The Best After-Dinner Sports Tales - compiled by Will Chignell

I like reading books. I should read more really. You don't need me to tell you how good books can provoke emotion (I couldn't imagine that a book could have made me experience the skin-crawling claustrophic fear of Birdsong for instance) but bad books can too. Frankenstein brings page after page of mind-numbing boredom and this one brought me little more than disappointment.

I can't get through more than about a dozen books a year (15 tops) which means it's disappointing when you pick up a duff one like this.

I really wanted to like it for several reasons.

• It was a birthday present from a few years ago from a friend I've lost touch with (hope you're well Barry)
• It's sports people from the last 30 years or so telling jokes and stories about sport. I like sport
• Proceeds went to children's charity SPARKS

The blurb tells me that "Some of Britain's most famous sporting legends regale their favourite tales in this humorous compilation". What's not to like?

Well, the content. It's not at all funny. You won't...

• chuckle away to yourself all evening after reading that a sports presenter forgot to turn his tape recorder on before a big interview
• laugh your head off at the story of a footballer falling off a stretcher.
• split your sides as an England cricketer puts a fake dog poo in an Australian airport terminal
• ROFL (if you're a young person) as Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman jokes are dusted off one more time

Now I did enjoy Graham Taylor's shoes being nailed to a floor but these stories do not translate from the spoken word in front of a boozed up audience and mostly this will make you think of sportsmen and women as unfunny and/or juvenile.

The most memorable part is when it's not trying to be funny with a couple of stories about the tragic life of boxer Johnny Tapia. (I might try to get hold of a biography to add to my pile of books I want to read).

This book is most likely out of print now but if you're thinking you might want to buy it please save yourself the time and donate the money directly to SPARKS.