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The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup | 
 enlarge | Authors: Matt Weiland, Sean Wilsey
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $1.12
You Save: $13.83 (93%)
New (41) Used (38) Collectible (4) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 385325
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0061132268
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.334668
EAN: 9780061132261
ASIN: 0061132268
Publication Date: June 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Direct From Distributor - Light Shelf Wear - Remainder Mark -
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup features original pieces by thirty-two leading writers and journalists about the thirty-two nations that have qualified for the world's greatest sporting event. In addition to all the essential information any fan needs—the complete 2006 match schedule, results from past tournaments, facts and figures about the nations, players, teams, and referees—here are essays that shine a whole new light on soccer and the world. Former Foreign Minister of Mexico Jorge G. Castaneda invites George W. Bush to watch a game. Novelist Robert Coover remembers soccer in Spain after the death of General Francisco Franco. Dave Eggers on America, and the gym teachers who kept it free from communism. Time magazine's Tokyo bureau chief Jim Frederick shows how soccer is displacing baseball in Japan. Novelist Aleksandar Hemon proves, once and for all, that sex and soccer do not mix. Novelist John Lanchester describes the indescribable: the beauty of Brazilian soccer. The New Yorker's Cressida Leyshon on Trinidad and Tobago, 750-1 underdogs. Fever Pitch author Nick Hornby on the conflicting call of club and country. Plus an afterword by Franklin Foer on the form of government most likely to win the World Cup.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Know I know why it's the World's Game March 3, 2008
I was a soccer novice until the 2006 World Cup...this book is a wonderful tribute to the event! Any American who says soccer (football to the rest of the world) is boring should read this and a whole list of other books I could name including: "Soccer Against the Enemy", "How Soccer Explains the World" and "Fever Pitch". I live in Europe now and enjoy football, live, in all its glorious passion. I have bought numerous copies of this book for friends...even those who are not soccer fans since the used copies of this book are now so inexpensive because it is dated. The writers are chosen for each country predicted to be among the final teams in the World Cup and as countries are knocked out of the competition so are the writers, much to the dismay of the editors. I'm looking forward to the edition for the 2010 World Cup...it's a creative concept that allows great writers to wax eloquently about their love of the game and their country.
 Good reading for the most part September 17, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book includes a chapter on each team that qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The chapters are written by different authors, who have some affinity for the nation. It also includes an interesting introduction and plenty of appealing statistics.
Even after the World Cup, reading this book has been enjoyable and insightful. All but a few of the chapters are entertaining and interesting and some are excellent. There are also some that are quite tedious--these go on and on about topics unrelated to soccer and are uninteresting.
I really enjoyed the chapters on some of the underdogs like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Australia, South Korea and Angola, and of course the chapter on England stands out. The good chapters make the book worth reading, for sure.
The chapter on the US is disappointing as the writer concludes with a typical liberal swipe at Pres Bush and VP Cheney. The chapter reads like it was written in full between innings at a baseball game.
I will definitely look for a similar book in four years prior to watching all of the games of the World Cup.
Day is coming. August 26, 2006
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
One day America will come to see what a great game SOCCER is.
wonderful August 12, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It was one of the most interesting book i read. It captured the country and its relationship with soccer. wonderful writers I wish I could compliment the editors and the writers . Selection of the writers was the essence of this book.
Even people who are not soccer fans would like this book .It will give themt insight into nations politics and flavour of that country.
Iloved reading it
Kiran
 Thinking Fans Guide to the World Cup July 27, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
A mediocre effort I have to say. It's a good idea in principle, but in most chapters there seems to be a tenous link between the author and the country being written about. Merely travelers who happen to have been there for a game. To get to the true soul of the country a writer from that country should have been chosen. Though it might have been hard to find a togolese writer, there is surely one writer from a newspaper that could've been found. Instead they get a Kenyan to write about Togo. That's stupid, and falls for the lazy perception that all of Sub-saharan Africa is somehow the same. It's not, there's great difference between East and West Africa. It would be like asking a Russian to give insight into the role of soccer in England. Hopefully this book just suffers from a first edition sloppiness, and hopefully the publishers put better effort for a new edition in 4 years time.
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