just got two books in the mail today:

Endurance Sports Nutrition by Suzanne Girard, and

my 2002 hardbound edition of Cook's Illustrated magazine

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Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

Over Christmas I read

Becoming an Ironman: First Encounters with the Ultimate Event by Kara Douglass Thom - I have not yet completed a full IM and thought it was very good - it is not a training manual - but a selection of short essays by people describing their IM experience.

I would recommend

All the Patrick O'Brien books (19 of them I think) about Aubrey and Maturin in the English Navy a couple of hundred years ago.

Any book by John Keegan a military historian

The Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Rgds

Pete

1) Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

2) Adrian House's biography of St. Francis

3) Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums

4) Ken Kesey's Demon Box

5) all those damn magazines I'm addicted to and that lead to bad habits (e.g. Runners' World, Triathlete, Inside Triathlon, ...)

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TonyG

What is Enoch Root?

1) Reams of research notes;

2) Paul Auster - Moon Palace

2) If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino

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"Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parents of it, the mind. No glass so mirrors a man's form or likeness so true as his speech." - Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter.

what is moon palace about?

Fiction / non fiction?

curious... looking for my next book

Contemporary type fiction. If you haven't read any of his stuff before, I'd recommend 'New York Triology' as a starter.

Also, seeing you're in the locale you'll probably recognise plenty of places.

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"Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parents of it, the mind. No glass so mirrors a man's form or likeness so true as his speech." - Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter.

1. Body Mind Mastery, by Dan Millman. Exploring the mental side of athletics

2. The newest biography of John Adams, the REAL mind behind the U.S. constitution

3. Lord of the Rings Trilogy + The Hobbit, for the umpteenth time. Yeah, I'm a Tolkein-phile.

4. Daily research articles posted at ACSM

5. An athlete oriented physiology and nutrition textbook I borrowed from a friend

Conspicuously, I've curtailed my military professional reading program lately. Just not interested in killing people for some reason. I'd rather swim/bike/run.

In a most fortuitous coincidence, my friend, nemesis and training partner alerted me to multiple copies of "Race Across America: The Agonies & Glories of the World's Longest & Cruelest Bicycle Race" by Michael Shermer available in a local bookstore. The store had maybe 20 titles in English at all, and for some unknown reason had a bunch of copies of this book, for less than US$2.00.

My training partner and I happen to be in the midst of a big bike push, so reading this book is quite inspiring and humbling. As my legs sting from a 500-km. week in the saddle I only have to think of the RAAM riders and their multiple 500-plus kilometer days to know that my cycling volume is nothing.

Also by my bedside I've got a pile of books:

-The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang

-Underworld, by Don Delillo

-Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami

Ah!! A post related to one of my favorite sedentary obsessions!!!

OK, favorite books: I'm with taku on BNW; it's a great book, very thought provoking. I also loved Catcher in the Rye and Thoreau's Walden for their ability to set me thinking and examining my life. As far as pure enjoyment, I really like the Russian authors new and old. For the old, I've gotta give props to The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevesky. For the new, I highly recommend The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, a rollicking magical realism farce; any other Russian works in the magical realism vein are also tops. Similarly, I really enjoyed One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as well as Love in the Time of Cholera, and pretty much any other Latin American work of magical realism. Finally, for those of us with questions of what lies beyond on our minds, I find works such Barrabbas by Par Lagkervist, Bartelby the Scrivener by Melville, and The Plague by Camus to be great works examining the role of religion (and philosophy) in the development of western thought. I could go on.

As far as current reading, I'm working on a couple of travel books from the late 50's about the middle east, Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger and A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby. (Yes, I did get the idea from Outside magazine). And, as part of the usual rotation, Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, The American Scholar, and Runner's World.

The last few books that I've read are so different from one another I wonder about the choices myself.

1) The Art of War.- Really a good book

2) Blackholes (Steven Hawkins) A little dry, very deep in thinking about everyday beliefs and ideals

3) Last Man Down- A true story of a Fire Chief for New York Fire that actually made it out of the world trade center after it came down. Great book, but I'm kind of partial to anything fire related.

Over Christmas I read "How to lose friends and alienate people" by Toby Young about his very disturbing stint in NY as a Journalist (I use that term very loosely for Graydon Carter).

I re-read parts of me talk pretty by David Sedaris, a hysterical Satirist.

On the flight from NY to London I read Death in Holy Orders PD James, it was ok, light fiction for a long-ish overnight flight.

On the return leg I read number 9 and 11 in the Rebus series by Iian Banks (sp???) very very light reading.

I might read Touching the Void again as I need some life inspiration........

I am reading the two towers now. i have about 120 pages left. what are your thoughts on the books vs. movie?

email off line if you'd like. thanks.

Which "Art of War" are you reading ajmilk? There's hundreds with that title, some of them good, most of them not worth the paper they're printed on. I'll first assume it's Sun Tzu, probably the most well known currently due to popularization by big biz leaders and former Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Al Gray. Good book, but you really have to delve into eastern thought processes to truly understand the book.

I spent most of yesterday on the Internal Revenue Code. I can't recommend this one.

Second Pete on the O'Brien series, but I wish someone would write #20. O'Brien died and left us hanging. Throw in the Hornblower books by C. S. Forrester - same topic, different style.

Tom Clancey, although the new one is not as good as some of the others.

Just re-read Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim by Robert Conrad. Man, they could write back then.

Oh man, I see more titles to add to my "Want to read" list. That list is a few hundred titles long.

