My favorite author of all time is John Feinstein.

The level of depth that he wrote with is unmatched, and probably never will again. Feinstein delved into several storylines into one book, and tried to make each one more intriguing than the last. When he died in 2025, we lost a piece of traditional sports writing with him

I heartily suggest that anyone going into sports media or journalism read one or more of his books.

So in honor of one of the greatest sports writers in history, I have decided to start what I’m calling the “Journey of John:” to read every single non-fiction novel he wrote in order and give my thoughts on all of them. There are 31 in total; we are not including several, which will be explained below:

• All of his teen fiction novels are out. They weren’t written for someone like me, and it would be unfair to criticize a teen fiction novel when they came out after I was a teenager (the first Sports Beat book came out in 2006, when I turned 19.)
• Tiger Woods: Master or Martyr is out because that’s more of a 98-page opinion piece (it’s a part of the Library of Contemporary Thought, which also has Carl Hiaasen critiquing Disney as one of its books, for example). Again, it’s pretty unfair to criticize something like that.
• Running Mates is out too. It’s very clear he was trying to stretch out of his comfort zone writing this, and I can’t criticize that.

That being said, I still need some of the books on the list, so when I get there, it might be a little while before I put in that entry:
- The Punch (2001)
- Let Me Tell You A Story (2004)
- Last Dance (2006)
- Are You Kidding Me? (2009, with Rocco Mediate)
- Moment of Glory (2010)
- One on One (2011)
- The Classic Palmer (2012)
- The Legends Club (2016)
- Quarterback (2018)
- Raise A Fist, Take A Knee (2021)
- Feherty (2022)

I’ll be rating on a 1-10 scale in three different categories:
- Enjoyability: Some storylines are more intriguing than others.
- Re-readability: Does it all work out into a read that I want to pick up again?
- Pick-Up And Read: Could someone with no knowledge of the sport featured pick it up, read it and enjoy it?

I’ll be starting soon with his first book – the 1989 classic “A Season On The Brink.”

Happy Reading!