An early browse through the books for Christmas!

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

It may have gone under the radar for all bar bookstore owners and bookworms but it’s now almost a month since the world marked Super Thursday – the day that effectively decides what reading gems we will all be buying this Christmas.

That’s because Thursday, October 20, saw the release of more than 200 books aimed specifically at topping the Christmas sales charts – and just like it used to be in the music business, having a number one for the festive season is the gift that lasts for life.

The Super Thursday concept is a British one but – Brexit or no Brexit – we’re inextricably linked to our nearest neighbours when it comes to matters of print, in long or short form.

For those of us of the Bah Humbug persuasion, there are only a few straws of joy to grasp at over the commercial festival that used to be known as Christmas – but the giving and accepting of books is most definitely one of them.

Already a host of titles of all shapes, sizes and subject matter have crossed my path – and the appetite for more has been well and truly whetted.

Some people – and I’m not one of them – are so well organised that they like to break the back of the Christmas present shopping early…and while the beginning of November might seem a little OCD for Yuletide shopping, here are a few early suggestions to ease you into this orgy of giving.

You won’t need to be a sports fan to enjoy Paul O’Connell’s autobiography; the Battle is the story of a warrior as much as a rugby legend, told with personality and passion as the former Irish and Lions captain is skilfully steered through his sterling career by a ghostwriter who knows his stuff.

Alan English was the long-time editor of the Limerick Leader before moving upwards within that newspaper group – but more importantly in this context, he is a rugby aficionado with considerable knowledge of the game who has already topped the book charts with his work on Brian O’Driscoll’s autobiography.

Not for the first time, Paul O’Connell will finish in first place – only this time in the Christmas book charts.

Sticking with the sporting theme – and even more local – if the rise and rise of Connacht Rugby stirred any romance in your soul, there’s a new book out by someone who knows this story from its professional inception.

Journalist John Fallon has produced Connacht – the Team that Refused to Die, and it is a cracking story that, again, is clearly of enormous appeal to those who follow the sport but, because it’s also a tale of triumph over adversity, it is much bigger than that.

John was there, first as a reporter with this newspaper, then as team manager and administrator and now as a journalist again following the team all over Europe.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.