HOW TO SCORE by Ken Bray, Granta, £7.99 NO, it doesn t have a foreword by Casanova – this is a book to be filed either under Sport or Science. For Ken Bray s entertaining if fairly unnecessary book, takes a look at how soccer can be affected by the rules

HOW TO SCORE by

Ken Bray, Granta, £7.99

NO, it doesn't have a foreword by Casanova - this is a book to be filed either under Sport or Science.

For Ken Bray's entertaining if fairly unnecessary book, takes a look at how soccer can be affected by the rules of science.

There's lot about psychological advantages, mind games and the like, complete with diagrams of backspin rotation and so on. I'm not sure whether reading it would make you a better manager but it certainly makes for an enjoyable way to pass the half-time break without having to queue for a pie or listen to the inane wibblings of the likes of Alan Hansen.

But what, you may ask, does Ken Bray know about it all? Well, he's a theoretical physicist with a doctorate in quantum science and has a lifelong passion for football. So clearly he's the ideal man for writing such a book. That said, he's also been a consultant to Southampton Football Club, a team currently languishing in the bottom half of the Championship (the old Second Division) with a win rate of about one in three so don't expect any miracles.

365 WAYS TO CHANGE THE WORLD by Michael Norton, Myriad, £9.99

I must confess that I'm a sucker for this kind of book even though, like just about everyone who buys it, I doubt whether I'll pay much attention to much of the advice it offers.

First published in 2005, it takes each day and tells you of something you can do that day to make the world a better place. I opened it at random at April 1 and came up against (if you'll excuse the pun) Masturbate For Peace - an international movement for peace which, apparently, has 17,000 petitions from 91 countries and all 50 states of the USA.

Of course, it's not all so messy. You can also (May 26) start your own aid agency or (December 18) Make Friends With Africa among many other things.

Another fairly pointless tome (on the back it's listed as 'current affairs / gift' so even the publishers believe that many of them will be bought only to be given away) it's still good fun - and also provides much useful information like how to find out what your birth tree is.

YOU: STAYING YOUNG

by Dr Michael F Roizen and Dr Mehmet C Oz,

Harper, £14.99

Subtitled 'Make your RealAge younger and live up to 35 per cent longer', this is part intriguing and part exasperating but mostly silly. Can it really be necessary when detoxing to take off your shoes at the front door so you don't "track in toxins such as lawn-care pesticides, which can get trapped in the carpet and contaminate children." These wouldn't be the same children who go outside and eat mud I suppose? I rest my case.

David Crozier