Posts under ‘The World is a Ball’

From the web site of Bolen Books in Victoria, B.C.

The World Is A Ball by John Doyle (release date May 2010)

Somewhere in the stack of books that the folks at Bolen Books handed me was a book on soccer; a preamble to the World Cup, by John Doyle, the TV and entertainment critic for the Globe and Mail. My earliest sporting memories are of soccer and, as a lifelong player of the game who named his boat after the 2006 Cup-winning Italian team, I was doubtful that a professional couch potato could capture the excitement and gravitas of the coming tournament in South Africa. I was wrong. So happily wrong. Continue reading

This Blog thingy exists because there’s a book coming in May 2010 – The World is a Ball: The Joy, Madness, and Meaning of Soccer, by John Doyle.

Hereabouts you’ll find Information and News about the book, links to recent Globe and Mail Television columns, and to other soccer-related Blogs and Web Sites. Possibly, too, outrageous or insightful remarks about soccer and the build-up to this year’s World Cup in South Africa. Tears and laughter, just like the book.

The books opens with a quotation – “In my childhood in a small western town, the local soccer club had the status of an illegal organization.” John Waters, Irish writer, 2002.

It also includes, early on, a description of a game that took place in 2002. At the World Cup in Korea/Japan, Ireland played Germany in a first-round game. The description includes this: Continue reading

U.S. rights to The World is a Ball: The Joy, Madness and Meaning of Soccer to John Atwood at Rodale, for release fall 2010, by The Bukowski Agency.

UK, Commonwealth, Rep. Of Ireland rights to Eoin McHugh of Transworld Ireland by Bill Hamilton of A.M. Heath for The Bukowski Agency, for publication in May 2010.

Croatian rights to Znanje D.D. for release in May 2010, by Agnieszka Zieliƒska of Graal for The Bukowski Agency.

The U.K/Commonwealth/Rep. Of Ireland edition has a revised Introduction by the author.

The Croatia edition has a Preface to the Croatia Edition by the author. Continue reading