Required reading: Ted Lasso
Every book seen in Ted Lasso, in order of appearance.
The Ultimate Cockney Geezer's Guide to Rhyming Slang
Geoff Tibballs, 1998Geoff Tibballs's guide to the East London habit of swapping a word for a phrase that rhymes with it, then dropping the rhyme.
Seen in S1 E1, Ted LassoBuyCoaching Soccer For Dummies
National Alliance for Youth Sports and Greg Bach, 2006Written by Greg Bach with the National Alliance for Youth Sports for parents who got volunteered to coach.
Seen in S1 E1, Coach BeardBuyInverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics
Jonathan Wilson, 2008Jonathan Wilson's 2008 history of how football formations evolved from lineups stacked with forwards to teams that barely play one.
Seen in S1 E1, Coach BeardBuyThe Dharma Bums
Jack Kerouac, 1958Kerouac's follow-up to On the Road, about two friends chasing Zen Buddhism up mountains.
Seen in S1 E1, Ted LassoBuyQuiet Genius: Bob Paisley, British Football's Greatest Manager
Ian Herbert, 2017Paisley took over Liverpool from Bill Shankly in 1974 without wanting the job, then won three European Cups.
Seen in S1 E3, Coach BeardBuyMiss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs, 2011Riggs built the 2011 novel around real vintage photographs he collected, then wrote a story to explain them.
Seen in S1 E3, Robbie RobertsBuyEnder's Game
Orson Scott Card, 1985Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel won both the Hugo and the Nebula.
Seen in S1 E3, Sam ObisanyaBuyThe Beautiful and Damned
F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1922Fitzgerald's second novel, from 1922, follows Anthony and Gloria Patch as they wait on an inheritance and drink their way through the wait.
Seen in S1 E3, Jamie TarttBuyA Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle, 1962L'Engle's 1962 novel won the Newbery Medal and has a girl travel across the universe to rescue her father.
Seen in S1 E3, Roy KentBuyThe Arco Book of Soccer Techniques and Tactics
Richard Widdows, 1983Richard Widdows wrote it in 1983, back when American soccer manuals were mostly diagrams.
Seen in S1 E6, Coach BeardBuyThe Greatest: The Quest for Sporting Perfection
Matthew Syed, 2017Matthew Syed was England's top table tennis player and went to two Olympics before he wrote about performance.
Seen in S2 E1, Coach BeardBuyFever Pitch
Nick Hornby, 1992Hornby's 1992 memoir about a lifetime of Arsenal fandom became a Colin Firth film, then an American remake about the Red Sox with Jimmy Fallon.
Seen in S2 E5, Coach BeardBuyFootball Against the Enemy
Simon Kuper, 1994Kuper traveled through more than twenty countries for the 1994 book, asking how the game shapes nations and their governments.
Seen in S2 E6, Coach BeardBuyAbout a Boy
Nick Hornby, 1998Hornby's 1998 novel follows Will, a grown man living off royalties from his late father's Christmas song, until a kid makes him grow up.
Seen in S2 E7, Coach BeardBuyThe Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown, 2003Dan Brown's 2003 thriller has sold more than 80 million copies and has a chapter break roughly every time a character breathes.
Seen in S2 E7, Roy KentBuyThe Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife
James Hollis, 1993Hollis is a Jungian analyst, and the subtitle is From Misery to Meaning in Midlife.
Seen in S2 E8, Ted LassoBuyEntangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures
Merlin Sheldrake, 2020Sheldrake's 2020 book argues fungi connect most of life on Earth through underground networks.
Seen in S2 E11, Coach BeardBuyThe Miracle of Castel di Sangro
Joe McGinniss, 1999Joe McGinniss moved to a town in Abruzzo of about 5,000 people in 1996 to follow its club through its first season in Serie B. The 1999 book is a fairytale for most of its length.
Seen in S3 E1, Coach BeardBuyThe Beckham Experiment
Grant Wahl, 2009Grant Wahl's 2009 book follows David Beckham's move to the LA Galaxy and the idea that one star could sell soccer to America.
Seen in S3 E4, Coach BeardBuySense and Sensibility
Jane Austen, 1811Austen's first published novel came out in 1811 credited only to A Lady.
Seen in S3 E7, Keeley JonesBuyFriend of the Devil
James Kirkland, 2019James Kirkland's 2019 novel has Walton solving crimes between broadcasts.
Seen in S3 E7, Coach BeardBuyBrilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer
David Winner, 2000Winner's 2000 book argues Dutch football grew out of the same obsession with space that shaped Dutch painting and architecture.
Seen in S3 E8, Coach BeardBuyThe Breakfast Club Adventures: The Beast Beyond the Fence
Marcus Rashford and Alex Falase-Koya, 2022Marcus Rashford co-wrote it with Alex Falase-Koya after his free school meals campaign got the UK government to reverse course twice in 2020.
Seen in S3 E8, Ted LassoBuyKafka on the Shore
Haruki Murakami, 2002Haruki Murakami's 2002 novel has a teenage runaway and an old man who can talk to cats.
Seen in S3 E9, JadeBuyLife of Pi
Yann Martel, 2001Yann Martel's 2001 novel won the Booker Prize and puts a boy in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.
Seen in S3 E10, Nate ShelleyBuyThe Club: How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports
Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, 2018Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg covered the Premier League for The Wall Street Journal.
Seen in S3 E10, Coach BeardBuyFinding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
Suzanne Simard, 2021Simard is a forest ecologist at the University of British Columbia who showed trees trade nutrients through fungal networks.
Seen in S3 E10, Coach BeardBuyHow to Change Your Mind
Michael Pollan, 2018Pollan's 2018 book covers the science and history of psychedelics, and it became a Netflix series in 2022.
Seen in S3 E12, Ted LassoBuyJohnny Tremain
Esther Forbes, 1943Esther Forbes's 1943 novel about a teenage silversmith's apprentice in Revolutionary Boston won the Newbery Medal.
Seen in S4 E1, Ted LassoBuyFeminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
bell hooks, 2000hooks wrote it in 2000 as a short primer for people who had never read feminist theory.
Seen in S4 E2, Rebecca WeltonBuyThe Time Traveler's Wife
Audrey Niffenegger, 2003Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 debut follows a man with a genetic disorder that throws him around in time, and the wife who waits for him.
Seen in S4 E2, Coach BeardBuySoccerwomen: The Icons, Rebels, Stars, and Trailblazers Who Transformed the Beautiful Game
Gemma Clarke, 2019Gemma Clarke's 2019 book profiles the women who built the game, from early pioneers to World Cup winners.
Seen in S4 E4, Coach BeardBuyReborn in the USA: An Englishman's Love Letter to His Chosen Home
Roger Bennett, 2021Bennett grew up in Liverpool, moved to America and co-founded the Men in Blazers soccer show.
Seen in S4 E7, Coach BeardBuy
Seen one we missed? Add a book and your handle goes on the entry.