Author: Mark Titus
A general storyline of sports memoirs - a person shows athletic promise, a coach/mentor recognizes the talent and motivates the athlete.
This memoir has none of it. Still the author was part of a team that played in NCAA and NIT basketball games. That's not all of it. The author wrote a successful blog `Club Trillion' and had thousands of fans cheering him wearing his log logo T-shirts towards the end of his 4-year stint at OSU as a bench warmer.
When I picked this book, I even needed help understanding the title, visually I thought he meant more like `don't write me off'. Basketball lingo -Layup, walkon is new to me.
Mark Titus describes in slow detail when he is about to take a shot in the last 15 seconds and plays mind games with the readers about how he did the shot and its outcome.
If the book is not a detailed account of turning points of the games he played during his OSU walk-on time, how moments of glory have been stolen from him, it is 'prank time' where he does not mind pulling one on anyone - coaches, teammates.
From this book, you will take home a different side of athlete unlike the industrious, practicing kind. The author descries how he fit in with the team and how he didn't. Whenever he bemoans a great loss to the team, something wrong has happened to him.
The author notes on his blog that the book is meant for 18-35 age males. Not being a part of that demographic didn't hurt the book but the writing style is not what I usually read. For all the inspiration that the sports athletes are, I now wonder about the writing style of them each.
His story of how he started the `Club Trillion' is interesting. Once he begins explaining the rules of the club membership like a pro, he knows he has arrived. His book romanticises the `truant style' of life (even if just in sports), that will work out for one in a million. Still he has a following, not just from fellow bench warmers, but from people from all walks of life - mechanics.
Similar to college dropout successes and lottery winners, his is a too good to be true story(even if for a little while), but not reproducible. But like them he amassed great funds for charity.
This memoir has none of it. Still the author was part of a team that played in NCAA and NIT basketball games. That's not all of it. The author wrote a successful blog `Club Trillion' and had thousands of fans cheering him wearing his log logo T-shirts towards the end of his 4-year stint at OSU as a bench warmer.
When I picked this book, I even needed help understanding the title, visually I thought he meant more like `don't write me off'. Basketball lingo -Layup, walkon is new to me.
Mark Titus describes in slow detail when he is about to take a shot in the last 15 seconds and plays mind games with the readers about how he did the shot and its outcome.
If the book is not a detailed account of turning points of the games he played during his OSU walk-on time, how moments of glory have been stolen from him, it is 'prank time' where he does not mind pulling one on anyone - coaches, teammates.
From this book, you will take home a different side of athlete unlike the industrious, practicing kind. The author descries how he fit in with the team and how he didn't. Whenever he bemoans a great loss to the team, something wrong has happened to him.
The author notes on his blog that the book is meant for 18-35 age males. Not being a part of that demographic didn't hurt the book but the writing style is not what I usually read. For all the inspiration that the sports athletes are, I now wonder about the writing style of them each.
His story of how he started the `Club Trillion' is interesting. Once he begins explaining the rules of the club membership like a pro, he knows he has arrived. His book romanticises the `truant style' of life (even if just in sports), that will work out for one in a million. Still he has a following, not just from fellow bench warmers, but from people from all walks of life - mechanics.
Similar to college dropout successes and lottery winners, his is a too good to be true story(even if for a little while), but not reproducible. But like them he amassed great funds for charity.
No comments:
Post a Comment