Here we go with another journalist. Those readers who drift more towards
non-fiction are probably appreciative of the research-laden books that
journalists publish. Everything you
always wanted to know about, in this case, ultra running, all condensed, to an
extent, in one book.
In my case, I prefer fiction, which can benefit from
good research, as seasoning; but does not become the main entrée for a meal. All the way through this book, I pictured the
author, not participating in yet another screwy running event; but rather
sprawled out like I am right now, in front of my computer, digging up vignettes
from the Internet and printing them all out until the author had scores of
human interest blurbs from all around the world related to running. Then he wove them together into a cohesive a
story as he could muster.
So, for me, this sort of book has to balance the
research with a pervasive plot line.
Many of our journalist books these past few years did a good job of
this: Henrietta Lacks had good balance
and a plot that carried; Sanctuary of Outcasts carried the plotline, but it was
an evil one. Bliss by Eric Weiner and
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick are my epitomes of bad balance. Demick at least tried with a bad subject;
Weiner didn’t even try to make sense of his “old stories”.
Ultra
Running
No one knows anything about it.!.!
No one cares about this arcane subject.!.!
Why not.?.?
--- because it’s boring.!.!.!
I like to talk about “take-away”-s from a book
experience: lessons learned; knowledge gained; improvements to my lifestyle,
diet, knowledgebase, personality, skill set, love life, handling of
interpersonal relationships.
What came to mind in review was:
-
Run barefoot
-
Eat vegetarian
The problem is, the author didn’t do either. He didn’t walk the walk.
He wore big boots or $200 running shoes all the time.
He ate like a fully-fledged carnivore, an American
carnivore at that – red meat with processed food supplements. YUK.!.!
Did I sympathize with him in the “Big” race ? --- NO.! ---
He seemed like a big, fat slob that deserved to take
12 hours to complete what other did in 6 hours.
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