- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press (25 May 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0224059688
- ISBN-13: 978-0224059688
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.8 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 991,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
I was polite. I was respectably attired. Outside the temperature was 90 degrees. But still the barman at the Brabourne Stadium's Wet Wicket Bar would not serve me. Not even a glass of water to wet my wicket.
Aston Villa fan and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Football Grounds Of Britain, Simon Inglis packs his bags and embarks on a global odyssey in search of the stories behind the world's sport stadia--the legendary, the long-forgotten and the wonderfully obscure. Part-travelogue, part sporting history, part exploratory dissection of his own lifelong obsession with sports grounds,Sightlines chronicles a series of Inglis's real, imagined or remembered stadia experiences.
From Ancient Greece, through India, the Americas and Asia, to the as yet untrammelled venues of the 2000 Sidney Olympics, Inglis is a critical, though clearly devout cleric in the churches of sport. Fortunately for the reader, he never quite loses his sense of astonishment that he is making a living from pursuing what is, by his own admission, a minority interest--and his disarmingly personal and humorous outlook on his adventures makes this lighter reading than you might reasonably expect.
Highlights include his imaginary correspondence with the long-deceased Judge Roy Hofheinz-irresistible force behind the dollar monster that is the Houston Astrodome--and Inglis's observations on the commercial imperative in sport and architecture, as he wanders around this (literally) crumbling temple to modernity and greed, are typically direct and surprising.
The author is almost certainly unique in the depth of his passion for his subject, but never boring. To his credit, this book makes it easy to understand his enthusiasm. --Alex Hankin
Product Description
For the author, sports stadiums are cultural barometers. Empty or full, ultra-modern or decrepit, they offer an understanding of how fans and entire communities operate. Starting with Olympia and ending up at the venue for the 2000 Games in Sydney, he delivers a series of sporting tales.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A labour of love well worth the time.,
By
This review is from: Sightlines: A Stadium Odyssey (Hardcover)
For almost twenty years, Simon Inglis has given his all to presenting information on the stadia of the world in a manner which makes compelling reading. Sightlines is no exception. Even if you have little interest in this stadium or that, Sightlines reveals much more about the author as well as ourselves than about the stadium. It is Inglis' most personal book by far, and his descriptions of the places and people he encounters are priceless. In fact, the four chapters on his travels in Buenos Aires are worth the price of the book alone. If you are already familiar with Inglis' work, this is a must read. If not, then rest assured that no other book captures what sport means to the human race quite like this one. We can only hope that his journey through South America will ultimately lead to "The Football Grounds of South America."
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating account of stadiums and people,
By A Customer
This review is from: Sightlines: A Stadium Odyssey (Hardcover)
Simon Inglis has this wonderful ability of writing very entertaining stories about stadiums, not only of whats happening inside them, but, and here lies his main achievement, of whats happening outside them aswell. Sightlines clearly confirms this assesment. It is a very interesting, illuminating and humorous account of a series of stadiums, events and personalities in very diverse parts of the world. In many respects, Inglis recaptures the essence and spirit of the classic travel accounts written by his fellow countrymen in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. One does not only find in this book information about stadiums and specific sporting events, but also the historic and political background essencials of the societies and individuals whose lives revolve, in one way or the other, around them. This is particularly the case in the chapters dedicated to the football stadiums of Buenos Aires. In this case, Inglis can also claim the added achievement of providing argentinians with a specific type of literature that is strangely alien to them: insights and stories about the stadiums of the sport they most love.
5.0 out of 5 stars
"By their stadiums you will know them".,
This review is from: Sightlines: A Stadium Odyssey (Hardcover)
An astonishing book. I heard Simon Inglis interviewed on the radio and bought the book on that basis (and for its chapter on Wrigley Field). I haven't been able to stop talking about it since. If this is what it takes to be an anorak, sign me up.
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