The Hodge's Book Group

[Knox_Harrington]

The Hodge likes a read. It's getting mentioned all over the show as a positive to gloss over certain things. Well I for one like it. So I'm proposing that to help occupy the same mental space as our new gaffer and to try to inject a bit of positivity into proceedings we start reading works he's acknowledged as being significant.

 

So let's get into it.

 

Book one:

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/fulham/article3897502.ece

 

Schultz by JP Donleavy

 

Get your hands on a copy here:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=schultz+donleavy&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=5531796496&ref=pd_sl_9r1cpf36i8_b

 

Shall we say July 15th for comments to begin?

Edited July 1, 2010 by Knox_Harrington

[Tosh]

How about reading them during games...

[johngibo YPC]

How about reading them during games...

 

Down negative boy, down

[Knox_Harrington]

How about reading them during games...

If you want, Tosh. Just expect some comments from 15th onwards and then we'll arrange the next text to study. Let's do four or five and then ask The Hodge himself for suggestions.

[Stevie H]

i've met roy hodgson a number of times in the public library on fulham broadway and can report that not only is he a really nice, likeable bloke but also that he has appalling taste in books. last time i saw him he was off for a long weekend in the cotswolds with mrs likeable-hodgson and he took three books out of the library - jeffrey archer's first among equals, dangerous to know by barbara taylor-bradford and also his favourite ever novel, peter benchley's the deep.

[Knox_Harrington]

i've met roy hodgson a number of times in the public library on fulham broadway and can report that not only is he a really nice, likeable bloke but also that he has appalling taste in books. last time i saw him he was off for a long weekend in the cotswolds with mrs likeable-hodgson and he took three books out of the library - jeffrey archer's first among equals, dangerous to know by barbara taylor-bradford and also his favourite ever novel, peter benchley's the deep.

You got that from When Skies Are Grey.

[Frosty Jack]

Mourinho at Inter 2009:

 

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=WoP7fbzuoD4

 

Hodgson at Inter 1999:

 

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=2hKvNoqgDX0

[sutty]

We could get george s to read out passages during the HT interval.

 

Or get the Hodge to record a passage and have it over the tannoy.

[Mike]

'the hodge'. not funny.

[Knox_Harrington]

'the hodge'. not funny.

Not meant to be. Better than Roy or Woy.

[Des]

Not meant to be. Better than Roy or Woy.

 

It's Mr Hodgson to you.

[sutty]

Not meant to be. Better than Roy or Woy.

Agreed

 

I resisted the temptation to write agweed then.

[smithdown]

Fahrenheit 451 would be more appropriate

[Knox_Harrington]

Fahrenheit 451 would be more appropriate

If it has been written by an author mentioned in an article about The Hodge or been mentioned by the man himself it's on the list. If not we need to exhaust that list and then approach The Hodge for further texts.

[smithdown]

Blow-dried f*cker has only been here five minutes and he has got us doing homework.

 

Alright then, I'm in. I'll read his barstad book.

[yellow jumper]

i'll read this.

 

also heard he's a big fan of R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury and Relato De Un Náufrago by Gabriel García Márquez

[Flight]

I'm in.

[smithdown]

If it has been written by an author mentioned in an article about The Hodge or been mentioned by the man himself it's on the list. If not we need to exhaust that list and then approach The Hodge for further texts.

 

 

see George Lee's Bradbury reference post.

 

F451 should be in. It's bang on for this shower fo sh*te.

Edited July 1, 2010 by smithdown

[johngibo YPC]

I've bought it

This is defo supporting the manager this

[Flight]

Few clues here :

 

Roy Hodgson has just finished the Philip Roth novella Indignation, the title of which might describe the Premier League's favourite emotional state. Fulham's manager admits he can lose his rag with the best of them, but has 33 years of experience in club and international coaching to help him gauge reality.

 

He has literature, too, because Fabio Capello's potential successor as England coach scours bookshops for masterpieces the way he scans the game's talent markets. Sebastian Faulks visited Fulham's training ground recently, in search of insights for a character he was creating, but it was Hodgson who demanded all the tips.

 

He takes up the story: "Birdsong was one of the best books I'd ever read. When I was at Blackburn [in 1997-98], I talked about authors I liked and mentioned Sebastian. He must have seen it and sent me his new book through the post, Charlotte Gray, which he'd autographed.

 

"That was 10 or 11 years ago. Then one day I was told that he wanted to come down to Fulham and look over the training ground, because one of the characters in his next book was a footballer. I was delighted. He invited me to the book launch and in his speech said, 'I've seen Roy Hodgson here today, I'd like to thank him, but I went to Fulham to talk to him about football and he was more interested in talking to me about books.' It's true. I kept saying – 'What about this one, what about that one?'"

 

In football, you can always find another right-back, but Hodgson's fascination for literature is such that he has exhausted many of the "greats" and may need an army of book-reviewing scouts to keep his mind stretched, away from the training ground, where he is omni-present, and Capello-like in his imposition of principles.

 

"Indignation. Very, very good, it was," he is saying. "I thought I'd read them all. Isaac Bashevis Singer and [saul] Bellow are two others. The problem I have now is that I'm always trying to find new authors, because ones like Updike and Roth and Bellow – you end up reading them all. Those people are hard to find. I found one recently: Sebastian Barry – The Secret Scripture and The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty."

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/nov/15/roy-hodgson-interview

 

 

 

And, from same article, wow :

 

Recalling the time he took over from Lawrie Sanchez, and proceeded to ship out 17 players while bringing in 13,

 

 

 

Another quote from The Hodge :

 

With a lot of activities your thoughts still drift back to football, but literature can occupy your mind. I've read most books by Milan Kundera, John Updike, Philip Roth, some of them many times. I'm now reading Homecoming (right) by Bernard Schlink.

 

http://www.ynwa.tv/forum/index.php?showtopic=149614&st=0&gopid=2658172entry2658172

Edited July 1, 2010 by Flight

[Jonesy]

I've nipped into Waterstones and read the last page. I am now qualified to speak on this subject.

[DanielS]

I read reviews of that book years ago - long before it became popular for the book to be read on this forum. I can remember reviews in various papers saying how good it is. I definitely am not confusing this book with anything similar either. Was definitely a lot of press coverage in the 80's about it and I was a fan back then.

 

I obviously can't tell you what its about or discuss it with you all now as that would only spoil it for you.

[Knox_Harrington]

f*** me, looking at that from Flight we've a lot to work through.

 

Let's crack on.

[johngibo YPC]

f*** me, looking at that from Flight we've a lot to work through.

 

Let's crack on.

 

He's done very well there Flight

We'll have to hope he does the full 3 years!

[sutty]

f*** me, looking at that from Flight we've a lot to work through.

 

Let's crack on.

We need to spread the cost here

 

Suggest that one of us buys a copy of each and then we mail them round after we have finished with them. We can write a report on each book then at the end of the cycle compare it

 

Or we could not bother

Edited July 1, 2010 by sutty