The Books of Ted Lasso
Season two is (thankfully) upon us. And just a quick few frames of Coach Beard’s latest read near the end of episode one sent us to hit rewind curious to see what he’s reading versus what Coach Lasso recommended for the players in season one. Here we go - it’s time to build your Lasso Library!
It’s in episode three of the first season that Ted Lasso gives each of his players a gift-wrapped book. Pivotal to the episode, and perhaps more episodes to come, is Roy Kent being given Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time.”
Roy doesn’t take it so well, spouting off to Trent-Crimm-The-Independent “what even is ‘A Wrinkle in Time?’”
Trent: “It’s a lovely novel. It’s the story of a young girl’s struggle with the burden of leadership as she journey’s through space.”
Coach Lasso: “Yeah, that’s it!”
Roy: “Am I supposed to be the little girl?”
Coach Lasso: '“I’d like you to be.”
Over on the official Madeleine L’Engle site, Jaime Green has a wonderful guest blog post on what the novel is doing in Ted Lasso - how Meg accepts responsibility and how her anger faults can also be a gift. Just as Roy’s anger eventual is later in the narrative.
Other books vital to the series include F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Beautiful and the Damned” and Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game.”
In season two, episode one, Coach Beard is reading what looks like Matthew Syed’s “The Greatest: The Quest for Sporting Perfection.”
