JP/Hans David Tampubolon

Writer Pangeran Siahaan, who began his career as a journalist for a lifestyle magazine, believes that in order to become a good crafter of words, one has to spend more time reading than writing.

'€œReading is very important for writers. I personally spend more time reading books than writing. It is impossible for someone to write if he or she never reads. This is all about input and output'€, Pangeran said.

Pangeran now writes mostly about soccer and has said that his style in writing about the sport was influenced by the soccer columnists whose work he liked to read growing up.

'€œFor example, I grew up reading Romo Sindhunata'€™s soccer columns. What I find interesting about his style is he loves to use non-soccer references and he makes them become contextually parallel with the world of soccer. I do not always refer to his style in my writings but unconsciously, his style influences me in my works,'€ he said.

As for soccer books, Pangeran said that he read everything about the sport from tactical development to cultural influences and biographies of the game'€™s most celebrated figures.

'€˜ Inverting The Pyramid '€™
by Jonathan Wilson

This book tells the story on how soccer tactics evolve. It is a very good book to introduce newcomers to the sport to the different strategies used in soccer throughout the different periods of its history.

This book also explains why changes are made to tactics and strategies employed in soccer. In its essence, Inverting the Pyramid is a soccer tactics for dummies guidebook.

The Grand Cinema. Publisher: Unknown. Year: 1953.

'€˜ How Soccer Explains the World '€™
by Franklin Foer

What makes this book interesting is the fact that it is written by an American. Foer travels the globe to watch soccer and discover how it has developed to become more to people than just a sport.

In Brazil, he writes about the close connection between soccer and politics. In other regions, like the Balkans, he talks about the close connection between soccer, the mafia and war.

He says that soccer is the only sport in the world that can wield such a significant cultural influence on society.

'€˜ Red '€˜: My Autobiography
by Gary Neville

Most soccer players write boring biographies because they rarely talk about interesting things. They only talk about how good they were as players and how they won championships, all of which we already knew. But Neville is different.

The former Manchester United captain talks honestly about how he was not naturally gifted, and that his success came mainly from his dedicated work ethic. He also talks a good deal about the backroom politics at Manchester United, his fellow players and Sir Alex Ferguson'€™s behavior behind the cameras.