Since graduating from college two years ago Iíve shocked my parents and taken to reading. Growing up I hated to read, but I believe that is because it was forced reading. In the two years that Iíve been reading for pleasure, Iíve read close to 20 books and all but two of them had a common theme ó sports.

Iíve read all kinds of sports books. Iíve read about the NFLís greatest coaches in When Pride Still Mattered, the book about Vince Lombardi and Pappa Bear, the book about ìPappa Bearî George Halas, the man many credit with founding the NFL. Iíve read about baseball immortal Don Zimmer in both his books Zim; a Baseball Life and The Zen of Zim and baseball the notorious Pete Rose in My Prison Without Bars. Iíve read books about nothing else than fans and then there is the yearly compilation by The Best American Series, The Best American Sports Writing of the year.

As I read these books I started to wonder what exactly made a sports book a great sports book. I tried to compare it to movies, but I decided that wouldnít work. Even a sports fan can watch ìField of Dreams,î ìRudyî or ìHoosiersî and know itís a great sports movie. It doesnít take a football fan to know ìRudyî is a great movie or a basketball fan to appreciate ìHoosiers.î

But what about sports books?

With a movie it only takes about two hours of time to watch, and even if the movie isnít great, rarely is a movie so terrible that people wish they could have those two hours back. Books take a little more time and dedication to read.

Some books, like movies, start slowly, but unlike a movie, the book reader might put the book down to never pick it up again to finish it. At the same time most sports fans stick to books that strictly relate to the team or sports they like, but when it comes to movies theyíll watch something about another sport or team if it has the right actors.

I didnít want that to happen to me so Iím trying to spread my interest out when I choose books. I knew Zimmer has been in baseball for over 50 years so I thought I might learn something from his book. I ended up loving the book so much I bought the second one as soon as it hit the shelves. When I read Knight, My Story, Bob Knightís autobiography, I learned about much more than basketball, I learned about coaching and dedication.

Moneyball, the book about Billy Bean, the Oakland Aís general manager was one of those books where I had to keep shaking my head. There was a lot of talk of math for on base percentages and that kind of stuff, but then they talked about the personality of Billy Bean and he simply does not seem like a real person. I wonder how many ulcers the guy has.

One of the more interesting books Iíve read lately had to be The Game by Ken Dryden, the Hall of Fame Montreal Canadians goalie. It was eye opening to read of one of the greats who enjoyed the game, but unlike most pro athletes, understood there was more to life than the sport, so much so he took a year off in his prime to study law.

In my many readings, Iíve read many interesting stories and learned more than I could have bargained for.

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