As an Arsenal fan myself this book was a must buy. Having said that it was one of the more enjoyable reads I had in a long time. Great insight into the fanatical mind of sports nuts and for anyone interested in Arsenal's history, this has it all.

Nick Hornby's autobiographical account of his trials and tribulations as a card carrying fanatic of the English Premiership football[that's soccer over here] club Arsenal.

Nick Hornby seems to have a knack for being able to capture on paper what it is like to be a guy. Some of the insights about what it is like to be an obsessive sports fan ring much too true, and Hornby manages to do this without glorifying or disparaging the home-team worshipper. I'd also recommend High Fidelity for Hornby's take on how guys view relationships.

This is, at first glance, a book about the authors lifelong obsession with football (or soccer). He traces and measures his life in relation with how Arsenal (his favourite team) happened to be playing. We follow him from a broken family, through adolescence, university and young adulthood with the only constant in his life being the love of the game and especially his team. One always gets the feeling when reading his books that he is merely writing about himself and his foibles. I haven't yet decided if this is true or just an expression of his talent, but this book is unashamedly an honest reflection of his life within a specific context. However, one is left with the feeling that he is merely laughing at the reader and I found myself squirming at passages describing situations where the correct choice to any sane person is so apparent yet to an obsessive becomes fraut with complications. As an Englishman of roughly the same age as Nick Hornby I related immensely to the individual incidents, yet I think we can all relate to the obsession.