'Everything You Know is Pong' By Roger Bennett And Eli Horowitz

Ping-pong.  We all know it's fun to say, but can the weighty subject fill a 257-page book?  Bill Littlefield weighs in on that question.

Characterizing ping-pong as “the most popular yet misunderstood pastime in the world today” as well as “a hidden kingdom, a realm where culture, politics, love and war collide,” Roger Bennett and Eli Horowitz maintain that the game explains everything.

Or that they can explain everything by means of the game. Or something.

If this is ridiculous, it is at least magnificently ridiculous. Everything You Know Is Pong is also more fun than it has any right to be, even in a world where “universities grant degrees in ping pong,” which, in China, they do. I learned that by reading page 161.