The most recommended sports books

Who picked these books? Meet our 736 experts.

736 authors created a book list connected to sports, and here are their favorite sport books.
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Book cover of Women's Sports: What Everyone Needs to Know

Wray Vamplew Author Of Games People Played: A Global History of Sports

From my list on history books to find out why sport matters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love sport. I played my last game of cricket when I was 69 and, as I approach my eightieth year, I continue to play golf, confusing my partners by switching from right to left hand when chipping and putting. I like watching sport but prefer to spectate via television rather than being there. I confess I do not fully understand American sports: I cannot fathom why a hit over the fence in baseball can score 1, 2, 3, or 4 rather than the undisputed 6 of cricket; and, while I admire the strategies of American football, I wonder why a ‘touchdown’ does not actually involve touching down.

Wray's book list on history books to find out why sport matters

Wray Vamplew Why did Wray love this book?

Another dark side of sport is the position it accords women. In this accessible (but not dumbed down) work, American academic Jaime Schultz provides an overview of how women have fared over the years. Her approach is to pose a set of questions that are answered within chapters covering, for example, occupational opportunities, sex segregation (not, I would emphasise, in my bowls team), sexualities, female health, and the media. I admire Jaime for her determination to give women’s sport its rightful place not only in sports history but in contemporary society. She also deserves kudos when, though a young scholar, she challenged my views on methodology in sports history.

By Jaime Schultz,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Women's Sports as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Although girls and women account for approximately 40 percent of all athletes in the United States, they receive only 4 percent of the total sport media coverage. SportsCenter, ESPN's flagship program, dedicates less than 2 percent of its airtime to women. Local news networks devote less than 5 percent of their programming to women's sports. Excluding Sports Illustrated's annual "Swimsuit Issue," women appear on just 4.9 percent of the magazine's
covers.

Media is a powerful indication of the culture surrounding sport in the United States. Why are women underrepresented in sports media? Sports Illustrated journalist Andy Benoit infamously remarked that…


Book cover of A Bond Undone

Alice Poon Author Of The Heavenly Sword

From my list on wuxia/xianxia fantasy books with strong-willed and free-spirited female leads.

Why am I passionate about this?

My passion for Chinese history took root when I began reading Jin Yong’s wuxia novels, which are all steeped in Chinese historical background. My fiction writing career began with historical fiction based on Chinese history. Through my earlier research work, I discovered that Chinese historians have always given short shrift to the influence of women on cultural, political, and social developments throughout the ages. That led me to decide to center my writing around inspiring Chinese female historical figures. After publishing The Green Phoenix and Tales of Ming Courtesans, I branched out to write wuxia fantasy novels, but with the same objective of featuring admirable female historical/fictional characters.

Alice's book list on wuxia/xianxia fantasy books with strong-willed and free-spirited female leads

Alice Poon Why did Alice love this book?

The carefree Lotus Huang comes into her own in this volume as she charms her way with wiles through problems and obstacles she and Guo Jing encounter as a couple, including two girls to whom Guo Jing is betrothed against his will. She is not as frivolous as she appears, and she always watches bumbling Guo Jing’s back.

This is the second English volume in Legends of the Condor Heroes, which is a popular novel by Jin Yong that I had read in Chinese as a child and which I recently re-read and still loved. I picked out this volume mainly because I adored the translation of one poetic passage describing the hallucinating “Ode to the Billowing Tide” flute melody played by Apothecary Huang. 

By Jin Yong, Gigi Chang (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Bond Undone as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Bond Undone is the second book in Jin Yong's epic Chinese classic and phenomenon Legends of Condor Heroes, published in the US for the first time!

In the Jin capital of Zhongdu, Guo Jing learns the truth of his father’s death and finds he is now betrothed, against his will, to two women. Neither of them is his sweetheart Lotus Huang.

Torn between following his heart and fulfilling his filial duty, Guo Jing journeys through the country of his parents with Lotus, encountering mysterious martial heroes and becoming drawn into the struggle for the supreme martial text, the Nine…


Book cover of Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass

David Barrie Author Of Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonders of How Animals Find Their Way

From my list on the sea and navigation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been a sailor all my life and fell in love with the art of navigation when I was crossing the Atlantic in a 35-foot yacht at the age of 19. Learning how to fix my position in the middle of a vast, featureless ocean by the light of the sun and stars was a life-changing experience. Since then I have sailed all over the world and made many long ocean passages. My book Sextant describes the crucial role that celestial navigation played in the exploration and charting of the world's oceans, and how the development of GPS is profoundly changing our relationship with the natural world.

David's book list on the sea and navigation

David Barrie Why did David love this book?

Gatty was a remarkable, pioneering aviator from Tasmania and the first person to bring the art of natural navigation to a wide audience. During the Second World War, he taught navigation to US military airmen, and wrote a guide to survival at sea that was standard issue and probably saved quite a few lives: The Raft Book. Finding Your Way (which first came out in the 1950s under the title Nature Is Your Guide), builds on that earlier work and is a mine of fascinating information and anecdotes on which I drew extensively in writing Incredible Journeys.

