Award Winning Humorist and Lifelong Runner

I Run, Therefore I Am-Nuts!

by Bob Schwartz

 



"Why we carbo load, fartlek train, hit the wall... and love every minute of it".

Bob Schwartz delves into the world of training, racing, the mindset of the distance runner, the multiple skills of runner's, motivation and recovery, the marathoner, injuries, aging gracefully, competition and effort. This book is hilarious! Whether you are a novice runner or a professional marathoner, this book is for you. Schwartz nails the ins and outs of running and how being a runner is more of a lifestyle then a sport. Unless you are a runner, you would think that his encounters and rational are exaggerated, but being a runner myself, I felt comfort in knowing that I am not alone. As an added bonus, B.K. Taylor's illustrations appear in the beginning of each chapter. Although not your ordinary book on running, this book is a serious look at the total running experience in an honest and comical way. Most running books are stuffy and clinical and humorless, but not this one. Schwartz is able to capture the pitfalls of running, that we do not always hear enough about. He's earnest and funny all at the same time.

Highlights include:

• The intricate art of drinking on the run from paper cups
• Trying to reacquaint fingers to toes after years of tight hamstrings
• Hitting the wall
• Having your heart flutter with the newest cushioned training shoe
• Discovering cross-training contraptions designed to strengthen your gluteus maximus
• Getting excited about the latest flavor of energy gel on the market

If you love this book, you should also check out the sequel I Run Therefore I Am- Still Nuts!

• Suffering from RWIA, otherwise known as running watch information addiction
• The addictive nature of high-intensity interval training
• The depths of despair upon learning your favorite shoes will be discontinued
• Embracing the saving grace of age-graded race time calculators
• Attempting to run with a reluctant canine companion
• Trying out running in the oxymoron of barefoot shoes

Visit Bob at www.facebook.com/runninglaughs, www.runninglaughsblog.com, & @runninglaughs.
Available at bookstores everywhere. Human Kinetics Publisher

Click here to preview of some of the hysterical chapter illustrations from the book. BK can be reached at bktaylorstudio@comcast.net.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Review:

Aside from thinking Murakami is a literary genius, he has managed to inspire me as a runner. Over the past few months I began running regularly and have been savoring this memoir a spoonful at a time. This is not your typical recap of a runner's life, but a pouring out of the effect that long distance running has on an artist. The art of running is closely intertwined with the craft of writing. Both take discipline and perseverance.

Murakami begins his journal on August 5, 2005, Kauai, Hawaii and ends on October 1, 2006, Murakami City, Niigata Prefecture. Throughout the course of the book he periodically discusses his private life as a writer and the impact that running has had on his creative process. Although this was not a page turner, it is the perfect book for anyone who enjoys long distance running and aspires to eventually run a marathon. I am in awe with not only Murakami's writing, but his incredible dedication to running. After reading this book, I too share his runner's high.

Synopsis:

An intimate look at writing, running, and the incredible way they intersect, from the incomparable, bestselling author Haruki Murakami.While simply training for New York City Marathon would be enough for most people, Haruki Murakami's decided to write about it as well. The result is a beautiful memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid memories and insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and revelatory, both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in athletic pursuit.

Excerpt: AUGUST 5, 2005. KAUAI, HAWAII, Who's Going to Laugh at Mick Jagger?

I'm on Kauai, in Hawaii, today, Friday, August 5, 2005. It's unbelievably clear and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. As if the concept clouds doesn't even exist. I came here at the end of July and, as always, we rented a condo. During the mornings, when it's cool, I sit at my desk, writing all sorts of things. Like now: I'm writing this, a piece on running that I can pretty much compose as I wish. It's summer, so naturally it's hot. Hawaii's been called the island of eternal summer, but since it's in the Northern Hemisphere there are, arguably, four seasons of a sort. Summer is somewhat hotter than winter. I spend a lot of time in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and compared to Cambridge--so muggy and hot with all its bricks and concrete it's like a form of torture--summer in Hawaii is a veritable paradise. No need for an air conditioner here--just leave the window open, and a refreshing breeze blows in. People in Cambridge are always surprised when they hear I'm spending August in Hawaii. "Why would you want to spend summer in a hot place like that?" they invariably ask. But they don't know what it's like. How the constant trade winds from the northeast make summers cool. How happy life is here, where we can enjoy lounging around, reading a book in the shade of trees, or, if the notion strikes us, go down, just as we are, for a dip in the inlet.

How to Beard Yourself Like Brian Wilson poster Jon Adams

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Chicago Cubs: Memorable Stories of Cubs Baseball

(Game of My Life)

by Lew Freedman

*One of the highlights of the trip was our day at Wrigley Field. The Cubs played the Diamondbacks, Boo! Even though the Cubbies lost, we had great seats ($12 standing room only) for this sold out game. It was hard to get tickets and we tried all week via phone, but were able to pull off buying some last minute tickets at the stadium box office in person. The area around the ball park is unreal! You have to check out Goose Island Brewery just a block away from the stadium for post- game drinks/grub and cool live music.

The Rise And Self-Destruction Of The Greatest Football Team In History: The Chicago Bears And Super Bowl XX

by John Mullin and John Madden

"That 1985 season was the most fun year I ever saw, not only for broadcasting, but for the whole NFL. For the country, really. . . . I mean, the whole thing was right out of central casting. . . . It was like a smorgasbord, a buffet." —from the Foreword by John Madden

*Sorry to say, but Soldier Field was closed the day we trekked out to sneak a peek. Good news, we did have a great view from our hotel and we took tons of pictures from the outside.

The Golf Novel

For Michael L.- I hope you're still reading!

The Back Nine

by Billy Mott

From Booklist

The golf novel--typically a source of either slapstick or treacly inspiration--has finally come of age. This remarkably assured debut stands out from the pack because it takes the game seriously as a subject of literary fiction and then delivers a story that can carry its thematic weight and a character whose humanity is as palpable as his golf swing is smooth. Mott sets the action mainly in the caddyshack, but this isn't another of those one-dimensional riffs aimed at ridiculing fat-cat golfers. Mott's caddy hero, Charlie McCleod, once a golf phenom, was forced to quit the game after a freak injury. On the run from personal demons, he lands in San Francisco and impulsively hires on as a caddy at an exclusive club. Gradually drawn back into the game, Charlie soon finds himself involved in a big-money match with a legendary golf hustler. The setup suggests all sorts of melodramatic potholes--the Rocky cliche being only one of them--but Mott steers away from trouble as skillfully as Ben Hogan, Charlie's hero, could guide the flight of a one-iron. The novel works because Mott gets the golf exactly right, from dialogue to swing details. He makes us care about Charlie, not because he plays a particular game but because he shows us how playing that game can make you feel alive in a very special way. In The Hustler, Fast Eddie Felson explains how, when he is on a roll, the cue becomes an extension of his arm. A one-iron is Charlie's cue stick, and The Back Nine is golf's Hustler.
Bill Ott

A New Season of Baseball

Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season by Jonathan Eig

April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history.

NPR : A Test of Courage: Jackie Robinson's Rookie Year

The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-from-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series and America's Heart During the Great Depression

by John Heidenry

Seventy-three years ago, the St. Louis Cardinals did what they did only six months ago: They beat the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
The Gashouse Gang by John Heidenry Chron.com - Houston Chronicle