Book Reviews: The Book of Basketball and Open

Last year I had several inquires from my family about presents I'd want for my birthday. They all knew that I loved sports and am a huge fan of biographies. Naturally, I got clothes and bath towels (actually I can't even remember what I got last year). Fast forward to the past month.

Rather than buying me presents, everyone was smart and gave me amazon gift cards. I've fallen in love with the Kindle app for the iPad over the past few months and the gift cards gave me the choice of several new books to read with the Kindle app. Even though I was a year late on both books, I bought The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons, and Open by Andre Agassi. I've waited a long time to read each of these sports tales and I couldn't wait.

The Book of Basketball is just that, a 700+ epic on the sport I love. I have to say I'm a huge fan of Bill Simmons. It's not just because he's a Red Sox junkie, a Larry Bird disciple, and a Reality TV nerd. He's a good writer. In this book he explores the history of the NBA. There were so many facts about players I'd heard of, but never watched. It was amazing.

Two key parts of the book that made it a must read for me. The Pyramid - Bill's attempt to rate the 96 greatest basketball players of all time. Let's just say he's realistic and brutally honest about several guys that are dear to my heart (Jazz fans may not like his comments about Stockton and Malone). No, Larry Bird did not rank #1. The other major component of the book is a breakdown of the 10 best teams of the past 30 years. My favorite team of all time ranked pretty high.

I loved the book.

Couldn't put it down.

Want to read parts of it again.

I guess it doesn't get any better than that.

The second book I read on the Kindle app was Open by Andre Agassi. There was so much buzz about this book a year ago when Agassi opened up about his life. It included scandals with drugs. Stories about women. Even a great shocker about best mullet of the late 80's/early 90's.

I have always been a fan of Andre Agassi and this book cemented him as one of my all time favorites. To think the guy was one of the 20 best players of all time and he hated tennis. It was incredible to read the story of a man who lived his life for those around him. Even with millions of dollars and global fame it astounded me how unhappy a man can be. The interesting thing about the book is Agassi wasn't asking for pity or sympathy. He was simply being OPEN and sharing the man no one really knew.

The best thing I can say about this book - I started it on Sunday and finished it on Thursday, at 3 am. I couldn't get enough.

Even though it was a year late, I couldn't have asked for better presents this time around. The Book of Basketball and Open - big praise from a sports junkie.