To be fair, I don't suppose I'm the intended audience for this book. I like football, I take great pleasure in a good match, but I'm not what you'd call a fan.
I enjoyed some of the stories in this collection, I liked the nostalgic flavour, but it all got quite repetitive after a while, and I honestly couldn't care less about the lists of names and matches and scores of the seasons covered.

A quick read - several short autobiographical tales by male authors/journalists (mainly) focussing on their experiences as a football supporter. There's a decent range of teams covered - from international to non-league - and stories from the 1960s to the 1990s. There is a quirky added pleasure due to the book having written in 1993.. Chelsea before they were so good, Leeds before they were so crap.

However, the problem is that there isn't much breadth in the style. It's blokes talking about football in a rose-tinted nostalgic and occasionally humourous way, with the sense most of the reminiscing is personal to thise concerned. Additionally, most chapters were a bit similar, having been written separately. There's only so many ways you can say "When I was young I wasn't allowed to stay up for late games, my Dad told me the score at breakfast.." or "I collected football memorabilia when I was young".

Take my whole life too...
Partiamo dal presupposto che io adoro Hornby come autore.
A settembre, al ritorno dalle vacanze estive, mi sono trovato in libreria e ho acquistato ad occhi chiusi questo libro pensando fosse un romanzo simile a "Febbre a 90" dello stesso autore.
Oggi è Dicembre e ci sono voluti 3 mesi per "finire" questo libro. Perchè?
Perchè è una raccolta di 12 racconti o più sul calcio. Tutti quanti sul calcio inglese. Tutti quanti sulle serie minori. Ripetitivi e tedianti.
Dov'è Nick Hornby? In un racconto di 12 pagine (pessimo tra l'altro)
SOFFERENZA!
"Illusioni di grandeur" di Olly Wicken e "L'anno d'oro" di Chris Pierson sono gli unici due racconti simpatici che raggiungono la mediocrità..

A great compilation brought together by Mr Fever Pitch to explain to readers why football isn't just two groups of people fighting in the stands and streets.

A reasonable collection of 'New' (ie, highly personal) football journalism, each story the review, more or less, of one year in the life of that supporter and his team. Some of the contributions were interesting, though none really stood out as prime examples of the craft.

This is a great read for anyone who loves football. Several well-known writers discuss their favourite teams' most memorable football seasons. Nick Hornby's hilarious story about Cambridge United's losing streak is great, but my favourite has to be Roddy Doyle's account of his "heroic" trip to the toilet that led to Ireland scoring a vital goal against England. The one about Watford is amazing too!

Some stories more enjoyable than others but I understand where all these men are coming from. It would probably be better if you are British...

Well written entries. But few age well.

If you love football, soccer to North Americans, this colourful and passionate embrace of the game will warm your senses & make you laugh & cheer for the underdogs who exist everywhere!

Chapters in the lives of ardent football fans are interesting to read if you're a fan yourself. It's comforting to know that you're not the only person prepared to stand in the rain watching eleven people kick a ball around, that you're not the only person who wouldn't trade his first born to be one of those eleven and that you're not the only person whose Sunday mood depends on what happens on the Saturday.

However, as one of the writers commented, it's not as interesting if it's not your club you're reading about, which is why this is only getting 4 stars.

Random thoughts about My Favorite Year: A Collection of Football Writing, edited by Nick Hornby:

Provenance: Purchased at thriftbooks.com after my wife discovered the site. She needed to add to her order to qualify for free shipping, so I sucked it up and forced myself to order two books.

Expectations: Hornby wrote Fever Pitch, which most people know from the movie about fans of the Boston Red Sox. Hornby’s book is about his time following Arsenal, the Boston Red Sox of England’s soccer leagues. Since Hornby is a rabid soccer fan, and having read and enjoyed several of his other books, I had high expectations for this.

The Story: Thirteen writers select their favorite year of the team that they root for. In almost every case, “root for” is not even close to their level of commitment. These are fans who are fanatical about their teams. They live and die with the results of each match.

Some of the writers chose years when they were kids, writing about how they got sucked in to making this team their obsession. Others chose years when they were adults, following their team around Europe to different competitions.

What it's really about: I am a baseball fan (Dodgers) like these guys are soccer fans. For many years, my mood was dictated by whether the Dodgers won or lost the night before. I remember being nine- and ten-years-old when the Yankees beat the Dodgers in the World Series two years in a row. I cried both times.

It is hard to appreciate this book unless you understand that feeling, because it comes up a lot in these pages. It’s not rational, and on some level we as fans realize that it is a little ridiculous. Nonetheless, it is our obsession. As we age, we realize that there are more important things in life – family, children, etc. That being said, when my wife and I were getting more serious with dating I told her, “I go to about twenty Dodger games a year. If you’re okay with that we can go together. If you’re not, I’m going by myself.”

This book illustrates very well how our obsessions affect us. Whether it’s a sports team, or books, or Taylor Swift, etc. they provide solace in difficult times, something that we can fall into when we need to escape the world.

Of Note: Roddy Doyle is one of the writers. He most famously wrote The Commitments, about a group of young Irish kids who form an R & B band, which was made into a movie.

The other contributors are mostly, but not solely, writers. The writers don’t necessarily write primarily about sports. Several of the contributors are not writers at all. It is a good “everyman’s” perspective on fandom.

Picking Nits: This is a very British book, and lots of specifically British and soccer terms are used. If you are not familiar with them, it might be distracting, though I think you can generally get the gist of what the author is saying.

Some readers may find a bit of repetition in the stories. I think there is some of that, but the writer’s perspective is different each time.

Recommendation: Soccer fans will like this a lot. There is a lot of soccer history here. It was interesting reading about times when the clubs that are so dominant today were near the bottom of the league (or in a lower league altogether). It took me back to when England’s soccer leagues were much more egalitarian.

Interesting collection of fans stories from a range of clubs