What I’ve read
I’ve just finished Andre Agassi’s autobiography: Open A fascinating insight to the world of a unique tennis champion, the best anti-sports autobiography I’ve read…
Book Description: "No one ever asked me if I wanted to play tennis," Agassi writes, "let alone make it my life." In OPEN, he recalls for the first time a childhood without choices. Forced to embrace tennis, banished to a brutal tennis camp while still in grade school, catapulted to fame while still in his teens, Agassi grew up feeling isolated, alienated, detached. In OPEN he tells how he reconnected, how he overcame his fears, fought through his loneliness, found strength and purpose in the decision to devote his life to others-and in the love of one extraordinary woman.
Agassi writes with uncommon candor about his father, his family, his best friends and first loves. He recounts the intimate details of his doomed marriage to Brooke Shields. He describes the grind of championship tennis, the physical toll and greater mental toll. He recalls his most painful moments in the arena-humiliating defeats, career-threatening injuries, ridicule from fans and media-but celebrates the maturity to which they all led. He also puts his fellow players, including legendary greats, under the microscope of his astounding memory. With precision and grace he recalls their quirks, gifts, foibles, and the demons with which they often struggled.
Several people recommended the book to me and prompted me to read this Book review, which made me instantly order a copy!
What I’ve heard
A podcast with Derek Sivers (as an aside he also has a great 3 minute Ted Talk), he mentioned his favourite fable. Not sure I have a favourite fable, but maybe now…
What I’ve seen
The Netflix documentary Icarus. It starts as a documentary following an amateur cyclist who aims to take the same steroid regimen as Lance Armstrong to show the impact on performance and how easy it is to beat the testers. But inadvertently they blow the lid off of Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program.