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Fail Better
- Why Baseball Matters
- Narrated by: Jerry Lord
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Taking seriously the idea that baseball is a study in failure - a very successful batter manages a base hit in just three of every 10 attempts - Mark Kingwell argues that there is no better tutor of human failure's enduring significance than this strange, crooked game of base, where geometry becomes poetry.
Weaving elements of memoir, philosophical reflection, sports writing, and humour, Fail Better is an intellectual love letter to baseball by one of North America's most engaging philosophers. Kingwell illustrates complex concepts like theoretically infinite game-space, "time out of time", and the rules of civility with accessible examples drawn from the game, its history, and his own halting efforts to hit 'em where they ain't. Beyond a "Beckett meets baseball" study in failure, Kingwell crafts a thoughtful appreciation of why sports matter and how they change our vision of the world.
Never pretentious, always entertaining, Fail Better is set to be the homerun nonfiction title of the season.
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What listeners say about Fail Better
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- SgtTort
- 05-14-21
Zero to do with failing better
Unless you're a baseball fanatic that only cares about baseball and nothing else, this book is not for you. Thought the concept of failing better would be discussed - even just a little. Nada. Massive disappointment.
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- Leonard Turton
- 09-02-18
All Over The Place
This book is a real mess. But the flat drone half shout reading is so awful that maybe it wouldn't seem quite as bad if someone else was narrating.The stories many extremely boring are dropped in and out of such clumsy so called philosophical ruminations that fall out willy nilly and splat here and there like bizarre paint balls from the sky I can honestly say after skipping along hoping without hope to reach some relief point... That this is by far and away the worst book I have ever downloaded. And I never give bad reviews! And I'm a Canadian like the author. Whatever you do... Beware.