Watching a football game or basketball match is a very popular activity – cheering for your favorite team is great, and very rewarding especially when they win. And of course, there is also the social aspect of cheering – you can get together with a group of friends or family relatives and spend a nice evening watching a game or any sports event such as the Olympics together. It bonds people and allows them to live through sports events. But sometimes it is not enough. We want to know more about the players, the clubs, and the rules of the game – we want to dig deeper and know the details. So the search begins – with news on the internet, blogs and videos and social media discussions. But we are still hungry for more! And this is when we reach out for sports-related books.
It is all about the books
Although many might think that reading books is in decline and was overthrown by watching 30s videos or listening to podcasts, it is not entirely true. The hunger for knowledge – not the shallow one including brief news with catchy headlines, but the kind of knowledge that gives us an understanding, context, reveals things. This is what people are currently looking for. So books made a comeback and their popularity has risen. Especially the ones that are non-fictional and often autobiographical. And amongst them are many sportsbooks such as My Life: Queen of the Court by Serena Williams, The Age of Football by David Goldblatt and Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike.
New genres
Besides the traditional sportsbooks such as autobiographies or topical ones talking about volleyball or boxing, there is a new genre of books that are meeting the needs of modern sports fans. We are talking about the sports betting books whose popularity has risen in 2021. This rise could be a direct result of legalizing professional sports gambling online through websites such as the betting Mr Green platform. This trend is visible across the globe – for example in the USA where they repealed the PASPA which became a gateway for individual states to introduce legislation permitting sports betting. Hence the rise of popularity in betting-themed books that share the art of sports betting.
Something for everyone
Like it was said before, sports-related books cover a wide range of topics that are written in different styles – in the first-person narrative as a memoir or resembling a journalistic report. One of the most popular sports-related books belongs to the autobiography section – for example, Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino by Paul Kimmage and also the books about football, for example, America’s Game by Michael MacCambridge that lets us see how the history of the National Football League was made, or The Blind Side by Michael Lewis which tells a story about a kid, whose only hope was football, are very popular nowadays.
Available on the go
We also can’t forget that e-books have significantly changed the way we read. Since people are commuting more than ever these days and hybrid or remote work are the standards, the idea of carrying tons of hundred-page books in a device the size of a pocket is very appealing. You can read what you want, where you want, and switch from one book to another with a push of a button. They are the perfect mix between a book and a smartphone. You don’t have to carry around these heavy books or read them online on a smartphone that is not so good for your eyes either and takes up your phone’s storage along with the battery. With modern e-books that resemble books, are water-resistant and whose battery lasts for weeks, there is no better way to enjoy a great sports-related book!
Markus lives in San Francisco, California and is the video game and audio expert on Good e-Reader! He has a huge interest in new e-readers and tablets, and gaming.