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  • Fail Better

  • Why Baseball Matters
  • By: Mark Kingwell
  • Narrated by: Jerry Lord
  • Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
  • 1.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)
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Fail Better cover art

Fail Better

By: Mark Kingwell
Narrated by: Jerry Lord
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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.

©2017 Mark Kingwell (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
Movements Social Sciences Baseball & Softball
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Profile Image for Leonard Turton

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.

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