Customer Reviews

One Love: Soccer for Life

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While recovering from the World Cup and looking for travel books, I found this 380-page volume of photographs and quotations that depict soccer around the world. Levon Biss, a British photographer, travelled to 26 countries--from Peru to Norway, from the beaches of the Canary Islands to the military fields of China, from Namibia to Virginia Beach--in search of images of people playing soccer. He found some good ones.

The quotations, which appear every 1-3 pages, come from players as well as literature. Some are well known to ardent soccer fans, such as Maradona's "Even if there was a hand, it was the hand of God" and Pele's "A penalty is a cowardly way to score", but there's even a quotation from Albert Camus: "I learned that the ball never came to you where you expected it...."

This book would make a great holiday gift for the soccer player or enthusiast. Seeing a photo of a frozen field in Norway might even inspire the player to take ball out of the closet, no matter the weather.

Great book...beautiful pictures that show the essence of this sport and quotes to go with.

I dont even know why Ive ordered this book..oh yes, id been serching for pictures on football games, on stadiums and on simple fields, pictures that would give a sensation of actualy whatching a game... but well, this book doesnt deliver it..has many random pictures, some of people playing, some of people reading or making food or cleaning seats at the stadium, painting the field, riding a bicicle passing through the goal, let me see what more..little boys in a conversation holding a ball, a man lifting weight,a woman going downstairs on a stadium, people jogguing on street, old drummers, a bus in front of a garden of roses, a fat man eating hamburgers, wait there is more, a man smoking cigarrete and a boy on the corner with a ball,a man on sunglasses taking a picture, a man in the middle of nowhere looking at sky and a shadow of a ball on the ground, the back of some goalkeeper on some place of Asia and players out of focus...well you got the picture, alas you got many pictures taken randomly, as i see..empty chairs, a man on sleepers walking on the sand, a man on the mirror playing pool, little girl throwing a ball on to the sky in front of some ruins..yep there are some pictures of people actualy playing football on the field, but they're not many though. I wouldn't even mind if the pictures were worth for their own sake, like let's say for example: a great B' n W picture of a corner with an open drawer and next to it a towell on a bent, you know just pictures taken with care and perhaps love.. but this is just a random, out of focus, and what suppose that means?

Ill see if I can get it back, I've never did send a book back so Ill see how this can be done, I really dont get why so much fuss about this book, yes there are many phrases with BIG'O LETTERS taking a whole page where a random picture should go, stuff that could go as footnotes.. very profound stuff about life and football. Some are from players but also of Sir walter scott, Che Guevara, Bob Marley, Oscar Wilde, M. Duras, and so on.... oh,yes.. the back of four man on chairs on some far-off, waching an out of focus warm up for the game. OK this is it, thanks for reading.

I bought this book in Australia with the intention of sending it to my 25 year old son who lives in Brazil. However, after flicking through the pages I just didn't want to part with it - so I sent him a copy through Amazon. The text is sufficiently dense to 'have a light read' but the photography is what is truly wonderful as well as thought provoking. I love identifying the locations, the authors of the quotes and the
'team' colours. This is a library collection book.

Mr Biss takes you in this beautiful journey around the globe with photographs that are inteligent and witty. It made me fall in love with the beautiful game all over again. This is the best photo book on soccer I've ever seen.

I saw this boook at the library and went home to order it. At a great price too. I had the book within a week. Very cool! Thank you.

Love the pictures and the quotes. Good table book for soccer fans. My husband likes it and hes is difficult to please.

My family loves soccer - and loves this book. It has beautiful photos and quotes. We've givien it as a gift to coaches.

I purchased this book for a 14 year boy. I am so thankful that I took the time to look closely at the book before I gave it as a gift. It contained some very inappropiate references to sex. I returned the book.