Carl Bialik and I are kicking off a new feature on the Tennis Abstract Podcast: a monthly* book club featuring various classics and curiosities in the game’s literature.
* probably
Our first selection is A Handful of Summers, by Gordon Forbes. Forbes, who died last week, was a long-time tour player from South Africa, and his book is widely considered to be among the best tennis memoirs. Here’s Steve Tignor raving about it.
We’re still working out exactly what it means to have a podcast book club, so feel free to make suggestions. At minimum, we hope you will:
- read along with us;
- send us questions, comments, and the like via Twitter;
- listen to the resulting episode in mid-January.
Our list of future book selections is already spiraling out of control, but we also welcome tips for future picks.
Those of you who are interested in the literary and historical aspects of the sport will find plenty to enjoy in the archives of our podcasts. I’ve spoken with three authors this month (ep 85 on World Team Tennis; ep 87 on Lottie Dod; ep 88 on A People’s History of Tennis) and Carl has been interviewing writers for years (such as Peter Underwood and Julie Heldman, to link just two).
We’ll have our discussion of A Handful of Summers on the podcast in about a month, so you have plenty of time to read the book. At that time, we’ll also announce the next selection.
Happy reading!