running, reading, nonsense.
This book came to me courtesy of the algorithm. Having previously read Richard Askwith’s Running Free my Kindle felt obliged to line this up next, and I’m glad that it did. Vybarr Cregan-Reid’s Footnotes: How Running Makes Us Human is, again, partially a memoir on running experience. Like Askwith, he is a runner who prefers… Continue reading Runners Book Club: Footnotes.
My first experience of Richard Askwith’s work was a book which I have already discussed here - his biography of Emil Zatopek, Today We Die a Little - but what prompted me to pick up Running Free was an article in the September issue of Runner's World, written by Askwith, in which he returns to… Continue reading Runners Book Club: Running Free
Most of the running books I’ve read have looked into the world of the elite. I’ve read about insane ultrarunners, for instance, learned of legends like Emile Zátopek, and have heard all about the intense natural ability of Kenyan marathon runners. It’s always nice to get a different perspective though, hence the enduring appeal of… Continue reading Runners Book Club: Your Pace or Mine?
This is how North begins: “Scott Jurek is one of the greatest ultramarathon runners of all time and a living legend. North tells the story of his biggest challenge, undertaken at the end of a career full of glittering achievements: breaking the speed record for the Appalachian Trail, the famous path that runs for nearly… Continue reading Runners Book Club: North
Paul Tonkinson’s 26.2 Miles to Happiness: A Comedian’s Tale of Running, Red Wine, and Redemption has quickly ascended towards the top of my running book podium. It is, admittedly, a relatively small pile, as reading about running is still a newer habit of mine but, nevertheless, it is very good. Trust me. Although that pile… Continue reading Runners Book Club: 26.2 Miles to Happiness.
This book isn’t about running, that much I’m sure is obvious, but still I was interested in seeing if the lessons it had to teach could be extrapolated into some useful wisdom for our running ways. I have a bit of a background in philosophy having studied the subject at University but the truth is… Continue reading Runners Book Club: The Little Book of Stoicism
Despite the current circumstances I’m not working from home or anything like that because ha ha ha, retail, am I right? Well. I didn’t realise that memes could be so terrifyingly prescient. Anyway! It might be a good idea if you are stuck in self isolation to check out the glorious world of audio books,… Continue reading On Audible
Since I’ve been injured I’ve been writing less. Although I consider running and writing, and reading, to all be complimentary, I did not necessarily think that the lessening of one pillar would also so significantly weaken another. In fact, I would have guessed that it may have made the others stronger as I would have… Continue reading Endure, and The Rise of the Ultra Runners (Runners Book Club)
I don’t listen to a lot of audiobooks, but as I continue to step up the volume of books that I read I am finding Audible to be a useful and, more importantly, fun way to sneak an extra book into my roster. Towards the end of last year I read The Handmaids Tale this… Continue reading The Dutch House
This is a book about living hard. About trying. About how trying sometimes isn’t enough. In this his novel from 2014 author Smith Henderson pulls no punches as he paints a portrait of America as a hive of contradictions. In it he explores concepts of freedom and of anarchy and of social responsibility. It is… Continue reading Fourth of July Creek
run into words 