pile for well over a year. I have been simultaneously highly interested in this book, and yet also somewhat ambivalent about the book during this timeframe. In retrospect, I wish I could have mastered the mood to dive into it earlier.
I eagerly anticipated the recent release of Steve Flink’s biography of Pete Sampras. It is not exactly a “hot take” to say that Sampras is the greatest male American player of all time. It is not even close. His fourteen grand slam championships tower above the 8 won by both Jimmy Connors and Andre Agassi. He was ranked #1 in the world for an astonishing six consecutive years.