Kimball's The Four Kings stands out for one major reason ...he was THERE. He is the reason that some of you are familiar with the tales. Many of the other books in this thread were put together by good writers and good writers should never be confused with good boxing writers. Trust me. Get a copy of Harry Mullan's Fighting Words; Dave Anderson's In the Corner; Phil Berger's Punchlines. Men that were there and wrote from heart and knowledge and not as fans. Stick with me boys and girls. And, I nearly forgot: The Biggest Fight. Michael Watson's book. A sensational read!!!! Adios.
Johnny Nelson's book is an interesting read. Calzaghe's is a bit of a weak effort to be honest, full of bitterness and contradictions, whilst Ricky Hatton's is fairly funny but poorly written. All sportsmen should wait until they have retired before bringing out books, for a number of reasons.
I just finished reading Rope Burns, decent read. Short stories (and 1 novella) be FX Toole (ex cutman), includes the short Million Dollar Baby. Decent read
Looking for a Fight: How a Writer Took on the Boxing World - From the Inside by David Matthews (Author). It's a true story followng the journey of one man (David Matthews) who decides to cast aside the drudgery of his meaningless and unchallenging day to day existence, and began a two-year training programme so he could have one professional fight. I really enjoyed the book and at times found it quite inspirational...
Benn McCllenan book was good...............savage business or something like that Cant remeber now I bought it a few years back and read it and sold it It details everything about the fighters background and the fight Talks about when McCllenan use to live feed labroders to his pit bulls and how he drove down and killed Flamingo birds on purpose this information caused alot of outrage with the animal rights activists Any you must know what animal rights activists are like...........complete loons..............they threatened to bring harm to Frank Warren for attending a Gerald McCllenan fund raiser in London Animal activists are a bit ****** as they will nail bomb people etc and cause them harm and suffering in the name of animal rights However while I am all for treating animals with diginity Human life is more precious than animal life and they harm Human life ******s
Master of the Ring: The Extraordinary Life of Jem Mace Father of Boxing and the First Worldwide Sports Star
To OP Not sure if you like biographies but i've just finished Benny Lynch's. Also recently read Barney Ross and Emile Griffith's and would recommend all 3. Benny Lynch http://www.amazon.co.uk/Benny-Times-Fighting-Legend-Maintream/dp/1840186615/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228145977&sr=1-1 Barney Ross http://www.amazon.co.uk/Barney-Jewi...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232382729&sr=8-2 Emile Griffiths http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nine-Ten-Ou...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232382759&sr=1-1 hope those links work...
Serenity is a great book by Ralph Wiley (RIP) Also good reads are Come Out Writing (A Boxing Anthology) which is basically some of the best boxing writing comped together Iron Mike (A Mike Tyson Reader) this book has a forward by George Plimpton and is some of the best writing on Tyson. Really good read Roger Kahn - A Flame of Pure Fire is a book about Jack Dempsey and the 20's. Bit heavyweight but will keep you going for a few nights and if you stay with it it's good In the Red Corner by John Duncan is an excellent read on Cuban boxing Night Train by Nick Tosches is a good read about Liston One book I really liked is Chris Jones - Falling Hard which is about him in his rookie year as a boxing reporter Also as other posters have written Don McRaes book 'Dark Trade' and McIlvanney on boxing are both excellent
Some good suggestions here, I'll look to buy some of them. Would have recommended 4 Kings and Duran's bio but you've already them. Both excellent books. Also, I'd like to know if there are any books which cover the history of british boxing from say the bare-knuckled era to the start of the gloved era. So a history of British boxing pre Queensbury rules.
i read ken buchannas auto biography its a brillaint read. teddy atlas book is realing intresting he has a real intresting life this isnt boxing but Brian Cloughs auto biography is amazing