Biographies. Why bother?

[Lush]

Looking at the "What are you reading...?" thread, a lot of people read biographies/autobiographies - yet an awful lot of people seem to be disappointed by them.

Is it that celebrities aren't actually that interesting? Especially people like footballers/pop stars? It it that surprising? Even if someone has led quite an interesting life I get a bit tired of hearing about it after a while. It's like a monologue on the ever fascinating subject of themselves.

Do people buy biographies because they don't know what to read - so they think well I like the celebrity, I might like the book? It's an easy option in the bookshop.

Have you ever read a biography more than once?

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

Looking at the "What are you reading...?" thread, a lot of people read biographies/autobiographies - yet an awful lot of people seem to be disappointed by them.

Is it that celebrities aren't actually that interesting? Especially people like footballers/pop stars? It it that surprising? Even if someone has led quite an interesting life I get a bit tired of hearing about it after a while. It's like a monologue on the ever fascinating subject of themselves.

Do people buy biographies because they don't know what to read - so they think well I like the celebrity, I might like the book? It's an easy option in the bookshop.

Have you ever read a biography more than once?

Ive read a few of them a couple of times. Barry Fry's is a brilliant read

 

[Woodchip]

Ken Tyrell's Biography was great, Murray Walkers Autobiography was shit. "Life on the Limit", and "Beyond the Limit" by Professor Sid Watkins are both great reads and are basically autobographies.

I can't see anything exciting in reading a biography about Jordan, I think Roy Keane's would be a good read though.

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

Ken Tyrell's Biography was great, Murray Walkers Autobiography was shit. "Life on the Limit", and "Beyond the Limit" by Professor Sid Watkins are both great reads and are basically autobographies.

I can't see anything exciting in reading a biography about Jordan, I think Roy Keane's would be a good read though.

Jordan's wasnt actually that bad. Not a classic, but a good holiday read

 

[Man of Harveys]

Sports ones are nearly always unexceptional rubbish - I'm struggling to think of a decent one. Even the Lance Armstrong one was a bit shit - bit strange that he left out the drug-taking, and made a cancer victim seem like an arrogant arsehole. Honourable mention though to Simon Hughes' fantastic Bit Of Hard Yakka, because it takes healthy amounts of proper intelligence and wit - and look no further than Clive James' ongoing magestic set of biographies for that - to make the relative mundanity of someone's life be of interest to others.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Well I think autobiographies are a great read if its interesting people who have lived insteresting lives.

But these twats like Rooney, Gerrard, Lamps etc, f*** me so you have played a few seasons in the prem league and won a cuple of tin pots. Great.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Sports ones are nearly always unexceptional rubbish - I'm struggling to think of a decent one. Even the Lance Armstrong one was a bit shit - bit strange that he left out the drug-taking, and made a cancer victim seem like an arrogant arsehole. Honourable mention though to Simon Hughes' fantastic Bit Of Hard Yakka, because it takes healthy amounts of proper intelligence and wit - and look no further than Clive James' ongoing magestic set of biographies for that - to make the relative mundanity of someone's life be of interest to others.

Simon Hughes book was good because it was different, he necer played for England so it was about the life of a county cricket player rather than an International player.
I keep meaning to read All I Want For Christmas as it will be along the same lines albeit about football rather than cricket.

The only Football books that have really been any good in my view are Keane's, Ginola's, David Seamans and Alex Fergursons.

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

There are very few sports biographies/"auto"biographies that are any good. They just make a lot of money as Christmas/birthday presents, I reckon.

The only one I've read in years was Mike Atherton's, which was jolly interesting, and -- because he's obscenely clever -- very well written.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Athertons was rather good on second thoughts.

 

[Ding Dong !]

I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone out there would want to read, Wayne Rooney, Coleen Mcloughlin ( sp ) Rio Ferdinand etc, etc, biographies.

These people have not lived, or achieved anything of interest and how they can bring out a book about their lives is just beyond me.

 

[Fourteenth Eye]

Both of Garry Nelsons were brilliant but then we had a vested interest in those. Tony Aams book was superb also.

David Lee Roth's autobiography i have never got bored with & have read it several times & im about to Read Lemmy's again

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone out there would want to read, Wayne Rooney, Coleen Mcloughlin ( sp ) Rio Ferdinand etc, etc, biographies.

These people have not lived, or achieved anything of interest and how they can bring out a book about their lives is just beyond me.

Totally agree - biogs I have enjoyed though include Mandela, Robbie Fowler, Alan Mullery and Michael J Fox.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

English literature at it's very best and it is criminal that this is not a study book on the A-Level syllabus. This should be read worldwide!

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Toast by Nigel Slater is very good. I will probably read it again.

 

[Tesco in Disguise]

only after i have read the complete works of shakespeare, dickens and chaucer will i pick up a biography. lumpen.

 

[Rusthall Seagull]

Down the Highway - Bob Dylan, by Howard Sounes is a cracking read

 

[Kylies Stunt Arse]

Toast by Nigel Slater is very good. I will probably read it again.

I didn't enjoy that very much. A lot of it seemed to be about unburdening himself with the various different child abuse/homosexual behaviour he enountered in his early life, same as one of Clive James' books. Personally I didn't particularly enjoy reading about those episodes and felt that the way they were portrayed was a bit wrong. Just my opinion of course.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

English literature at it's very best and it is criminal that this is not a study book on the A-Level syllabus. This should be read worldwide!

BoF - I presume that was ghost written, I doubt she could spell her name right

 

[Meade's Ball]

I'm with TiD. I can think of nothing more dreary than the factuality of people's lives. Humans endlessly referring to the tuneless habituality of their droning existences, none that seem so extraordinarily different to mine, fail to please me. I much prefer to switch off from the stale constants of celebrities and swill-mouthed footballers when a book approaches my hand. That doesn't mean only reading of 8-legged trolls in outer spaces as it's impossible to work without the manouvreing of "truth" at a story's wicker foundings. But real people and real people programmes remind me of nothing but the sour perception i usually carry.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Have you ever read a biography more than once?

Hell yeah! I've read some three times. Stuff like 'Donnie Brasco' or Jon Krakauers 'Into Thin Air' or 'Midnight Express' by Billy Hayes I can re-read every year.