I know time is short. But I try and take 15 mins. a day to read. I recently discovered Pam Reed. an extra mile. She is an ultra-marathoner.
besides ST you mean? 
I love fiction but I can never put a book down. So during training cycles it’s non fiction only to preserve sleep. Mostly history…b/c I already know the ending.
Right now I’m reading Gale Bernhardt’s Training Plans for MultiSport Athletes. I like Gale’s style.
Fabulous question! I LOVE to read and am always looking for new books to add to my queue!
What I’m reading now …
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Five Families (Selwyn Raab) – about the 5 Mafia families of NY. Good book – I’m only 1/2-way through, and it’s already into the mid-80s, early 90s.
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The Last of the Savages (Jay McInerney) – read this years ago and am rereading it now
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The Awakening (Kate Chopin) – another reread. I read it in high school and have been terrified to read it again. What if I don’t like it as much? It’s kind of like when Holden Caulfield visits the Museum of Natural History and says something about how it’s different every time, if only because YOU’RE different.
4 Stephen King books – still ANOTHER set of rereads. I picked up a couple of his early books after seeing The Shining (again) a few weeks ago. He’s really a very good writer. I didn’t appreciate that when I was in 7th grade!
I love reading too! I always have a huge stack next to my bed.
Right now there are several magazines including Running Times, Marathon & Beyond, usual Triathlon magazines.
Current Books:
Thunderstruck - By Erik Larson. About Marconi and the first wireless transmissions. Super interesting. He’s written other book that I’ve enjoyed including The Devil in the White City.
In Defense of Food - By Michael Pollan. Same author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I love books about food!
Love in the Time of Cholara - By Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I just finished this one. Great book.
Scientific Training for Triathletes - By Dr. Philip Friere Skiba, STer. So far a good read. Not too far in but I like the writing style.
The Secret - Eh, not super impressed. I’m always a skeptic of self help books.
Begging to be started:
Running and Philosophy: A Marathon for the Mind
C.C. Pyle’s Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America
I recently finished Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen, a climber who then went on to build several schools for girls in N. Pakistan, pre and post 9/11.
Currently reading The Fig Eater by Jody Shields. A mystery set in 1910 Vienna. It’s very well written with interesting characters.
Starting soon: The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
I really want to read Pollan’s In Defense of Food, but I’m in two book clubs right now and it’s a struggle to fit anything else in.
Erin, what do you think of Three Cups of Tea? That’s been on my reading wish list forever.
Just finishing up Second Thyme Round by Katie Fforde.
Looking forward to starting Eat Pray Love on my vacation in a week … that and the new book in the Shopaholics series as well as a Janet Evanoch book …
I love chic lit - I’m just not that deep in my real life as my job (lawyer) requires a tonne of thinking and in my free time I like to relax my brain !
I read the Pam Reed book but thought it was poorly written.
I recently finished “Jarhead A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles” by Anthony Swofford. Good, but disturbing.
QRgrl sent me “A Year Without ‘Made in China’ One Family’s True Life Adventure in the Global Economy” by Sara Bongiorni, which I am really enjoying.
What I’ve read in the past few years is here, along with a mini review:
http://ironclm.typepad.com/clms_booklist/
clm
I really liked Three Cups of Tea. Greg Mortenson is an amazing person, who seemingly had no idea what he was getting into, yet has accomplished so much. It’s timely as well with the ousting of Mushareff (sp?) in Paktistan a few weeks ago.
I read the Pam Reed book but thought it was poorly written.
I actually gave up on the Pam Reed book after the 10th time she made a disparaging remark about her husband. It was very poorly written and it is a shame because she is one tough chick. I’ve crewed Badwater and am planning on crewing again this year. The people who do that race are an incredible breed and she is right up there at the top. I really respect what she’s accomplished. She just needed a good ghost writer or editor.
I felt the same way about the Dean Karnazes book. I managed to finish that but like so many of them, this was just a big ego trip. The Ed Viesturs is yet another example. Big ego trip. Lance’s book, same thing.
If anyone find a good sports biography or autobiography let me know. I find athletes fascinating but none of them can write.
Three Cup of Tea was a great read. I flew through the book. What I really enjoyed was that an experience in sport (endurance hiking/climbing) brought him to his work/life passion (building schools in the middle east), something alot of us hope to achieve. It is an amazing story of someone make a HUGE impact in people’s lives. He, Greg Mortenson, gave a lecture a few weeks back here in San Diego. What he is doing in the middle east is truly making a difference on terror, opposed to dropping bombs and destroying villages.
