[Books] Bad Motorsport Books

[Roadtonowhere]

I have tried to trawl the web to find a list of books to avoid in Motorsport. Unfortunatley to my later regret I have made some unfortunate purchases ie. The Life of Senna by Mr Rubython.

I thought that there should be a thread set up so others don't make the same mistakes. So I ask you fellow motorsport fans to list the howlers of the Motorsport book world

Roadtonowhere

[serrity]

It's not a total howler, but I was very disappointed with 'The Complete Book of the World Rally Championship.' Very little in-depth insight and an awful lot of filler. The driver bios are pretty good but the manufacturer profiles are too short and the events section was a bit pathetic. You might expect some background story about how the event came to be added to the WRC, memorable moments from the event over the years, etc, but there's just a single large photo of a car competing on the event and a list of what years it formed part of the WRC. The book ends up repeating itself a lot, with the same information given in a variety of statistical tables.

(it wasn't written by Carlos Sainz as in the Amazon link above, he just wrote the foreword)

[Craner Curves]

Dario Speedwagon - The Rise Of A Champion.

A biography of Dario Franchitti by a journalist who knew him in his early days and that was fairly interesting, but as the story goes to the USA, it becomes more like a load of reprinted press releases, praising the "guys at Team Kool Green". I can't even bring myself to finish it.

[ensign14]

Avoid almost anything with "Complete" or "Ultimate" in the title.

Avoid any biography of a driver that's still competing.

Avoid 95% of US books on NASCAR which are semi-vanity publications. OK if you want 200 glossy photos of Dale Earnhardt Jr looking very very very slightly different.

Avoid those quasi-pornographic portraits of Jacques Villeneuve and TGF.

Avoid Ben Hunt.

[Andy77]

Avoid almost anything with the words "extra edition & special edition" except you want to pay extra for a second cover or an autograph. Even leather covered books shouldnt cost 100 euro more just because they are leather covered. Famous for this kind of thing are Porsche books although I saw some Velocity books recently too.
There is most usually a cheap or common edition. I don't feel that there are truly bad books either except bad translations maybe. You can always take a little bit from not so good books and if it is just the odd records table at the end or some photos you haven't seen yet.

[ensign14]

Trouble is, the special editions often go through the roof pricewise. "Time And Two Seats" is a classic example. Which might be useful in recessionary times...

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by ensign14

Avoid any biography of a driver that's still competing.

I agree, though I did purchase Driving Ambition by Alan Jones and Keith Botsford on Saturday from Barter Books in Alnwick, simply because I never knew it existed. I've not read it yet, so can't really comment, but it was written during his career.

As for bad books, I found Jackie Stewart: A Restless Life by Timothy Collings very dull and impossible to get through (after two or three attempts). I've also found The Lost Generation very hard to get into, even though it seems very highly regarded. I may give it another attempt shortly.

[Knowlesy]

The Rubython book on Senna is an absolute howler. When I first moved down here and had not a great deal of cash initilly, I picked up cheap books. Got the Senna one for a fiver. I knew it'd be bad, it's Tom Rubython, but it really was far beyond my predictions.

One of those books where you are constantly correcting mistakes in your head and yawning at the sheer bias and general dreeriness of it. And it's so frickin' long!

[gary396]

Originally Posted by Super Hans

....I've also found The Lost Generation very hard to get into, even though it seems very highly regarded. I may give it another attempt shortly.

That's interesting - that book is 'next in line' for me to read (got it a few months ago as a pressie) and have been looking forward to it. Just need to finish reading 'Whizzo' first!

[ensign14]

Originally Posted by Super Hans

I agree, though I did purchase Driving Ambition by Alan Jones and Keith Botsford on Saturday from Barter Books in Alnwick, simply because I never knew it existed. I've not read it yet, so can't really comment, but it was written during his career.

Only just, it was 1981ish so not much missed out; the book can be summarized by the sentence "Alan Jones is the greatest human being that has ever lived, if you don't think so just ask him".

Originally Posted by Super Hans

I've also found The Lost Generation very hard to get into, even though it seems very highly regarded. I may give it another attempt shortly.

