I am an avid collector of Frisbee-related memorabilia! Pictures, t-shirts, I will buy any old tat that is linked to the Frisbee. Included in that is a library of books. Some good, some less so. If your favourite is not on the list let me know (buy me a copy!) and I will happily review it – or better still review it yourself and I’ll include it in a future blog.
Over the next few weeks I’ll count down my favourite books but first up at numbers 10 and 9 we’ll start with a novel and a subversive comedic offering.
10. Huck It The ultimate novel by Bob Fenster
This is a unique book. There are not many fiction books about the Frisbee and so, if only for that reason, deserves its place in the Wabd… Top 10. Also, I cannot get hold of a hard copy – it seems to be e-book only.
Set in the recent past (1999) this is a run-of-the-mill sports underdog story. Seven college friends (Max, Molly, Klay, Sara, Denny, Finch and Emma) at the end of their education, and before embarking on adulthood, decide to take a punt at the national club championship. The trouble is that they know they need someone else to have a crack at winning so they enlist the help of Cody, an American football speedster (and reluctant ultimate player)
, who just may be their strongest link. Every sports story needs an arch nemesis and Loose Change have it in the all-conquering United. They are everything that Loose Change are not – corporate, organised, coached – they are the antithesis of our heroes.
What I love about the style is that the story unfolds as told by different members of the team. One minute you are hearing from Max, the next Molly is explaining things. Like a good game of ultimate it flows seamlessly. The description of the action on the field feels natural from an author who clearly understands the game. But it is the interaction between the characters that makes this novel zing. Read and enjoy!
9. Ultimate The greatest sport ever invented by man by Pasquale Anthony Leonard
If ultimate is, as many people argue, a subversive anti-sport, then it needs a book that reflects this. And this offering does exactly that. It takes the mickey out of itself relentlessly. It is not a po-faced, serious attempt at explaining the glories of ultimate and its popularity. In fact it does the opposite. It makes it quite clear that it fails to understand why ultimate is popular, at least to punters:
Frankly … most ultimate is boring to watch and no advertiser in their right mind would pay money to sponsor it. Ultimate is like the decathlon of modern team sports.
The closest sports to ultimate are dodgeball, American Gladiators and marbles.
It does though provide one of the best lines in frisbee writing. In comparing ultimate to other sports it states that if “(American) football is war … ultimate is civil disobedience”. I like that analogy.
When a ball dreams... 