YOUR ALL-NEW WRESTLING BOOK THREAD

[Michael Sweetser]

Basically, if you buy Patterson's book for insight into his childhood and how he grew up and came into the business and worked as a worker, you'll love his book. If you want insight into his booking strategies and ideas or any backstage dirt on Vince and the higher-ups, you'll be greatly disappointed.

[OSJ]

3 hours ago, Michael Sweetser said:

Basically, if you buy Patterson's book for insight into his childhood and how he grew up and came into the business and worked as a worker, you'll love his book. If you want insight into his booking strategies and ideas or any backstage dirt on Vince and the higher-ups, you'll be greatly disappointed.

@Michael Sweetser:

That's pretty fair, I think the main problem is this: I could pull either a PWI 500 or DVD 500 and have 500 guys whose books would read like what you describe in your first sentence. Obviously, places and circumstances would vary, but essentially that's the formula for any sports autobiography, Now there are a few guys whose books have the potential to be so much more, and I'm not talking about sleaze thread stuff, but the unique position that Patterson held for years wherein he was almost as responsible for transforming the industry (for good or bad) as was VKM. There are any number of guys that can write a generic sports autobiography, there's only one Pat Patterson with his unique experience and that's what I was hoping to get. 

(I know as a professional writer and sometime reviewer, I should know better than to blame a book for what it isn't and instead just deal with the tome at hand, but this was a major bummer to me.)

[SorceressKnight]

1 hour ago, OSJ said:

@Michael Sweetser:

That's pretty fair, I think the main problem is this: I could pull either a PWI 500 or DVD 500 and have 500 guys whose books would read like what you describe in your first sentence. Obviously, places and circumstances would vary, but essentially that's the formula for any sports autobiography, Now there are a few guys whose books have the potential to be so much more, and I'm not talking about sleaze thread stuff, but the unique position that Patterson held for years wherein he was almost as responsible for transforming the industry (for good or bad) as was VKM. There are any number of guys that can write a generic sports autobiography, there's only one Pat Patterson with his unique experience and that's what I was hoping to get. 

(I know as a professional writer and sometime reviewer, I should know better than to blame a book for what it isn't and instead just deal with the tome at hand, but this was a major bummer to me.)

Even then, it's a good place to see what Patterson DID give in there. It wasn't as big a part of the book as there was, but at least Patterson didn't totally gloss over his time in wrestling either and seemed to know wrestling was important.

Compare it to, say, Goldust's book (where you had a relatively interesting career, and it was basically Goldust talking about his addiction struggles for years with an "oh yeah- and I did this angle"), and there was a huge difference. At least Patterson gave full chapters to his defining runs or wrestling times in between the other stuff- Goldust's was as bad as "one paragraph defined the whole Stud Stable feud that people wax poetic on here."

[Technico Support]

I'm still trying to figure out how wrestlers are like seagulls.  

[Roman]

35 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

I'm still trying to figure out how wrestlers are like seagulls.  

If I remember correctly, it's because all they do is eat, squawk and shit.

[cwoy2j]

15 hours ago, Roman said:

If I remember correctly, it's because all they do is eat, squawk and shit.

JJ said that was a Vince Sr. quote.

[SorceressKnight]

Not sure if it's fully with the spirit of these rules or not- but the FYE by my apartment broke street date and put out the WWE Book of Rules early, so I picked it up.

First warning (before even getting into the actual content: The book is FLIMSY.   Like, the way they sold it as a like a manila envelope is partially a good thing, just looking at them made me think the thing's about to fall apart in your hand with how the pages come apart from the spine. 

[Ryan]

*glances at it* Sorry, it fell apart SK.

[SorceressKnight]

23 minutes ago, Ryan said:

*glances at it* Sorry, it fell apart SK.

Don't be- maybe if it fell apart I can return the bloody thing.

I never knew how much of a mark I was until I got maybe a tenth of the way through and already thought "I now have 3 dollars to my name until tomorrow for a piece of crap like THIS?" 

It's not the worst wrestling book I read (at least there's some fun stuff to it), but it's still a "DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME".

