Reading Review

Lately, I’ve been reading while I run.  That’s right – WHILE I run.  It’s a great benefit to grab a book and put in my easy mileage, emerging from the run physically drained and simultaneously refreshed AND mentally stimulated.  Here’s how I do it: audiobooks.

I listen to books when I run; never on streets, mind you, for safety reasons, but on the trails in Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park.  Here is a snapshot of my last six months or so of reading selections.

Reading selections

Half of the titles are books about running – not technique particularly, but stories about runners’ lives.  From Lopez Lomong’s amazing journey from the refugee camp in Kenya where he fled from Sudan and the life of a child soldier to the Olympic stage; to Rich Roll’s journey from alcoholism and a sedentary lifestyle to an incredibly plant-based-diet fueled ultra athlete; to Adharanand Finn’s tale of moving to Kenya to live and train with Kenyan athletes in hopes of finding the secret of their distance running dominance.

Half of the titles are fantasy books by Neil Gaiman, the best of which, to me, are young adult titles. Mr. Gaiman excels in spinning dark, sinister tales that begin with death (particularly the death of a parent) and follow the struggle of a child, usually an underdog in more than just age, to independence and young adulthood.  My favorite is The Graveyard Book, which is the story of a an infant, left alone when his parents are murdered, who is raised by the good folks of a graveyard – ghosts, by another name – and whose prime guardian, is one who is neither human nor dead.  The book touches on some Celtic religion and mythology, which is one of Gaiman’s favorite themes; from Anansi Boys to American Gods to Stardust, he explores the lives and stories of people who are just like us, but with an extra spiritual/mythological dimension or heritage (as in Anansi Boys when Fat Charlie comes to discover, after his father’s death, that he’s the son of the African god, Anansi).

The other novel I read was Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion.  It’s a zombie novel.  And, not having read any other zombie literature, I can assure that it’s probably unlike any other zombie read out there.  The book is very philosophical and funny, poking at what it means to be alive over and over again.  The story, even though told through a zombie narrator, is lively and compelling in a dry way, and the parallels between us and zombies – what drives our passions and desires – are all too obvious.