Winter Sports Books

Okay, I am a first grade teacher. I should be more accepting of silly little rhyming books. But I would still like the silly little rhyming book to have a point. Or be half-way clever. This book was neither. It was annoying. The rhymes were contrived, the refrain irritating. Maybe I'm reaching , but why on earth would dinosaurs be in a modern-day snow storm?Pointless book. I will read my students more intelligent literature, thank-you.

This book is pretty much worthless as a "guide" to anything. The front cover says: "Your Guide to Jumping, ...(etc.)." Yeah right - jumping is first in the list and there is a grand total of senventeen sentences on jumping, all of which could be deduced from watching one ski jumper jump once. Some of the pictures are okay, but if you want to learn anything about skiing, forget this "guide." National Geographic and Pamela Pollack should be ashamed of producing such a worthless and deceiving book on "Extreme Sports." The only thing extreme about this book is how bad it is.

Tom Wolf has penned an absolute mess of a book, a schizophrenic melange of revisionist history and self-flagellation. Choosing a style that wanders from a bad imitation of Jack Keroac to a weak attmpt to evoke the writings of St. Thomas A., Wolf intermittently takes turns heaping praise upon the American ski troops of the Second World War as his heroes, and then strangely denigrating them as brutal warriors and shameless self-promotors.

Relying on the testimony of aging Nazi ski troops (quoted without attribution because they "wouldn't talk otherwise"), Wolf concludes that the members of the U.S. 10th Mountian Division were blood-thirsty soldiers who fought on the Italian front at the end of the war with far more vigor than was necessary for the "mop-up" job they had been assigned. The result, according to the Nazis and Wolf, was a horrendous and unnecessary spilling of blood on both sides. To take the statements of these men at face value is disgraceful. Not to identify them (Waffen SS? ) is just plain dishonest. Wolf also sites as one of his main influences an American priest forced to expatriate to the Alps after charges of pederasty. How nice!

Perhaps the one aspect of Mr. Wolf's book that does deserve praise is his mention of General Mark Clark's suspect behavior at the end of the war. Having squandered the lives of thousands of American troops at Rapido River and on other battlefields throughout south and central Italy, Clark insisted on keeping the Italian front an active meat grinder long after it became apparent that its tactical importance was at best minimal. This is an aspect of the Italian campaign that needs far more examination by historians than has previously been paid to it. And when I say historians, I do not include Mr. Wolf in that category. Historians, for example, generally footnote.

It is clear that Mr. Wolf has some personal bone to pick with many veterans of the 10th Mountain Division, perhaps because they would not accept a draft dodger from the Vietnam era like Wolf as one of their own. (Wolf opted not to go to jail for his convictions, preferring a flight to Europe to ski with his Nazi friends for several years in Germany and Austria). That's life, Mr. Wolf. Get over it.

Im a skater and thought this will help me with my skating. It sucked.

Although I am a complete supporter of anything that promotes the fun & health benefits of snowboarding to kids(hence the 1 star review), I am NEVER a proponent of misleading anyone, especially young influential minds, with incorrect information. Mr Carpenter did NOT invent snowboarding, and is misleading parents and children, all in the attempt to benefit his company. Burton attempts this on so many levels, it is now actually starting to hurt snowboarding, let alone their over priced & under evolved product line!!!

This so called biographer seemed to have one goal in mind: portray Scott Hamilton as a crazed lunatic. The book consists mainly of episodes that cast either Scott or members of his family and entourage in a bad light.

The author glosses over the years of work and obstacles overcome in order for Scott to make it to the Olympics. He harps constantly on his perception of Scott's 'shallowness' and also his bouts of bad temper.

I got the impression that this was written by someone who was disgruntled with Scott Hamilton. The author obviously had no respect for his subject.

If you are not a patient reader, don't buy this book. It is a very frustrating read. I don't know for sure, but it appears this book was originally written in a foreign language and then translated into english. Also, if you are trying to find a good book about preparing for the ski season, this book wasn't helpful. The structure and flow was so hard to understand that I almost didn't want to continue skiing! Just joking! I still want to ski, so I just dropped this book and went to find another. Save yourself $$$. Don't buy this book.

I'm not a fan of NLP in the first place, but NLP for skiers? If you know NLP, there is really no need to read this book. Just apply what you know to skiing. I think NLP is alot of hokus pokus. There is one thing that is true in this book and that is you can't be using the conscious mind when skiing. But that applies to every sport. The more you practice, the more it becomes automatic and the better you are at something.

This book is written by a poser. Don't stereotype snowboarders, everyone of them is different. (for example, I can't spell, some can). Not all of us wear baggy cargo pants, not all of us listen to punk music, not all of us hate skiiers. It's just the majority... this book isn't "politically correct".