The only difficulty I had with that one was knowing the ending... I think it's quite brilliant, similar to Tremayne's earlier potboiler on racing heroes.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by gary396

That's interesting - that book is 'next in line' for me to read (got it a few months ago as a pressie) and have been looking forward to it. Just need to finish reading 'Whizzo' first!

Hi Gary, I was giver 'Whizzo' as a Christmas present from my wife ("it's about a racing driver, but I've never heard of him, I hope you have!"), and found it most entertaining, and could hear the old boy relating the tales as I read them. In fact I rationed my reading so I didn't finish it too quickly!

[Roadtonowhere]

I picked up 2 books recentley from a bookshop that was closing for £1 each

The first was :
Rapid Response by Dr Stephen Olvey
Driven Man by Alan Jones

I've heard nothing but good reports on the first but I'm curious to what others think of the latter

[Steven Humphrey]

I got given Lewis hamilton's 'autobiography' as a present (released after his first year in F1). Dreadful-the whole thing could have been condensed to about 20 pages, the rest was just 'I couldn't have done it without my team/dad/family/fans' etc, etc, etc for page after page. Luckily I also got Jackie Stewarts 'winning is not enough' which I thought was excellent.

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by Roadtonowhere

Rapid Response by Dr Stephen Olvey

I enjoyed this immensely. Dr Olvey has the same sort of dry, gallows humour as that other famous racing medic, Prof. Sid Watkins. More than worth a quid.

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by arnage arnie

......... Luckily I also got Jackie Stewarts 'winning is not enough' which I thought was excellent.

Now I really struggled with that, gave up halfway through when I finally tired of his incessant name-dropping, plus I could hear his constant whining voice inside my head as I read the words.

[Knowlesy]

I loved it.

A lot of people moaned about the book when he starts on about his post driving career, but I found it quite fascinating.

[jab]

Yeah, though in hindsight, probably not the best thing to do to heavily praise Sir Fred Goodwin...

Rubython was who I thought with when I saw the thread title. I've not read his Senna book because I've been told to steer clear

Lost Gen's great, though. I also liked the Complete WRC book but mainly because you very rarely see any proper books on the WRC, but it is a bit thin in places

All the F1 encyclopaedia books today are pretty much telling the same story with a few different words. I've got a few but I've stopped buying now - no point

There's definitely a gap in the market for more in-depth season reviews of the past and stuff like that. I know there is one for 1982 and there's the Senna/Prost book out but there aren't any retrospective studies of F1 in general for previous years or eras (and I'm not talking 60s - I mean after that). All of the books out there now tend to either be biographies of a select few big names, a smattering of non-big name biogs and current era reviews and previews

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

A lot of people moaned about the book when he starts on about his post driving career, but I found it quite fascinating.

People who enjoyed the post-driving-career part of Winning Is Not Enough also bought:

[Knowlesy]

Not read it mate, soz. x

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Not read it mate, soz. x

It'll add value to any bookshelf.

[Roadtonowhere]

But after reading that awful Life of Senna book. I was glad to have Ayrton Senna: As Time Goes By by the infamous Christopher Hilton although not perfect it is still better IMO

[ensign14]

The only Senna book worth reading is one of the shortest, Richard Williams' "The Death Of Ayrton Senna". Nobody has done him, or, come to that, Prost, justice.

[Knowlesy]

Yeah that is OK.

I quite enjoyed As Time Goes By, but I was only 14 when I read it I think so it may not be so good!

[mountainstar]

Mostly I've always been disappointed with Christopher Hilton's books. A lot of 2nd hand info, lots of words but no red meat substance overall.

There was one of his I read "The mind of the grand prix driver"(something like that) and most of the substance was a few interviews with guys like Julian Bailey and the rest being 2nd hand quotes. Somewhat interesting but really lacking. Glad I picked it up for $1.00 used. Full price and I would have lost it.

[Knowlesy]

Yeah I must admit I have never enjoyed any other Hilton books and haven't bought any for many years now. Which makes me think ATGB was actually a duffer, but I am not inclined to re-read it to find out!