I’ve just begun Swimming To Antartica by Lynne Cox. I really dig it thus far.
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain is great for anyone who has ever worked in the food industry
The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson is another good one, especially for anyone from Chicago.
I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max is a total frat boy book, but I found parts of it humorous.
Eat Prey Love by Elizabeth Gilbet is a book every woman should read
I would love to see Badwater. A gal I met at Ultraman last year will be doing BW this year.
Karno’s book was OK. I know it got a number of people excited about working out, so that’s good. And, he’s a nice guy (and looks good running when I’ve seen him out running here in SF).
I liked Lance’s book. Did I read Viesturs book? If I did, well, you can see the effect it had.
Have you read “To the Edge” by Kirk Johnson? That got me interested in Badwater.
And “Gold in the Water” and “Running With the Buffaloes” are extremely motivating books for me.
clm
Dean has some smokin’ hot legs in shorts. I saw him last year at BW, not to talk to, just to drool over.
Read the Kirk Johnson book about BW and that is what got me excited about it. Excellent book on endurance training and racing. The documentary, Running on the Sun, is really good too. I recommend both as great training inspiration. Hop on the tmail or trainer and pop that movie in. You’ll feel like you aren’t working hard enough.
The Lynn Cox book is great. She is fascinating. Talk about tough! Crap, I’d never do any of that.
Other athletic books I’ve read that are good:
Again to Carthage by John L. Parker Jr. - Fiction novel about a former olympic athlete. Well written.
The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb is really good about Bannister and his contemporaries and the fight to run the sub 4 minute mile.
I went through a phase of reading about mountaineering only to come to the conclusion that I have no desire to do any high altitude climbing. Probably because all the books I read were about disasters. They are some great books though:
The Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing’s Greatest Generation by Clint Willis
Savage Summit: The Life and Death of the First Women of K2 by Jennifer Jordan
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer - Of course
I have a ton more books that I can write up if people are interested. I was a writing major in college, oh so many years ago, and have always read, every day. During peak training season my husband will come upstairs to bed and I’ll be asleep, still holding my book open, light on. I can’t fall asleep without reading for a few minutes at least.
Are we twins???
Perfect mile–loved it.
Loved running on the sun
Same comment about the mt-eering books and desire to climb mts.
And, I’m also adopted (from other thread).
clm
My all time favorite author and someone I can read over and over: John Irving. If you say he is yours too then I’ll know we share the same genes.
You have good taste! A Widow for One Year is my favorite book of all-time, and a close runner-up is A Prayer for Owen Meany. I didn’t like the one about the tattoos, though. I finished it, but I couldn’t tell you what it was about.
Aside from the writing style, is the info in Scientific Training for Triathletes any different from all the other training books out there? I can’t get my hands on a copy without buying it at this point, so wondering if it is worth a read.
Thanks!
I’m still reading the “Scientific…” book and will let you know more about when I get a little further in.
I’m an avid reader, one of my regrets with full-on training is that it cuts into my reading time. I don’t generally read a lot of sports books, except for my high altitude climbing spree (Touching the Void, Into Thin Air, etc.).
I’m currently 3/4 of the way through The Brothers Karamazov. I started it when I was sick over Christmas, it’s a great book if you have lots of time on your hands but now that I’m back in training mode it’s really hard to get back into. I want to finish it though, I was beaten by Crime and Punishment and I’m not going to let Dostoevsky to get the better of me again!
I’m partway through Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. Absolutely fantastic book if you’re into slightly quirky fiction. Reminds me a lot of The Last Samurai by Helen De Witt (nb: the book has nothing to do the Tom Cruise movie).
In the fall I went on a spree of really depressing books:
The Road - Cormac McCarthy. I’ve read a lot of sci-fi but this takes the cake for post-apocolyptic future doom and gloom.
The Riders - Tim Winton
The Bone People - Keri Hulme
Machete Season - Jean Hatzfeld. The most depressing book about the Rawandan genocide I’ve read (including Shake Hands With The Devil and A Problem From Hell). It disturbed me so much I could barely read a chapter in one sitting without having to put the book down walk away from it.
After reading the above back to back I tried to read Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and had to give up a couple chapters in and read some fluff books.
I’m about 3/4 through The Bone People. I put it down about a year ago and haven’t re-started again, but I want to find out how it ends! Talk about depressing subject matter.
I’ve also read Swimming to Antartica and it’s REALLY good. Very inspiring.