A wild and wacky journey inside the world of sports settles dozens of long-standing sporting debates as it answers such burning questions as Are pro golfers good at miniature golf? Would an all-midget baseball lineup be unstoppable? and How much of a head start would the average Joe need to beat an Olympic sprinter? Original. 40,000 first printing.

A burned out basketball coach takes a job in Ireland and is surprised by what he finds.

The world’s best tennis drill book returns—bigger, better, and more comprehensive than ever. Building on the strengths of the popular first edition, this second edition of The Tennis Drill Book includes more drills, expert instruction, advice, and analysis for today’s players and coaches. The Tennis Drill Book is your complete collection of drills, games, and tips for improving stroke technique, match strategy, and everything in between. Inside you will find • progressive technique drills for mastering every stroke and shot combination; • tactics drills for winning with aggressive or defensive strategies in every game situation; • mental training drills for staying focused when the pressure is on; • warm-up, cool-down, and conditioning drills for increasing speed, agility, and endurance; and • game-based drills that simulate singles and doubles match play. With insights, recommendations, and performance tips from teaching pro and former WTA player Tina Hoskins-Burney and veteran coach Lex Carrington (coach to Vera Zvonareva), The Tennis Drill Book is an essential reference that belongs in every tennis library.

The diary and essays of Brian Eno republished twenty-five years on with a new introduction by the artist in a beautiful hardback edition.'One of the seminal books about music . . . an invaluable insight into the mind and working practices of one of the industry's undeniable geniuses.'GUARDIANAt the end of 1994, Brian Eno resolved to keep a diary. His plans to go to the cinema, theatre and galleries fell quickly to the wayside. What he did do - and write - however, was astonishing: ruminations on his collaborative work with David Bowie, U2, James and Jah Wobble, interspersed with correspondence and essays dating back to 1978. These 'appendices' covered topics from the generative and ambient music Eno pioneered to what he believed the role of an artist and their art to be, alongside adroit commentary on quotidian tribulations and happenings around the world.This beautiful 25th-anniversary hardcover edition has been redesigned in the same size as the diary that eventually became this book. It features two ribbons, pink paper delineating the appendices (matching the original edition) and a two-tone paper-over-board cover, which pays homage to the original design.An intimate insight into one of the most influential creative artists of our time, A Year with Swollen Appendices is an essential classic.

One of America’s leading humorists and author of the bestseller Closing Time examines his own obsession with books Joe Queenan became a voracious reader as a means of escape from a joyless childhood in a Philadelphia housing project. In the years since then he has dedicated himself to an assortment of idiosyncratic reading challenges: spending a year reading only short books, spending a year reading books he always suspected he would hate, spending a year reading books he picked with his eyes closed. In One for the Books, Queenan tries to come to terms with his own eccentric reading style—how many more books will he have time to read in his lifetime? Why does he refuse to read books hailed by reviewers as “astonishing”? Why does he refuse to lend out books? Will he ever buy an e-book? Why does he habitually read thirty to forty books simultaneously? Why are there so many people to whom the above questions do not even matter—and what do they read? Acerbically funny yet passionate and oddly affectionate, One for the Books is a reading experience that true book lovers will find unforgettable.

Welcome to the hidden and lucrative world of tennis trading. Brad Hutchins has been living a young bloke's dream: being paid to watch sport. The 27-year-old Australian was employed by a secret gambling syndicate to follow the pro tennis circuit as a sports trader, using his mobile phone to relay results and beat online gamblers to the big pay-offs. His stories from the road would make anyone jealous: watching the world's best tennis players and partying in a new country every week, with cash to burn and no strings attached. But like card counters in casinos, sports traders are despised by the tennis establishment. The more time Brad spends courtside, the harder it becomes for him to evade the security guards who are hell-bent on ejecting him from the game. Game, Set, Cash! will appeal to anyone who loves scallywag stories in the spirit of The Wolf of Wall Street or Paul Carter's Don't Tell Mum I Work On the Rigs. 'A terrific read, and not just another 'racket'. Hutchins shines!' - Paul Carter, author of Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs: She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse.

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest tennis player ever, a man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented number one world ranking for 286 weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible a record-setting fourteen Grand Slam titles. While his more vocal rivals sometimes grabbed the headlines, Pete always preferred to let his racket do the talking. Until now. In A Champion’s Mind, the tennis great who so often exhibited visible discomfort with letting people “inside his head” finally opens up. An athletic prodigy, Pete resolved from his earliest playing days never to let anything get in the way of his love for the game. But while this single-minded determination led to tennis domination, success didn’t come without a price. The constant pressure of competing on the world’s biggest stage—in the unblinking eye of a media machine hungry for more than mere athletic greatness—took its toll. Here for the first time Pete speaks freely about what it was like to possess what he calls “the Gift.” He writes about the personal trials he faced—including the death of a longtime coach and confidant—and the struggles he gutted his way through while being seemingly on top of the world. Among the book’s most riveting scenes are an early devastating loss to Stefan Edberg that led Pete to make a monastic commitment to delivering on his natural talent; a grueling, four-hour-plus match against Alex Corretja during which Pete became seriously ill; fierce on-court battles with rival and friend Andre Agassi; and the triumphant last match of Pete’s career at the finals of the 2002 U.S. Open. In A Champion’s Mind, one of the most revered, successful, and intensely private players in the history of tennis offers an intimate look at the life of an elite athlete.