I just finished "Maestro___Greenspan's Fed and the American Boom" by Bob Woodward. Really interesting and not so economic-geeky as I feared it would be.

I had a lot of free time over Christmas and during a trip in early December to New Zealand, and during that time I read:

"Can You Make A Living Doing That?" by Brad Kearns. A quick read and highly entertaining as I remember all the names he talks about from the early days.

My brother gave me the "2002 Official Guide to the Tour de France" since I'm going this July.

"Volcano--A Memoir of Hawai'i" by Garrett Hongo. Memoir of a poet/writer, born in Volcano town on the big island (where we've actually had lunch...Volcano, that is), but raised mostly in Honolulu and Los Angeles. It's a lot of how he found his place in the world and within his own skin, by returning to the place of his birth and finding out about his grandparents, whom he never really knew. I liked it a lot as I love the big island and all the history and lore.

"The Gloves: A Boxing Chronicle" by Robert Anasi. A really good book about a guy who takes up amateur boxing when he was 26 (considered quite old) and eventually competes in two NYC Golden Gloves tournaments. He covers the physical, emotional and social aspect of training and the gym. A very entertaining read.

"On Fire" by Larry Brown. Memoir by an ex-fireman from Oxford, Mississippi, turned writer. Very quick read (short chapters, almost journal-like). Highly entertaining. It's about the life of a fireman, but also about family, life in Mississippi and life.

"Making A Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers" by Carolyn See. A writing guide but more. Blends the "how to" with figuring out the "why" and how it all fits in with you and your life.

"Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" by Anne Lamott. Another book on writing, this one more on the "how to", with some great ideas, examples and exercises on getting over the "what should I write about". The two books complement each other quite well.

"A Drinking Life" by Pete Hamill. Memoir by a writer who grew up in Brooklyn in the 40s-50s with the stereotypical drunken Irish father. Hamill's life revolved around drinking and his conflicts with wanting to be "one of the guys from the neighborhood" and wanting to have/do more in life. Really good. (And who knew he dated Shirley MacLaine?)

"No Mean Feat" by Mark Inglis. Impulse purchase in NZ. Great book! About a Kiwi who, with his climbing/work partner), was stranded on Mt. Cook for 13 nights in the 1970s. They were both mountain guides in the national park there and they were rescued, but both had to have both lower legs amputated. The book goes into the aftermath and rehabilitation, and then up to the present (just published in 2002). Inglis has become an excellent para-olympic athlete and wine maker, who in 2003 is off to a new adventure. Quite the inspirational book.

I also picked up some Kiwi fiction that I'll start on soon. And, I read a ton of magazines...Triathlete, Inside Tri, Runners World, Marathon & Beyond, CycleSport, ProCycling, Oxygen, Shape, etc.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Just now: Churchill, by Roy Jenkins

Just finished: Dance Hall of the Dead, by Tony Hillerman

Can't stay away from: James Lee Burke's novels with Dave Robicheaux

Here's what I'm reading now:

The Tao te Ching (Translation by Jane English and Gia Fu Feng). I refer to that book frequently and its a great source of peace.

No Room For Error: Covert Operations of America's Special Tactics Units from Iran to Afghanistan.

Leading at the Edge, Leadership Lesson from Shackleton's Odyessy.

I'm also reading the standard assortment of action adventure fiction stuff.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Like TriBriGuy, I'm in the middle of the Biography of John Adams. Currently, he's in the Netherlands trying to get the Dutch to come up with some cash to finance the Revolutionary Army. Don't ruin it for me, but I hope we win the war and he gets elected President.

I can't recall who it was that commented on the David Sedearis book above, but it IS damn funny. If you didn't catch it, he had a short story in Esquire magazine 2-3 months ago about the wedding of his little brother, The Rooster. It's hilarious, and I think it's available at the esquire web site.

I just finished In Harm's Way, the store of the USS Indianapolis- very good and talk about being in the water a long time!
Close to Shore - the true story that Jaws was based on, starts very slow but an exciting ending. I have to get the shark books out of the way before summer or I'll never get in the water.
Just started The Harmon Chronicles by Harmon Leon, very funny.
Last night I read: Tell me Something Happy Before I go to Sleep, Olivia Saves the Circus, and D.W. the Picky Eater

Just finished The Stranger by Albert Camus and am currently on The Myth of Sisyphus also by Camus. In parallel I'm finishing France and the World (French foreign policy since 1870).

I saw Sedaris in Chicago and will see him again here in Boulder in the fall but the funniest story I have ever heard him tell is about being on the El with his sister and she gets off at Addison and he's staying on the train heading north and as the door's close she shouts from one end of the carriage to the other (I paraphrase here) something like "Dont worry David we know that you did'nt rape that xxxxxx" as he's left sitting on the train with everyone staring at him............

You cant kill the F**king Rooster.........

Not much of a fiction reader per se, especially fiction, but I am reading "100 Years of Solitude," Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Great book.

Gates or Fire. Which led me to Tides of War by Stephen Pressfield. If your a historian or military officer (or any type of leader) Gates of Fire is a must read.

I currently have several books I'm working on.

Yoga for Athletes by Aladar Kogler, Ph.D.

It's Not ABout the Bike by Lance Armstrong

The Lance Armstrong Performance Program by Lance Armstrong & Chris Carmichael

Galloway's Book on Running by Jeff Galloway

Run Fast by Hal Higdon

The Comics Since 1945 by Brian Walker