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It is worth reading once if you are a runner.
The chapter on the development of running shoes and the theory that humans evolved to run are very interesting. I have no idea what the real science is, but it provoked thought.
However, the rest of the book can be difficult to read due to the outlandish exaggerations McDougall makes about everything. Every run is done in 120 degree heat, every cliff is a thousand foot drop off, and the natives are your 1800s stoic Indians, living simple, awesome lifestyles that obviously are the cure to everything.
I really enjoyed it. It was totally worth the read. Just take a lot of it as an exaggeration.
Phanatic wrote:
I really enjoyed it. It was totally worth the read. Just take a lot of it as an exaggeration.
+1
Why would you ask the question after you already got the book? If you have it, you should at least read a few chapters to see if you like it. It won't cost anything at this point.
To be honest, I think I would have enjoyed it just as much if I wasn't a runner. To me it was just a good story. The one chapter on running with respect to evolution was interesting, but I have a friend that studies forensic anthropology and he said that, like everything else in the book, the conclusiveness of the science is greatly exaggerated.
I read a chapter if I can't sleep. And that's only if drugs and booze don't work.
Stupid book. It has helped to sell VFF.
yea so far i have read a few pages and it seems very slow, but kinda interesting i guess. im hoping it will get a little better though...
Great Book. I recommend it to running and non-running friends.
No. Every other chapter is an infomercial for minimalist/barefoot running or chia seeds. The stories take way to long to develop and every description has at least 15 adjectives to set it up.
He somehow manages to be everywhere and witness everything. The book ends with a long story about a race he is in, but somehow manages to know precisely what every other runner did???
Sort'a.
Myself, I go out and write the next chapter of my own book every day.
fattyatthegym wrote:
No. Every other chapter is an infomercial for minimalist/barefoot running or chia seeds. The stories take way to long to develop and every description has at least 15 adjectives to set it up.
He somehow manages to be everywhere and witness everything. The book ends with a long story about a race he is in, but somehow manages to know precisely what every other runner did???
Very well written BUT not a good book. The author plays loose with his "facts" and is full of himself.
It's fairly entertaining. Read it as pure fiction instead of as any sort of guide to how you should conduct your own training.
I did find the magical savage bits a little offensive, but it's a good lesson in what an as$hole you look like when you talk about people from other cultures like that.
I got tired of all his exaggerations and the idea that the indians were simple yet superhuman. I also didn't understand how he would describe someone as looking fast when they ran and then go on to say how the same person kept running for 40-odd miles. I quit reading when he started bashing on Bowerman and kissing Arthur Lydiard's ass.
Not worth the read.
I enjoyed it. It's a little slow in the beginning but it picks up. Like others have said, the chapter on modern running shoes is pretty interesting...as well as the chapter(s) about the race. I feel that it embellished the lives of the natives...I'm fairly certain they live in absolute poverty from what the little I've read about them. Take it for what it's worth..
It is mostly a work fiction. It is entertaining but don't take it too seriously.
My brother read it. He's not a runner, but since he read the book, he now he is an expert on minimalist running. Probably never run more than 4 miles in his life. It's like putting "Atlas Shrugged" in the wrong hands.
It would be tough to be more minimalist as a runner than having run no more than four miles during your entire life.
1. Buy book
2. Wonder if you should read it
or
1. Wonder about a book
2. Buy it if you decide you want to read it
Hmmm.