The Sports Bookshelf

You have to hand it to Roy Keane, he has done his best to steal a few headlines from Kevin Pietersen after the two most controversial sports books of the year appeared in the shops on the same day this week. After sitting back and allowing KP the first round of media calls ahead of the publication of KP: The Autobiography ,  Keane made the most of his chance with a powerful response at the launch of Roy Keane: The Second Half. Both books are already selling in thousands, with online retailer Amazon this afternoon placing them at second and third in their bestsellers chart, with Keane nudging just in front of the former England cricketer.  Only Awful Auntie, a children's novel written by David Walliams, is currently attracting more sales. Keane's big selling point is his scrap with Sir Alex Ferguson, from whom he famously parted on bitter terms after 12 years of enormous success at Old Trafford and who he claims fed deliberate lies to the media in order to discredit hi

Tour de France winner, Olympic time-trial champion, BBC Sports Personality of the Year -- not to mention the small matter of a knighthood -- Bradley Wiggins swept all before him in 2012. It might not come as a major surprise, therefore, that the Wiggins autobiography, My Time, blew the opposition completely off the track in book sales for 2012. Published by Random House under the Yellow Jersey imprint, My Time did not appear in the bookstores until November 8 yet end-of-year sales figures compiled by Nielsen BookScan were almost 230,000, most of those rung up in the six weeks or so leading up to Christmas. To put that number in perspective, My Time's sales accounted for almost a quarter of sales for the whole sports autobiography sector in 2012.  Indeed, if the resurgence in sales enjoyed by the earlier Wiggins life story, In Pursuit of Glory, is taken into account, Britain's all-time greatest cyclist cornered more than a quarter of that market. According to N

TODAY'S TOP TEN BESTSELLING SPORTS BOOKS Click on the title or picture link to buy 1 -- A Weight Off My Mind: My Autobiography Author: Richard Hughes Published by : Racing Post Books Richard Hughes is not only one of horseracing's most successful and talented riders but also one of sport's most unlikely success stories. In this frank autobiography, Hughes describes with stark honesty the battle he had to wage with his body and mind to become a top rider. Too tall and heavy to be a jockey but too talented a horseman to be anything else, Hughes offers insights into the life of a top jockey, and the personal story of his descent into prolonged and deep alcoholism, from the perspective of seven years' sobriety. Shocking but also uplifting, A Weight Off My Mind is the engrossing story of a man who has overcome extreme personal trauma to become a racing superstar. For fans of racing and readers new to the sport, it offers a turbulent

TODAY'S TOP SELLING SPORTS BOOKS Click on the title or picture link to buy 1 - Be Careful What You Wish For Author: Simon Jordan Published by: Yellow Jersey Simon Jordan loved Crystal Palace. He grew up a stone's throw from Selhurst Park and his father was on the club's books.  Simon was not a footballer but his success in the mobile phone business enabled him to have a lifestyle all but the highest paid players would envy: 18 cars, six homes, a private jet on lease, a £2.5 million boat, a permanent suite at the Grosvenor House Hotel and the wherewithal to spend £100,000 on living costs.  Then he decided he would buy Crystal Palace.  Ten years later the bulk of his fortune was gone.   Be Careful What You Wish For lifts the lid on Jordan's story and how he discovered a world where hopes and aspirations sit alongside greed, self-interest, overpriced players, dodgy transfers and top-level incompetence. He doesn't hold back. 2 -- London

TODAY'S TOP TEN BESTSELLING SPORTS BOOKS Click on the title or picture link to buy 1 - Tom Daley: My Story Author: Tom Daley Published by: Michael Joseph Tom Daley started diving at the age of seven. Specializing in the 10 metre platform event, he became the youngest British world champion in any sport. He represented Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics, where he was Britain's youngest competitor, and won two gold medals for England at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. In 2007, 2009 and 2010, he was named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.   In this, his first official memoir, illustrated on many pages with his own photographs, he shares the pressures, challenges and fascinating experiences of his career as well as glimpses into his life away from his sport in the build up to the London Olympics. 2 - Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2012 Editor: Lawrence Booth Published by: John Wisden & Co Ltd First published in 1864 and probably t

TODAY'S TOP TEN BEST-SELLING SPORTS BOOKS To buy any title, click on the picture or link 1 - Running with the Kenyans Author: Adharanand Finn Published by: Faber and Faber Ever since the Mexico Olympics of 1968, when the athletes of Kenya claimed an unprecedented nine medals, the sporting world has been eager to learn the secrets that seemed to set the runners of one African nation apart from the rest, and turned the likes of Kipchoge Keino and Naftali Temu into legends of the track. Adharanand Finn, a freelance writer and running enthusiast, moved his family to Iten, a small high-altitude town in the Rift Valley that has become a mecca for long-distance runners. Finn ran side by side with Olympic champions and barefoot schoolchildren. This beautifully written book reveals what he learned about Kenya’s runners and their country. 2 - Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice Author: Matthew Syed Published by: Fourth Estate Matthew Syed, T

TODAY'S TOP TEN BEST-SELLING SPORTS BOOKS To buy any title, click on the picture or link 1 - Playfair Cricket Annual 2012 Editor: Ian Marshall Published by: Headline The classic pocket companion to the English cricket season, the 65th edition of Playfair reviews England's triumphant 2011 home Test series against Sri Lanka and India, as well as their matches against India and Pakistan on tour this winter. The book is packed with essential information to follow events on the field, with unrivalled up-to-the-minute statistical detail on all first-class players registered in the UK at the time of press, plus fixture lists for the coming season. 2 - Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice Author: Matthew Syed Published by: Fourth Estate Matthew Syed, Times sports writer and former international table-tennis champion (after many hours of practice) explores the true nature of talent and attempts to reveal what really makes a champion, debun