Gatty was a real expert and discusses how all our senses can help us find our way, even in very difficult circumstances. For example, he tells of an Inuit hunter who, paddling his kayak in thick fog, was able to find the entrance of his home fjord by listening out for…

By Harold Gatty,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


During his remarkable lifetime, Harold Gatty became one of the world's great navigators (in 1931, he and Wiley Post flew around the world in a record-breaking eight days) and, to the benefit of posterity, recorded in this book much of his accumulated knowledge about pathfinding both on land and at sea.
Applying methods used by primitive peoples and early explorers, the author shows how to determine location, study wind directions and reflections in the sky, even how to use the senses of smell and hearing to find your way in the wilderness, in a desert, in snow-covered areas, and on…


Book cover of Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Jason McGathey Author Of Riots Of Passage

From Jason's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Randomness enthusiast Endlessly energetic Outsider artist Autodidact

Jason's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Jason McGathey Why did Jason love this book?

This was another one where people from every angle had been recommending it for years... yet I resisted, thinking it didn't sound all that amazing, and I basically knew what it would be about without any need to even read it. But I finally caved in and have to admit I was totally wrong.

This was a highly engaging and informative book. Lately, I've been less into dry scientific texts and more into something closer to essays, where the author does bring some knowledge to the table but more personality as well. And this definitely fits the bill.

Many are also interpreting it as a slam on the whole "10,000 Hours" rule about becoming a master at something, and if so, I would applaud it even more because I always thought that theory was bunkum myself. 

By David Epstein,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Range as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Fascinating . . . If you're a generalist who has ever felt overshadowed by your specialist colleagues, this book is for you' - Bill Gates

The instant Sunday Times Top Ten and New York Times bestseller
Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
A Financial Times Essential Reads

A powerful argument for how to succeed in any field: develop broad interests and skills while everyone around you is rushing to specialize.

From the '10,000 hours rule' to the power of Tiger parenting, we have been taught that success in any field requires early specialization and many…


Book cover of Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes

Craig Storti Author Of The Hunt for Mount Everest

From my list on the climbing history of the Himalayas.

Why am I passionate about this?

I fell in love with the Himalayas in the 8th grade and vowed to go there one day. Eighteen years later I fell in love again, with a woman this time, who was living in Nepal. While living there I trekked extensively and read everything I could about the mountains, especially Everest. I thought it was odd that all the Everest books started in 1921, but the mountain was discovered in 1853. What took them so long? Hence my book The Hunt for Mount Everest.

Craig's book list on the climbing history of the Himalayas

Craig Storti Why did Craig love this book?

If you’re a Himalayan enthusiast, this book is a must. Heck, even if you’re not yet an enthusiast, you will be after you start reading Fallen Giants. Its sweep is magnificent, its story-telling superb. You’d think this book would get repetitive, so many mountains and so many climbs, but you’d be wrong.

By Maurice Isserman, Stewart Weaver,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fallen Giants as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The story of the world's highest peaks and the remarkable people who have sought to climb them

The first successful ascent of Mount Everest in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa teammate Tenzing Norgay is a familiar saga, but less well known are the tales of many other adventurers who also came to test their skills and courage against the world's highest and most dangerous mountains. In this lively and generously illustrated book, historians Maurice Isserman and Stewart Weaver present the first comprehensive history of Himalayan mountaineering in fifty years. They offer detailed, original accounts of the most…


Book cover of A Visitor's Guide to the Ancient Olympics

Wray Vamplew Author Of Games People Played: A Global History of Sports

From Wray's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Professor Sports economist Sports historian Cynic

Wray's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Wray Vamplew Why did Wray love this book?

Again, this is a book that I picked up second-hand. I missed it the first time around when preparing a paper on the commercialization of sport in Ancient Greece and Rome. An earlier reading would have improved my work.

Classicists, who study ancient Greece and Rome, actually come from a branch of history that embraced sport as a subject long before sports history became an accepted academic sub-discipline.

Here Neil Faulkner presents a synoptic history of Ancient Greece within a discussion of the first Olympics in the form of a travelogue. The scholarship is sound, the knowledge imparted often an eye-opener, and the presentation unique.

By Neil Faulkner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Visitor's Guide to the Ancient Olympics as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An essential book for the 21st-century citizen who seeks a lively guided tour of the ancient Greek Olympics

What was it like to attend the Olympics in 388 B.C.? Would the experience resemble Olympic festivals as we celebrate them today? This remarkable book transports us back to the heyday of the city-state and classical Greek civilization. It invites us to enter this distant, alien, but still familiar culture and discover what the Greeks did and didn't do during five thrilling days in August 2,400 years ago.

