Everything You Know Is Pong: How Mighty Table Tennis Shapes Our World

by Roger Bennett, Eli Horowitz

A highly illustrated, beautifully designed tribute to ping pong, the world's most popular yet least appreciated sport—with tales from the table by Nick Hornby, Will Shortz, Davy Rothbart, Harold Evans, Jonathan Safran Foer, and others. Every sport claims to be the world's game—soccer, basketball, kabaddi. But none can match the global status acquired by modest, ubiquitous ping pong—the most popular yet misunderstood pastime in the world today, a sleeping giant of fast-paced fun. Join us on a journey into the dark corners and distant alleys of this ponging globe, from suburban basements of misspent youths to Bangkok backrooms to New Jersey rec rooms to Beijing stadia to dwarf child champions to elderly enthusiasts to Hollywood hipsters to perky porn stars. This cast of thousands, combined with artifacts from the authors' ever-growing collection of ping pongalia, reveals the hidden truths of the world behind the the secrets of eternal youth, guerrilla warfare, foolproof seduction, fame and adulation—all explained through two paddles, sixty inches of net, and a bouncing, bouncing ball. A world where everything you know is pong. *Please some images contained in this book are of an adult nature.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2010

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no intention of doing anything other than looking at the (zillions of really great) pictures. I mean, I love ping pong -- but read a book full of essays about it?
YES. I did. And this book shows that there could be about seven more books about ping pong (that I would read); there's that much more to say. Bennett and Horowitz's outlandish revisionist history (that places ping pong at the center of everything) is almost too much, but then it isn't. They say: there are no ex-ping pong players, only dead ones.
To life! To Ping pong!

[Javier Recuenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

As bizarre as the title sounds, it's just a plain awesome reflection of how a mundane pastime has influenced western (and Eastern) world. A true delight once you pass over its bizarre settings.

[Steven Pilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

He is a Men In Blazer so i had to love this.

Its about table tennis its very funny its occasionally wise im not sure what else i can say.

A book to pick up put down and return to.

[Ezgi Çiçek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, what a feast for a table tennis lover. This book makes me want to play table tennis 24/7. It was an enjoyable read, interspersed with insights to American society.

[Benjamin Torres · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is all over the place, it talks about many different general aspects related to the game, for example the history of the game, it's adoption in China, the evolution of table tennis, its limited but passionate audience, short stories with ping pong as the theme, etc.
What I liked the most are all the photos and postcards in the book, and all the curious facts about the sport and it's players, it is a good book for Ping Pong fans.