Friday Night Lights
Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa--the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times, its murder rate skyrockets. But every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian High School Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true.
Where Friday Night Lights keeps showing up
One of our editors' lists features this novel.
What you might want to know about Friday Night Lights
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A reporter spends a season inside Odessa's Permian Panthers as they push for a state title in 1988. The book shows a town built around a high school team and the scholarships, racism, and pressure underneath it.
Yes. Friday Night Lights is Buzz Bissinger's 1990 nonfiction account of the 1988 season of the Permian High School football team in Odessa, Texas. Bissinger embedded with the team and town for a year.
Yes, indirectly. The 2004 film adapted the book first; the 2006 to 2011 NBC series was based on the film, with fictional characters and a different Texas town. The book, film, and show share themes of Texas football culture but tell different stories.
Friday Night Lights was written by Buzz Bissinger, published in 1990 by Addison-Wesley Pub. Co..
Friday Night Lights is 367 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Friday Night Lights takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
Friday Night Lights is a standalone novel by Buzz Bissinger, not part of a series.
Friday Night Lights is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
