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

by Roger Bennett, Eli Horowitz

One billion Chinese pong fans can’t be wrong.With an all-star team of contributing writers—including Nick Hornby, Will Shortz, Davy Rothbart, Harold Evans, and Jonathan Safran Foer—and quirky, fascinating images of table tennis from around the world, editors Eli Horowitz ( McSweeny’s ) and Roger Bennet (creator of Bar Mitzvah Disco and Camp Camp ) deliver a humorous but heartfelt paean to ping pong, the world's most popular, yet least appreciated sport. Everything You Know Is Pong is a beautifully designed literary tribute to every aspect of table tennis, the true global pastime.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2010

Reviews

[Nancy]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.