Books About Runnin'

After a solid hour or so of shouting for LA Marathon runners (way to gooooo!), I am thoroughly relegated to the back desk of the store, far from the action. But here are a few running books that I (and others) highly recommend! Call ahead to be sure we put them in stock for you...

Running with the Buffaloes, by Chris Lear. This fantastic little narrative is about the UC Boulder men's cross country running season around 1998. From successes to injuries, great news to awful tragedies, everything that happens to this devoted team of athletes is riveting. (I also learned from this book that I never, never want to have a heel spur. Yow!) It should be noted that since my reading this in first edition, it has been revised, so some pesky grammatical and typographical errors have hopefully been fixed... Despite the occasional it's/its snafu, this one offers fantastic insight to collegiate athletics.

Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. We're having an event! I'm going on faith to recommend this ALA notable, since I haven't read the thing yet, but the positive review from one of my most voracious reader/runner friends should be trusted. A wildly talented set of natural-born distance runners in northern Mexico fascinates and inspires a sports and health journalist with a history of running injuries. Coooool.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami. He's a great novelist and a runner! Coincidence? No. I initially rebelled against this book for its apparently rip-off title, but now I stand corrected. Apparently Murakami used to translate Raymond Carver books. "Runner's World" gave a good interview for it.

Catalyst, by Laurie Halse Anderson. This one's for the teen in your life. The controversial author of Speak gives her own record of productive, educational teenage drama a run (see? running!) for its proverbial money. The heroine's actual running really drew me into this story about how to thrive in whatever life provides for a person.

Other standards are John L. Parker Jr.'s Once a Runner, Tom Jordan's Prefontaine bio, Pre; "Runner's World" magazine, which we have at the News Mews, and Kathleen Krull and David Diaz's kids' book collaboration, Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman.

Way to go, marathoners - of the body and of the mind. Happy reading!