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Close Quarters - Neil Harman

It arrived at lunchtime, thought lets have a quick look and struggled to put it down.

Superb read, so far, really well written and engaging.

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Comments

  • Mine also arrived today. Already a few chapters in. Excellent and engaging read.

  • Mine is supposed to be arriving today.

  • Mine was 6 stops away according to the tracking (I could have walked to the van in 5 minutes) and now I'm being told to expect delivery on Thursday!

  • About a third of the way through so far.

    Excellent stuff, what I’ve read to this point has offered a great combination of dressing-room anecdote, insights into player and management team personalities and the background to the Couhig takeover.

  • Hey. No spoilers. I’ve only got up until around Christmas. I’m looking forward to finding out what happened in the second half of the season...

  • Couple of pages into the foreward he talks about Martin O'Neill leading Wycombe "back" into the football league, which I found disappointing. It's a jarring error, and actually detracts a little from the actual achievement.

    Looking forward to reading some insights from inside the dressing room on the season ahead though.

  • @bookertease We get promoted in the end......

  • Mine will now arrive tomorrow, free of charge. You can get good deals out of Amazon if your bored enough to chat with support!

  • Mine arrives from Amazon tomorrow as well, i can't wait to start reading it.

  • Also only just on the takeover pre-season, but a great read...yes...I noticed the 'back into the league' mistook as well!

  • @bookertease said:
    Hey. No spoilers. I’ve only got up until around Christmas. I’m looking forward to finding out what happened in the second half of the season...

    Some big clubs get robbed...literally...it's edge of your foam flecked fan forum stuff.

  • Mine’s arrived from hive.co.uk.

    Free postage via Royal Mail, 40p cheaper than Amazon, plus a royalty to your nominated indie bookshop and from a company that pays UK tax instead of pretending they trade from Luxembourg.

    If you want an easy way to avoid Amazon, they’re a decent bet.

  • I'd not heard of them, thanks @arnos_grove

  • @drcongo ordered Sunday teatime, arrived Tuesday morning. An easy way to divert Amazon spend.
    Even using Royal Mail is helpful - they may not be the perfect employer but I’d wager they’re a damn site better than ‘being employed’ by Amazon Flex.

  • Every now and then I toy with the idea of building a website for answering the question "where can I buy X that is not Amazon"

  • Amazon have dropped the price on the book.Good read

  • Thanks for the tip. Excellent site. I already had mine from the tax dodgers but just checked on Hive and it's out of stock. How many did you buy @arnos_grove ? :smile:

  • My sales pitch was obviously too successful.

  • @eric_plant said:
    Couple of pages into the foreward he talks about Martin O'Neill leading Wycombe "back" into the football league, which I found disappointing. It's a jarring error, and actually detracts a little from the actual achievement.

    Looking forward to reading some insights from inside the dressing room on the season ahead though.

    Yep aside from this error, which is probably more stiffening than it needs to be, and a couple of typos in the rush to get it out so quickly, it's a great book.

  • I’m really enjoying the insight into our incredible season and the candidness of the interviewees.

    Hats off to everyone for getting the book out so quickly but it could really have done with another proof read.

    I’ve counted 5 times already where quotation marks haven’t been closed before he’s opened a new pair. I may be nit picking but it makes my brain hurt. Also lots of people are discussed in the past tense when they are still very much alive, it’s an unusual style.

    Still, all in all it worked out really well for the club and author. It really was the year to pick for an in-depth behind the scenes expose!

  • edited August 2020

    @Lloyd2084 said:

    I’ve counted 5 times already where quotation marks haven’t been closed before he’s opened a new pair. I may be nit picking but it makes my brain hurt. Also lots of people are discussed in the past tense when they are still very much alive, it’s an unusual style.

    Do you have an example of this one?

    I ask, as I once said to someone at work "My dad used to (whatever it was)", and she took it that he'd passed away!

    When obviously I just meant he literally used to do something, that he now didn't.

    Interested to see if you and the work person's take on language is a common thing!

  • The last one was about one of the player’s kids. So much so I was readying myself for details of a horrendous tragedy. It was relieving to not read of their demise!

    I’m enjoying the book too much to go back at the minute but I’ll report if I come across any more.

  • @Ozzie_the_Relaxed said:
    @bookertease We get promoted in the end......

  • You ruined it!!!!!

  • @bookertease said:

    @Ozzie_the_Relaxed said:
    @bookertease We get promoted in the end......

    You've utterly ruined it now.

  • There are four of these quotation mark errors on page 167 alone. I think they must have used a wonky automated proof reader as it seems to pick up a possessive comma as closing the quote, perhaps deleting the final one as an incorrectly identified mistake.

  • @Lloyd2084 said:
    I’m really enjoying the insight into our incredible season and the candidness of the interviewees.

    seconded. I haven’t read all of it yet, but I’m quite surprised at how honest and detailed some of the interviews are, not that they’re negative, but I guess “unvarnished” would be the word. Which is a good thing.

    So many football interviews descend into complete media-trained blandness, but these are anything but.

    And the Gasroom is quoted (or at least certain posters are).

  • I don't know what I am more excited for now - the amazing story of Wycombe's season, or picking out all the grammatical errors!

    (Grumble grumble darn wait for U.S. delivery grumble grumble)

  • @Lloyd2084 said:
    I’m really enjoying the insight into our incredible season and the candidness of the interviewees.

    Hats off to everyone for getting the book out so quickly but it could really have done with another proof read.

    I’ve counted 5 times already where quotation marks haven’t been closed before he’s opened a new pair. I may be nit picking but it makes my brain hurt. Also lots of people are discussed in the past tense when they are still very much alive, it’s an unusual style.

    Still, all in all it worked out really well for the club and author. It really was the year to pick for an in-depth behind the scenes expose!

    To be fair to proofers, they may be fine with that one.

    If the quote extends across two paragraphs, then the closing quotation mark only needs to be put on the final one.

  • Shows how long ago I got my O level in English, I haven't a clue what's right or wrong in the mentions above! Did anyone bring the Petit Four?

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