Book Review: FreeDarko

I started a book journal a couple months ago. Basically, whenever I read a book I write a one page review with my thoughts, what I learned, what made the book good, what could have made it better, and the meaning that I took from the book. Since I started doing this I have read both of the published volumes by FreeDarko and Bethlehem Shoals. So these are just my thoughts, they're more personal than an actual review, but they're a reflection on how much I enjoyed these books.

The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac
by: The FreeDarko Collective

This book is more of a general overview of contemporary fandom, and was published before FD's other book, "The Undisputed Guide." I owned the Almanac before the Guide, but for a long time I read occasional articles, casually. I only read it cover-to-cover after bookworming the Guide in the same way. The Almanac works well as a coffeetable book actually. You can still glean much from just glancing through the book's vivid illustration and interpretive visuals.

When it is all put together, though, it presents an active interpretation of the NBA through the lens of creative and intelligent fandom. This makes this book witty, funny, soulful, truthful, informed and entertaining.

This book profiles Kobe, Garnett,  Duncan, Arenas (who penned the foreword), Gerald Wallace and Josh Smith, Leandro Barbosa, Odom, T-Mac, Joe Johnson, Artest, Vince Carter, Marbury, Carmelo, Yao, Sheed, LeBron, Chris Paul and Amar'e, with mentions and short features on many more to provide an all-encompassing look at the NBA community.

Neither the Almanac, nor the Guide use any photographs. They generate a visual interpretation of the aforementioned ballers using art-directed illustration that makes the book both charming and richly creative. This entire volume and concept behind it, and FreeDarko itself, is creative fandom within imagined communities. These "communities" are formed based on a common interest/ fandom of the NBA and FreeDarko represents this through words and images as a raw, ongoing process of individualist creative interpretation.

Unlike the Guide, the Almanac is not focused on historical context, and was conceived as an immediate reaction to a modern immersion in NBA fandom. This is not biased by presentism, and instead displays a wealth of background research in academic disciplines including arts, math and statistics, classic literature, architecture, anatomy, naturalism, world history and geography, society, religion, psychology, philosophy, sleep theory, astronomy, culture, humanity, politics, imperialism, myth, pop culture and other sports.

When melded, this background helps create a version of the "big picture" of where the sport of basketball fits within our modern social order and daily lives. It helps us learn through the cultural lens of basketball, and contributes to our fandom and encourages our own active, intelligent observation of the game we love.

The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History
by: The FreeDarko Collective

These books were well-written by authors eager to educate as well as inform. By using visual elements to complement the written narrative, FreeDarko has created a rare, genre-defying example of post-modern fandom and academic sports-pop literature. This book has subtle swagger.

This book begins at basketball's Big Bang with James Naismith, and ends with an article on YouTube and new media communications technologies and the impact they have on the way that sports are watched. Along the way this book encompasses the growth and development of the game through it's many transitions. It also deals with the social changes happening contemporaneously to rule and playing-style changes which add a social element to the narrative and paints the NBA's colourful history onto the social landscape of the 20th century.

This book is conscious of racial bias, class bias and somewhat conscious of gender bias. There was a minimal amount of female presence in the book. This is a history of basketball, not the NBA and just one more article on the women's basketball or the WNBA would have balanced the bias.

The illustrations are incredible and simplistic and capture the creativity of the articles themselves. These visual representations include maps, charts, graphs and illustrated stats to reinforce ideas and concepts.

These books are fun, witty, smart and cool. And I love them.

All images courtesy FreeDarko illustrated volumes