On Sports
Will be published approx. on 21. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
144 pages
978-1-77196-720-4 (ISBN)
Description
What are sports, really? What do we love about them? And what, in our digital age, have they become?
On Sports reads like a conversation between friends at the ballpark in those golden days before the kiss cam and college co-eds with T-shirt cannons spoiled the fun; a book that feels like the sun on your forehead and the breeze in your hair, beer and laughter on your lips; a book that celebrates communion and friendship and the beauty of these games-whether it be baseball or football or soccer or tennis or cricket-that we've designed to distract ourselves from the end of the world. It's about what 7Up tastes like when drunk from the Grey Cup, how much work it takes for talent to shine, and the near impossibility of language to properly capture athletic excellence. It's about the beauty of good sports copy, the ephemerality of even the biggest sports story, and how sport remains perpetually powered by the eleven-year-old in all of us. It's a book about rediscovering the spirit of sport, before online gambling and the manufactured spectacle of today's professional sports suffocates the last of it; and it's about where that spirit today is best found.
On Sports reads like a conversation between friends at the ballpark in those golden days before the kiss cam and college co-eds with T-shirt cannons spoiled the fun; a book that feels like the sun on your forehead and the breeze in your hair, beer and laughter on your lips; a book that celebrates communion and friendship and the beauty of these games-whether it be baseball or football or soccer or tennis or cricket-that we've designed to distract ourselves from the end of the world. It's about what 7Up tastes like when drunk from the Grey Cup, how much work it takes for talent to shine, and the near impossibility of language to properly capture athletic excellence. It's about the beauty of good sports copy, the ephemerality of even the biggest sports story, and how sport remains perpetually powered by the eleven-year-old in all of us. It's a book about rediscovering the spirit of sport, before online gambling and the manufactured spectacle of today's professional sports suffocates the last of it; and it's about where that spirit today is best found.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for On Sports"Beautifully shines a spotlight on the athleticism, movement, community building and mythology of sports . . . On Sports is as much a ripple of an analysis on capitalism and greed as it is a masterclass on writing. Macfarlane's prose will entice even the hardiest sports cynic, while inviting the non-reading teen into a world of words and ideas-in only a few short yet romantic pages. It's essential reading for those who ponder, and rightly so, why so much energy is bestowed upon movement, grace, billionaire owners, the oligarchic media class and the tragic addiction of so many to online sports gambling."
-Matt Henderson, Winnipeg Free Press
"Macfarlane offers both nostalgic reflections and up-to-the-present commentary. An authentic and resonant read, On Sports should appeal to sports fans who have had their misgivings about sport and where it's headed, though anyone interested in sports more generally might enjoy reading about Macfarlane's experiences, his emotional connections to sport, and his philosophical musings about its pros and cons."
-Lisa Timpf, Seaboard Review of Books
"David Macfarlane's acclaimed memoir about Newfoundland, The Danger Tree, brought the journalist fame. His newest book, On Sports, explores his personal love of the game and distaste for the commercialization of competition."
-Toronto Life
"On Sports is a showcase of [Macfarlane's] breezy control over the nuts and bolts of professional and amateur athletics, their cultural import as well as the rhythms (and seasons) of sports writing. The book makes its most memorable connections when Macfarlane, with his often beautiful prose, tunes into that deeper emotional frequency-the personal, communal, spiritual and profound-that sports are uniquely capable of hitting."
-Cole Nowicki, The Tyee
"Blends memoir, criticism, and observation to examine the distance between how sports are remembered and how they are experienced today . . . Macfarlane explores what remains of those connections that made us fall in love with teams, players, and moments in an era now defined by money, corporate excess, and a constant stream of gambling ads. The result is a book that resists easy nostalgia . . . On Sports is, instead, a measured and often pointed reflection on what we continue to love about sports, and why that love has become more a lot more complicated."
-Jason Winders, The Miramichi Reader
Praise for David Macfarlane
"David Macfarlane's haunting new memoir Likeness . . . is a book of considerable joy, and of staggering loss, one which avoids easy sentimentality in favour of genuine-and crushing-emotion."
-Toronto Star
"A gifted and admired writer across genres . . . There is an ache in Likeness that cuts as deeply as it does because of the beauty of its expression."
-Maclean's
"Splendid!"
-New York Times
"I've just discovered The Danger Tree and am stunned. It is so good. About the best prose to ever come out of this country, for my money."
-Alice Munro
"The Danger Tree is a masterpiece. David Macfarlane is an architect of the past, building extraordinary memory mansions in which the reader feels eerily at home."
-Alberto Manguel
"A remarkable and beautifully written book."
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"One of the best non-fiction titles of the year."
-Booklist (starred review)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Emeryville
Canada
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 114 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
132 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77196-720-4 (9781771967204)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
David Macfarlane's family memoir, The Danger Tree, was described by Christopher Hitchens as "one of the finest and most intriguing miniature elegies that I have read in many a year." Macfarlane's novel, Summer Gone, was short-listed for the Giller Prize. Based on The Danger Tree, "The Door You Came In," a two-man show (co-written and performed with Douglas Cameron) has been produced, to acclaim, from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Stratford, Ontario. Macfarlane lives in Toronto with his wife, the designer, Janice Lindsay.