John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said that "to love reading is to exchange hours of boredom for hours of ineffable and delicious company." The remark springs to mind during this current situation. As such, and coinciding with World Book Day, we would like to propose a series of Oviedista reads to you, so that you can entertain yourself while learning more about the history of our club.
The book released most recently about the history of our club was titled *Cromos para una historia del Real Oviedo* *(Trading Cards in Real Oviedo's History)*, written by José Ángel Muñiz Mangas and published by Delallama Editorial last October.
A few months earlier, last June, the club edited a short book in English for children, including some games and puzzles, written by James Harriman; *Real Oviedo: A Club Like No Other.*
In 2018, Peña Azul Riosellana edited the book *Tensi: orgullo, valor y garra (Tensi: Pride, Courage and Drive)*, which brings together all the details of the Asturian defender's career at his only-ever club, Real Oviedo.
As part of the *Hooligans Ilustrados* collection, Libros del K.O. published *Saliendo de la calle Oscura (Emerging From the Dark Street)* in 2017. Written by journalist Sergio Cortina, it tells the stories of the author's personal experiences as an Oviedista.
Shortly beforehand, in 2015, two works containing episodes of the different ages of Real Oviedo were published; *22 episodios oviedistas (22 Oviedista Chapters), *written and edited by journalist Celso Alonso Sanjulián, and *Otras 50 historias del Real Oviedo (Another 50 Real Oviedo Stories)*, from club historian Eduardo Muñoz. A couple of years earlier Muñoz had written *50 historias del Real Oviedo (50 Real Oviedo Stories)*, with both of his books being edited by la Asociación de Oviedistas Espíritu 2003.
To mark Real Oviedo's last promotion to the Segunda División in 2015, *El Tajalápiz Media edited Locos por verte volver (Crazy About Seeing You Return). *The book was created by several authors and comprised mostly of photographs.
Also in 2015, writer Fernando Menéndez published *Víctimas de la espera (Victims of the Wait)* through editors Malasangre. It is an intimate account of the tough times the club went through during the early years of this century.
Writer Sergio Fuente Requejo published *La vieja guardia (The Old Guard)* in 2011. The work was edited by La Cruz de Grado as part of the *Colección Asturias Deportiva*, and recounts the 13 seasons that Real Oviedo spent in the Primera División between 1988 and 2001.
The music related to the club appeared in the book *El himno del Real Oviedo y otras canciones oviedistas (The Real Oviedo Club Song and Other Oviedista Songs). *It was written by the scholar Francisco Fernández-Guisasola Muñiz and edited in 2010 by la Asociación de Oviedistas Espíritu 2003.
Lalo Covisa and Francisco González Álvarez-Buylla were the authors of *Eduardo Herrera, Herrerita: la leyenda azul (Eduardo Herrera, Herrerita: The Blue Legend). *It was edited by Oviedo City Council in 2009 and constitutes a broad biography of the legendary Real Oviedo inside forward.
*Real Oviedo: historia del club azul (1926-1939) (Real Oviedo: The History of the Blue Club (1926-1939) *was written by Juan Mesa, Alberto Rendueles and Jorge Valverde in 2005. It was conceived of as the first volume of a collection of the entire history of the club.
A good number of books relating to Real Oviedo were also published during the last century. Although the majority of them are now out-of-print, almost all of them can be located through internet search engines.
*Real Oviedo: su historia (Real Oviedo: Its History)* is a book from 1996 written by José Luis García Ordóñez and edited by Oviedo City Council.
Journalist Manuel Sarmiento Birba wrote the biographies of two mythical Real Oviedo players; *Emilín: **la leyenda del córner de rosca (Emilín: The Legend of the Corner Shot) *and *Yo, Isidro Lángara (I, Isidro Lángara),* published in 1997 and 1995 respectively, by Ediciones Paraíso.
*Encuentro de veteranos del Real Oviedo (Meeting of Real Oviedo Veterans)* was written by Juan Martín Merino, edited by Oviedo City Council and published in 1995. The book arose from a meeting between several of the club's former players which had been promoted by the city hall.
In 1993 the same author had published a biography of one of the great figures in Real Oviedo's history; *Antón: un coloso del fútbol español (Antón: A Colossus of Spanish Football)*, while in 1992 he had published *Historia del Real Oviedo, S.A.D. (The History of Real Oviedo S.A.D.)*
*Equipos con historia: Real Oviedo (Teams with History: Real Oviedo)* is a piece of work published by Universo Editorial in 1990 which belongs to a collection which brought together the paths of some of the most-decorated clubs in Spain.
The club's history was also captured by journalist Ricardo Vázquez-Prada in a book called *Real Oviedo*, edited by G. del Toro in 1972.
In around 1944 Ulpiano Vigil Escalera published the biography *Herrerita, *as part of the *Colección Vida y Deporte *series*,* edited by Madrid Afrodisio Aguado*.
Other icons who spent time at Real Oviedo have also had books retelling their careers written about them, although in each of them Los Carbayones share the protagonism with the other clubs the players represented. This is the case for Laurín, Chus Herrera, Calvet, Szegedi, Pentland, Dubovský...
Of the many books dedicated to Real Oviedo in its 94 years of existence, the oldest of all, the first ever edited, was *Historial del Oviedo F.C. (A History of Oviedo F.C.)* It was written by journalists Moncho and Segoma in 1940 and published by Ediciones Alonso, within its *Publicaciones Deportivas* collection. The club published a facsimile re-edition of the book in 2015 to mark the 75th anniversary of its first edition.
