Monday, February 22, 2010

Born to Run

Last time we were in Cape Cod, Mike recommended a couple of books.

One, The Ten Books Which Screwed Up the World, was as highly entertaining as expected. It's amazing the mayhem that can result when individuals advance selfish theories which deny basic God-given rules. The books, written by the likes of Marx, Lenin, and Hitler, have resulted in over 100 million deaths.

The other book Michael recommended, Born to Run, was a very nice surprise. I don't consider myself an avid runner or a training afficinado (although I'm an accomplished spectator!), but Born to Run was a book I found hard to put down.

It was spiced with some great real-world characters, some eye-opening theories regarding how to run properly, how the science of running has regressed as gear has "improved", the story of the delightful Tarahumara tribe (the world's best runners) which lives happily in the deep canyons of western Mexico, and a world-class race which few people witnessed.

The world of ultramarathoners who run long distances on mountain trails is an interesting and little-known perspective on man's natural inclination to run from Point A to Point B.

Mike's recommendation skills were in first-rate order when he nudged me toward these two books.

2 comments:

Amber said...

Michael is a genius.

Amber said...

For the record, the above comment was made by Michael.