[Tromatagon]

Ughhhhhhhhhh that fucking Goldust book

I wanted to know what it was like to do that War Games match with the Studd Stable not get all depressed and shit

[Victator]

https://www.amazon.com/Chairshot-Savage-Sports-Victor-Rodgers-ebook/dp/B01LYCH74A/ref=nav_signin?ie=UTF8&qid=1475201299&sr=8-1&

Please forgive me shilling right here. But the book is free for the next three days. Please download it. You don't have to like it, hell you can shit on it. I just want it read. 

Thank You

[NikoBaltimore]

51 minutes ago, Victator said:

https://www.amazon.com/Chairshot-Savage-Sports-Victor-Rodgers-ebook/dp/B01LYCH74A/ref=nav_signin?ie=UTF8&qid=1475201299&sr=8-1&

Please forgive me shilling right here. But the book is free for the next three days. Please download it. You don't have to like it, hell you can shit on it. I just want it read. 

Thank You

I just got it, will certainly check it out.

[Victator]

On 2/21/2017 at 4:17 PM, NikoBaltimore said:

I just got it, will certainly check it out.

Thank you, it is appreciated.

[Ryan]

Make Meltzer read it.

[Victator]

I dunno, he lifts weights. I would have to ambush him and use some high quality rope. 

[Kuetsar]

I just finished Ali vs Inoki by Josh Gross. It had a lot of good info, about the LA wrestling scene, profiles of Rikidozan, Inoki, Ali among others. But the writing was pretty clunky, some grammar mistakes, and he seemed to meanander all over the place. Constant digressions without really letting you know they are digressions, and a weird structure. I'd give it a B, and place it among the 2nd tier of wrestling books. Below the Hart, foley et al, but way above stuff like Flair's book, and that sort of thing. For the organizational stuff(which might bug only me-I've read too many good history books to accept that kind of stuff), I'd put the annoyance rate at a 2 or 3 out of 10. For context, the horrible Hornabaker NWA is at a 10 out of 10.

[mattdangerously]

That Hornabaker book is dryer than a Roderick Strong promo.

[Curt McGirt]

It's Hornbaker, not Hornabaker. Yeah that thing is a slog. Still very informative, which Roderick Strong cutting a promo or wrestling probably isn't. 

[NikoBaltimore]

I got the book when it came out, and it was so dull that if I had insomnia it would be an instant cure.  I fell asleep so many times out of boredom reading it.  I might have to pick it up from my mom's house and give it another shot, I could use some better sleep.  Good information though if you can stay awake enough to read it. 

[bobholly138]

I bought the Hornbaker book off a local guy at a show,had was selling off most of his wrestling books at 3 books for 10. "You sure you want that one,it is slow and boring as fuck." And he was right.I doubt I ever read it again. But same day got the Harley book and the Brody book. So made up for how dry the NWA book was.

[Ryan]

How many books get you wet? (Training Day/Wayne Brady reference, not sex)

[Captain Kronos]

I picked up Daniel Bryan's memoir from the library. I didn't get very far because they made this obnoxious aesthetic choice to use lengthy italicized passages at the front of the chapters, as a separate story from the chapter itself. I hate hate hate reading whole pages of italics. 

Anyone read it? Maybe I need to just get over myself. Wouldn't be the first time. 

How's the fairly recent Piper bio?  I've had my eye on that one.

[Cristobal]

Get over yourself. It's a good book. Skip those bits if you don't like them, they're not essential to the rest of the book, and you probably know most of what's in them.

[OSJ]

5 minutes ago, Kronos said:

I picked up Daniel Bryan's memoir from the library. I didn't get very far because they made this obnoxious aesthetic choice to use lengthy italicized passages at the front of the chapters, as a separate story from the chapter itself. I hate hate hate reading whole pages of italics. 

Anyone read it? Maybe I need to just get over myself. Wouldn't be the first time. 

How's the fairly recent Piper bio?  I've had my eye on that one.

The rule of good typesetting is that the reader should never notice the typesetting. What you describe is amatuer hour at best.

[Captain Kronos]

4 minutes ago, Cristobal said:

Get over yourself. It's a good book. Skip those bits if you don't like them, they're not essential to the rest of the book, and you probably know most of what's in them.

That's the kind of thing I needed to know. Thanks.