Book Review - 100 Greatest Sportspersons by Kalyani Mookherji

Recently I have started liking real-life short incidents, stories or events about celebrities, businessmen, brands etc. The beauty of this genre is you have freedom of reading book at your liking, your sequence and added benefits of skipping few chapters without affecting overall interest. "100 Greatest Sportspersons" has none such chapters though. The book is worth read for any age group.

Book Blurb

‘Faster, higher, stronger’ is the Olympic motto. But very often the real achievement of a sportsperson is more than breaking and setting records; it is as often about overcoming personal setbacks, changing cultural mind-sets and fighting gender stereotypes. This book brings together 100 such personalities from mid-twentieth century onwards who have not only excelled in their individual fields but more importantly, chartered a new course for others to follow. Through their lives, these men and women have given us a message of inspiration and hope—inspiration to remain committed to our passion and hope that anything is possible if we work hard enough and persevere

As suggested by the title the book contains brief of each sports person's career. The flow of the stories are simple: introductory para, birth & initial upbringing para, followed by their entry into the professional career and their achievements. The final 1-2 paras contain the incidents related to their retirement, awards-accolades and after retirement life. For each player, some unique traits are incidents given at the end of the chapter, which is indeed informative.

Talking about some good points

• Language usage is damn easy. You can easily read it without many difficulties.
• The narration style is straightforward. You won't feel bored. And by chance, any character's story won't interest you much you can always skip it.
• Author has not restricted players from a particular game or country. It is selected based on their persona.
• It can boost your General Knowledge by 100+ sports/player related facts for sure
• You can gift this book to almost any age group. Any person above 2nd grade can easily read this book

Some points of improvements

• Many stories lack life-changing experiences. I mean such high-level celebrities usually have some traits which can be useful as a learning for readers. 
• Stories seem too short. I felt some of the players didn't get equal canvas. Well, I think the author has to decide so I am not emphasizing on the point.

Stories/chapters I personally liked are - Dhyan Chand, Bille Jean King, Eddy Merckx, Garfield Sobers, Zinedine Zidane, Sachin Tendulkar (How Can I not add him to the list)

Ratings

1. Cover - 4.5/5 (I loved collage and sketches)
2. Concept - 3.5/5
3. Content - 3/5
4. Overall - 3.5/5

The book can be found at Amazon and Flipkart

Reviews from other readers can be found at GoodReads