'Fever Pitch' by Nick Hornby isn't just a memoir - it's a part love-story, part hate-story & part never-ending obsession. This book probably explains almost all the reasons why you started supporting a football club. Even if it inflicted upon you a lot of pain at times.

Loved how Hornby tends to remember important past incidents in his life through the dates of the games Arsenal played around the same time. Believe me, I liked this book immensely. But will I regard it as a classic of football lit? Probably not. Nonetheless, it's a great read.

'Fever Pitch' is for Gooners to treasure & others to revere. Every football fan will rediscover himself by reading this. Highly recommended.

[removes the chapter with fan gatekeeping/classic futbol sexism] there.....yes perfect

Nick Hornby... what can you say about this guy? He's really a brilliant narrator. Sometimes he's talking nonsense and you don't agree at all, but you still enjoy reading it. The way he sees things is just so funny!

I'll be honest and let you know that A Long Way Down and High Fidelity were much better. Fever Pitch is a very good book nevertheless.

Fever Pitch is laugh out loud funny. I found myself laughing aloud in my living room, on the train, waiting for public transportation. It is a story not only about soccer (football, sorry), but about fandom, passion, and the relationships that go with it.

Nick Hornby details his relationship to the English football team Arsenal F.C. and yes, it's helpful if you know a little about the sport, otherwise you'd be a bit lost. However, his obsession with the team and sport is applicable to other obsessions as well; if you (or anyone you know) has ever been a fan of something and moods have been affected, then you will know perfectly well what he means. Arsenal is really a part of Hornby's life, becoming almost a character, and he details how he has to plan his social life around attending games, how his highs and lows correspond to the team's, etc.

I had had a great quote picked out that applied to universal obsessions, but somehow the dogear became undone. I guess I'll have to re-read the book sometime.

Not a fan of football, but that doesn't matter where this *true* story is concerned. Replace 'football' with any obsession, then pitch it against love and the outcome can be magical. A warm, beautifully written tale that (I must confess) has me looking out for the Gunners' score these days. Funny and sincere. A rare instance of the film doing the book justice, though that only extends to the UK version. The US one doesn't capture it at all.

Just a bit of fun about how mad a football fan can be. Perhaps it is simply a mindset that means you are unable to adjust to any other form of life. Tragic? No, why would someone enjoying their life be tragic, its what we all want.

Tristan Shandy in Lawrence Stern's novel of the same name defines a good life as one where a person can find their 'hobby horse', Ie the thing that they can love and allows them to bear the dreadful life we are given. Nick Hornby has that hobby horse and so life is liveable.

I have to admit, at times I forced myself to stop reading and find something else to do just to make this book last longer. So clearly shaped, roughly sculpted yet without a single wrinkly angle - a creation of an indisputable master and probably the best book to come out of football obsession or any other obsession at all.

شاید یکی از بهترین متونی است که در خصوص افسونِ فوتبال، مفهومِ هواداری از یک باشگاه و اشک‌ها و لبخندها همیشگی‌‌ش می‌شود خواند.

Set up a as memoir, this is lifelong Arsenal (big UK soccer team based in London) fan Nick Hornby's recollection of his life so far, mostly through his lifetime obsession of supporting, following and loving Arsenal Football Club. What begins as a pretty interesting by maybe niche (on a global reading scale?) look at being a big supporter of an English premier club slowly (and purposefully) evolves into the nature of male obsession?

Hornby is frank and honest in this surprisingly insightful read and doesn't veer away from talking about football violence, racism, gender divides, Hillsborough and more. An absolute must-read for Arsenal fans, but also an informative read for other readers for an honest male lens look at the intensity and nature of, men and their material obsessions? 8 out of 12.

2022 read

in my lifelong quest to become a british lad it’s probably no surprise that i loved this. really interesting to see what things were like before games were televised and tickets have gotten so inaccessible. also found it interested that it was published just as arsenal started to do really well. so much of it was kinda putting off responsibility of his own misery on the team doing poorly so would be interested in seeing how he felt works when they’re actually doing well

I have been an Arsenal supporter for the past 12 years. I have seen the ups and downs of the football team, I have shared their glory, I have shared their pain. They have given me days where I would not have wished to be anywhere else, and they have given me days where I wondered why I got hooked onto them. It has been a fan's journey, and it is going to continue to be, as I find myself in one of my biggest love-hate relationships. Nick Hornby has been on this path since 1969. While this book was written during the 1991-92 season, it is still the narrative of someone who has lived a fan's life for more than two decades. It is a thought which I dread, and yet one I know I will have to experience too. Fever Pitch does not tell me in any way that things would get better, infact it does the opposite; but what it lets me come to terms with is the fact that I will not be walking out of this relationship, that I am in it for the long term, and that I am not alone.

Fever Pitch is a riveting book written from the heart by Nick Hornby who talks of the journey that Arsenal took since he started following the English football club, and how events on the field intermingled with events in his personal life. Arsenal back then were not even as exciting as they have been post the book's publication, so it really must have been something to support the club then. Fever Pitch talks about the club's heroes and villains of those years, and it talks about the events that went around in the football world then, be it hooliganism or the Hillsborough tragedy. But this book, as the author himself states, is not about the football as such, but its consumption. The turmoil that it can bring to a hardcore fan, the amount of significance it can assume for some, is something that can be mocked or respected. Nick Hornby asks you to do neither, nor does he care. He writes about the way things are, not about how they should have been. He writes his narrative with ease, mixing it with moments of dark humour, while also dwelling on the serious issues.

Fever Pitch is a book that should be read by any Arsenal fan. It should in fact be read by any sporting fan. The emotions in the narrative will strike a chord and make you nod your head repeatedly, for you have been there too... for you too would be loving something so much that it hurts.

If you are Football fan, you must read this book. If you are a Sports fan, obsessed with players, statistics and trivia, you must read this book. If you have difficulty explaining to others who can't understand your obsession, then you must make them read this book.
Being an Arsenal fan myself, I had wanted to read Fever Pitch for quite long. Although the book made me realise that I'm not as obsessed about the game or the club as much as Nick Hornby, I was nodding away vigorously when he narrated the emotions a fan feels before a match, during a match and after the match. The humorous touch which he gives to the narration makes it an excellent read. It showed me how I tend to overanalyse and allow my moods to be swayed by Arsenal's fortunes in a season. One takeaway from the book was the history of Arsenal at disappointing it fans in a similar fashion throughout five or more decades. Consistent consistency, as Arsene Wenger would say. Another important insight was on how Nick Horny and other obsessed fans had one common factor - they hated what they were doing and that is why they kept doing it over and over again. They hated the team, the players, the managers, the away fans, their own fans, their own lives; and standing on the terraces to watch the football match and vent all their anger on the team they supported was what they loved. Quite ironical, but I could absolutely make a connect with it.
Apart from Arsenal and football, Nick Hornby has done well to extend the dialogue and provide opinions on plenty of topics associated with society - hooliganism, relationships, money and how it splits society, safety and the role of administration in it.
It feels good to be a fan.