It seems to me there's a real deficit of high-quality literary books, fiction or nonfiction, about our sport. Clearly, as has been lamented ad infinitum on this board, our sport is difficult to translate to a wide audience. Football, basketball, soccer, etc do not have this problem.
How does one capture the magic of a record-setting marathon versus the final game of the World Series? From a writing standpoint, it seems like apples and oranges.
I thought Once A Runner was utter garbage. There's no way I would read another of his books.
Are there any literary gems, new or old, out there that read like actually good writing? I'm talking on the same level as String Theory by David Foster Wallace, by Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, or Levels of the Game by John McPhee.
Is there any halfway decent literature about running?
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Laura Hillenbrand writes garbage too. Sensationalized over the top blog style writing.
The book "Lovelock" was a pretty good read. -
Try 'The Perfect Mile' by Neal Bascomb
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How Bad Do You Want It by Matt Fitzgerald has some pretty good writing in it. You could try that.
Maybe also try The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb.
I'm sure there are others. I don't think the selection of running literature is as bad as you're making it out to be. -
For hobby jogging, read Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
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"The loneliness of the long distance runner".
It is tangentially "about" running, despite the title, but does contain some beautiful prose about the solitary training run through the countryside. -
The Men of Oregon is fairly high level writing. The Dual in the Sun is another good one.
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or you could check out the Green Mile by Stephen King. It's story line is pretty similar to most running books.
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I thought "Two Hours" by Ed Caesar was really good: fine quality writing, interesting narrative strategy, a very sympathetic and intimate portrait of Geoffrey Mutai and the Kenyan running culture in general.
I sympathize with your frustration. Most of the stuff I've read (or listened to on "tape") has been pretty bad, especially the popular stuff like _Born to Run_ and _Running with the Kenyans_. Caesar is a fine writer, though. -
I was also going to suggest Fitzgerald, and I consider it a bonus that he also includes other endurance sports (cycling, rowing, etc)
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I'd argue that if you did not like "Once a Runner" then you never were.
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"Our sport"
Annoying -
"A Cold Clear Day" is a well written book. It is the biography of Buddy Edelen, who was the first person to break 2:15 in the Marathon.
https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Clear-Day-Frank-Murphy/dp/0735103992/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498570426&sr=8-1&keywords=a+cold+clear+day -
SlipperyPete13 wrote:
The Men of Oregon is fairly high level writing. The Dual in the Sun is another good one.
Ah letsrun, duel meets and duals between two guys. -
Here's an obscure one for you. I thought was fantastic. "Last to First" by Charlie Spedding. He was from England. Great history of the time and his challenges. "describes himself as 'not particularly talented' - at least compared to the group of people he had chosen to find himself among. Those were the athletes in the Olympic marathon".
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Running With The Kenyans (Finn) is an excellent easy read, really enjoyed it (twice now).
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SlipperyPete13 wrote:
The Men of Oregon is fairly high level writing. The Dual in the Sun is another good one.
I liked Duel in the Sun more tbh -
Most biographies are not very good apart from a glimpse of training. They are so bland and unwilling to provide any insight that they can be read once and mostly instantly forgotten.
From a UK perspective I offer three choices which you and others in the USA may not be familar with:
Ron Hill's autobiography 'The Long Hard Road' vols 1 &2.(1981)
Vol 1 is full of insights how he developed his training up to 1968 whilst working full time in industry. Vol 2 is nowhere near as good.
The second choice is,
Richard Askwith 'Feet in the Clouds' (2004)
This is about fell running- a niche sport peculiar to the fells of the north of England. Ultimately it is about the author's attempt to complete the Bob Graham Round- 42 of the Lake District's highest peaks which have to be covered in under 24 hours. The book does start with this warning;
'The activities described in this book are dangerous and may result in injury or death. Don't try them. Go to a gym instead, or stay at home and watch television.' Allie Ostrander would have a ball on these courses.
The third choice is,
Peter Lovesey 'The Kings of Distance' (1968)
This will be extremely difficult to find now but in my opinion it is the best book on running by far. Lovesey had a background as a track statistician- a member of NUTS- and has written a book on 5 of track's greatest distance athletes who appeared at roughly 20 years intervals. From Deerfoot in the 1860s, W G George in the 1880s, Alf Shrubb in the 1900s, Nurmi in the 1920s up to Zatopek in the decade after WW2, his book is tremendous and recommended unresrvedly.
Lovesey also wrote novels- one featured a detective investigating a murder during what were called 'Wobbles' or a contest (running/ walking) for 6 days held indoors in a small hall in Islington with a very small track requiring multiple circuits per mile and thousands in 6 days. These were very popular in the Victorian era and I think the record ultimately reached 623 miles in 6 days.
Hope these help -
E. Bonix wrote:
Try 'The Perfect Mile' by Neal Bascomb
Second this. It was well written
