I always find it useful to balance my reading between academic and non-academic books. It may seem odd but after a day spent reading and researching on the 16th century I actually read some more to relax, everthing from biographies, crime fiction to sci-fi and fantasy.
First non-academic book I read in 2011 was ‘Pay as You Play: The True Price of Success in the Premier League Era’ by Paul Tomkins, Graeme Riley & Gary Fulcher. An informative read, where their arguments are backed up by a large amount of statistical data. The use of CTPP (Current Transfer Purchase Price) to compare the true value of teams over the era is very useful and raises some very interesting points. Notably that Arsene Wenger is the only Premiership manager to have an overall true profit in the transfer, followed closely by Rafa Benitez who operated only a marginal true loss. Would recommend the book to any football fans who, like me, possibly think about and analyse the game too much.
I have since just started reading ‘The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet’ by David Mitchell