In the Olympic Stadium there were no stands, no shade-and no women allowed. Visitors…


Book cover of We Got Game! 35 Female Athletes Who Changed the World

Rochelle Melander Author Of Mightier Than the Sword: Rebels, Reformers, and Revolutionaries Who Changed the World Through Writing

From my list on anthologies for young activists.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a writer, I’ve found that learning about other writers and their processes helps me. Over the years, I’ve devoured the memoirs and letters of writers like Madeleine L’Engle, Audre Lorde, and Zora Neal Hurston. In 2006, when I started a writing program for young people in my city, I brought these writers’ words to use as writing prompts. When I researched my book, Mightier Than the Sword, I read dozens of anthologies to find people who used writing to make a difference in their fields—science, art, politics, music, and sports. I will always be grateful for those anthologies—because they broadened my knowledge and introduced me to so many interesting people.

Rochelle's book list on anthologies for young activists

Rochelle Melander Why did Rochelle love this book?

Over the years, I’ve met many young people who are more interested in sports than social studies. I was so excited to find this book—because it helps sports-minded kids see the tremendous contribution young women have made to both sports and social change. You’ll read about how these women overcame barriers, competed in challenging circumstances, and still broke records. You will also learn how they are still making a difference in the world. These multidimensional heroes help us want to be more like them! 

By Aileen Weintraub, Sarah Green (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked We Got Game! 35 Female Athletes Who Changed the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

Do you play sports? Maybe you dream about scoring a goal on the soccer field or hitting a home run in baseball. Perhaps you're thinking about trying a new sport, but you're still not sure.

In We Got Game you'll meet thirty-five female athletes who played hard, broke records, and inspired girls around the world. Some of these athletes have retired. Others are still competing. But they have one thing in common: they all got game! You'll read about the first woman horse jockey to compete in the Kentucky Derby, the number one tennis player in the world, a surfer…


Book cover of Mexican WhiteBoy

Kelly Parra Author Of Graffiti Girl

From my list on realistic, edgy, multicultural young adult fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a multicultural published author from California. I attended different schools growing up, reading classic literature that I couldn't relate to, resulting in becoming a reluctant reader. I didn't live in historical time periods. My skin was a lighter shade of brown. In my world, I met kids from diverse backgrounds, who spoke slang and had personal hardships. Where were the books like that? That's why I wrote Graffiti Girl. To share a realistic, multicultural approach so the reluctant reader could have characters they could see themselves in. That's why I chose these books, in no specific order, that share contemporary, urban stories involving people of different cultures, who face unique hardships.

Kelly's book list on realistic, edgy, multicultural young adult fiction

Kelly Parra Why did Kelly love this book?

Half Mexican baseball athlete, Danny is trying to find his place between cultural identities. The writing is straight forward and the relationships and slang are real. This book deals with friendships, family, cultural identity, and dreams. An identifiable story for readers trying to find their place in a diverse world. I loved it!

By Matt de la Peña,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mexican WhiteBoy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

Newbery Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Matt de la Peña's Mexican WhiteBoy is a story of friendship, acceptance, and the struggle to find your identity in a world of definitions.

Danny is tall and skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five mile an hour fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound, he loses it.

But at his private school, they don’t expect much else from him.…


Book cover of Break In

Shelley Peterson Author Of Jockey Girl

From my list on the horse/human connection.

Why am I passionate about this?

I saw my first horse before I could walk or talk – a humble mare with flies in her eyes and a feed basket tied to her nose. I was drawn to her with a magnetic force, and that attraction to horses never diminished. Over the years I’ve presided over their birth, raised them, and conditioned them to various disciplines. When it exists, the bond between horse and human is undeniable. In my novels—through family disfunction, hardship, adventure, and mystery – I explore how this connection gives young people confidence and the courage to overcome any obstacles.  

Shelley's book list on the horse/human connection

Shelley Peterson Why did Shelley love this book?

I’ve always enjoyed Dick Francis’s hair-raising novels about steeplechase racing, crime, and intrigue, and it was difficult to choose only one. His inside knowledge of the sport and his connection with horses makes all his novels authentic and informative. Break In features the jockey Kit Fielding, who comes to the aid of his twin sister, Holly, when her racing stable owner husband is slandered by the newspapers. Kit has a telepathic relationship with his sister, which adds to the mystique of this fast-paced adventure.

By Dick Francis,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Break In as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A thriller in which a champion steeplechaser puts himself into a perilous situation when a smear campaign in the gutter press threatens to ruin his twin sister's life.


Book cover of Sunny

Kathryn Siebel Author Of The Trouble with Twins

From Kathryn's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Teacher Author Children’s lit lover

Kathryn's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Kathryn Siebel Why did Kathryn love this book?

Sunny Lancaster is an athlete and a dancer, moving through the world to the sounds of hip hop and his own thudding feet as he runs track.

Sunny has talent, but he’s running more to honor his mother’s legacy than to pursue his own dreams. I connected with this book as a teacher and a parent because it speaks so eloquently about letting young people find themselves and honoring their vision for the future.

By Jason Reynolds,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Sunny as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

Sunny tries to shine despite his troubled past in this third novel in the critically acclaimed Track series from National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds.

Ghost. Patina. Sunny. Lu. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds, with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could take them to the state championships. They all have a lot to lose, but they all have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves. Sunny is the main character in this novel, the third of…