Read the season

That’s peak me, starting something else before I have finished my last thing. I’m always looking for the next minor challenge. My reading challenges are going well and I am getting down to the business end of both my quests to Read the World and Booker prize winners. 

I have less than 10% of the countries to go in my attempt to read a book by an author born in every country of the world. It’s getting harder and harder to find the books now however. I have also realised that I have made a few mistakes. My Great Britain turns out to have been born in Iran and My Switzerland in Greece but I will get these sorted soon enough. 

As for Booker prize winners, I have got thirteen left out of forty eight. I may even get this completed before this year’s winner is announced.

My latest challenge is related to the start of the new football season. The Scottish leagues and the Championship have already started but, after the hype of the World Cup it is the Premiership that captures my attention most and in particular, the trials and tribulations of Newcastle United.

As my contribution to the beautiful game I have set myself the challenge of reading a book by an author from every town or city that Newcastle plays against this season. There are twenty Premier League clubs and I will try and read them as and when Newcastle plays them at home. Then there are the cup competitions and the amount of books I will have to read will depend entirely upon Newcastle’s success or not. The longer the cup runs, the more books I get to read.

As ever with such a challenge, finding the books is the issue, especially when there are more than one club in a city. In this case I will try and find an author born as close to the club’s  ground as possible. 

The season starts this Sunday 23rd with a home game against Liverpool. For this I have chosen ‘Injury time’ by Beryl Bainbridge, born in Liverpool’s Allerton suburb on 21 November 1932. This match is quickly followed by West Bromwich Albion in the League Cup. For this I have chosen ‘Bedrock’, by Tom Mallin, born in West Bromwich on 14 June 1927.

Twenty odd books in forty weeks isn’t much of a challenge yet I will continue with my others. Hopefully it will give me an added dimension to the upcoming season and a distraction from the plight of my home club.