YORKTON - If there is one thing sports fan enjoy as much as watching their favoured sports it is discussing – OK it’s really arguing – about things where ultimately there is no correct answer.
Who is the best running back in CFL history?
Who should be on the field for an all-time Blue Jay starting nine?
And in hockey well there are many from who is the best Maple Leaf of all time? to who would go on your ‘Mount Rushmore’ of goaltenders?
Interestingly the last question is one author Steven ‘Dangle’ Glynn asks in his recently released book Hockey Rants and Raves from Harper Collins.
Glynn will be best known as host of the Steve Dangle Podcast, but this is now the Toronto native’s second book, and it a thought-provoking charm. There will be times you noddingly agree with what Glynn writes and other times you will growl disapproval wondering how he could suggest such nonsense but it all ends up being a fine read.
So how did the book come about?
“I wanted to write a second book,” Glynn told Yorkton This Week. His first book was released in 2019, the largely autobiographical This Team Is Ruining My Life (But I Love Them): How I Became a Professional Hockey Fan.
With the first book having sold well, Glynn said he was thinking about another when the idea for Rants and Raves was suggested.
“We sort of talked it through,” he said, adding while the idea was a good one, it “took some planning” before taking it on as a project.
That planning included coming up with “topics that would be the pillars of the book,” said Glynn. The goaltender “Mount Rushmore” would be one pillar.
Glynn said the goaltender discussion is “a conversation you can have with any hockey fan” regardless of age. While a core subject in the book the author admitted he struggled with who to put on the mountain – hedging his bets somewhat suggesting seven possible goaltenders initially – you need to read the book to see who Glynn picked among the many great twine guards throughout NHL history.
From there it was a case of discovery.
Glynn said it was a case of wading around to see what ideas would come up to be deemed interesting enough for the book.
For Glynn it wasn’t an easy process.
“Writing a book is hard. I’m not one of those guys that can bang out two, three books a year. I put a lot of care in,” he said.
In terms of process Glynn admits to being rather methodical. He said while the best process might be “to write something as fast as possible and then go back and make it beautiful” he finds he needs to focus on a single chapter – breaking for massaging it only long enough to do more research on that chapter – finishing it before moving on.
Obviously there are more ‘rants and raves’ than any single book can hold, so will Glynn return to the topic?
“There’s probably a book two, but I poured a lot into this one. . . I want to let this one marinate,” he said, adding he is probably the type of author who might release a book “every three, four, five years.”
