[PDF] The Runners Literary Companion eBook

Author : Garth Battista
Publisher : Breakaway Books
Page : 431 pages
File Size : 27,45 MB
Release : 2014-10-29
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN :

GET BOOK

A collection of all the best fiction and poetry about runners and running. An inspiring book, brimming with courage, exaltation, fear, pain, sweat, hope, and elation. "Animates the spirit of running better than any other book." —Runner's World "Battista has gathered all the memorable (and widely scattered) jewels of running literature and melded them into a single glorious volume. I enjoyed it immensely and will keep it close at hand for many years." —John L. Parker, author of Once a Runner For anyone who loves reading as much as running, The Runner's Literary Companion is the ultimate pleasure. It contains all the greatest appearances of runners in literature: indelible scenes from classic running novels, and unforgettable short stories and poems. Whether you are a weekend jogger or an Olympic contender, whether a sprinter or a marathoner, or anything in between, if you are a thinking runner, this book has something that will set your heart racing, or send you out the door in running shoes, or simply bring a smile of recognition to your face—the recognition of kindred souls. These twenty-four stories and twenty-four poems are told in a splendid mix of voices and literary styles. They include a love story, two war stories, and a horror story; several murders and a surreal comedy. But they all are teeming with runners. They feature characters who are present in the lives of many runners already: Quenton Cassidy, the young miler in John L. Parker's cult novel, Once a Runner, Smith, the fierce rebel of The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, and Archie Hamilton, the ill-fated sprinter from Gallipoli. New heroes (and some villains) abound, ranging from the shy, persistent high school runner, John Sobieski, to James Tabor's nameless avenging drifter, who acts out every runner's darkest violent Impulse. Not to mention Pete Nilson and Brad Townes, two marathoners who (for different reasons) run themselves near to death, and find there strange bliss and redemption. And Hazel Elizabeth Deborah Parker (Squeaky), a girl in Harlem whose sprinting brings her joy and strength. Besides the extraordinary characters, and some plots which could adrenalize the dead, these stories and poems offer beautiful, inspiring descriptions of the physical act of running. The Runner's Literary Companion contains running as every runner dreams of it—fluid, powerful, and graceful. It anatomizes the vast complexity of this seemingly simple act. And it finds equal nobility in champions and unknowns. Each story and poem pulses with courage, fear, pain, hope, and elation. Fiction and poetry share with running an exhilaration and an intensity; they concentrate and magnify real life. The Runner's Literary Companion, by gathering these stories and poems, offers a glimpse of running as the transcendent thing it can be. And above all, this book will bring hours of reading pleasure to anyone who runs, or who once ran, or who hopes to run someday.

Author : Garth Battista
Publisher :
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 28,23 MB
Release : 1996
Category : American literature
ISBN :

GET BOOK

Collection of forty-eight fictional stories and poems featuring runners or offering descriptions of running, by famous and lesser known writers.

Author : Roger Robinson
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,58 MB
Release : 2003
Category : Athletics in literature
ISBN : 9781891369414

GET BOOK

Running in Literature is the first history of running as a literary subject, and in the hands of Roger Robinson, it's informative, original, and wonderfully entertaining. Running is an important element in some of the world's great books, from the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer to the novels of Thomas Hardy and James Joyce. Famous poems about running and runners extend from Pindar and Ovid, Walt Whitman, Rudyard Kipling, and A. E. Housman, to contemporary American writers. Their story is told with the knowledge and insights of a world-class literary critic and world-class runner. Book jacket.

Author : Garth Battista
Publisher : Breakaway Books
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 28,72 MB
Release : 2014-06-12
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN :

GET BOOK

The runner’s high is a marvelous side-effect of running, though mysterious and elusive. Sometimes you get it; usually you don’t. These forty-seven personal stories explore it in depth and detail, from euphoria to religious visions and mindblowing out-of-body experiences. One constant through these stories is an overwhelming sense of joy and awe at the infinite possibilities of the human body and soul. A man experiences a joyful downhill run as pure flight, unhindered freefall. One woman finds that breathing during running is an act of prayer. A runner on a tropical beach finds her surroundings metamorphosing surreally before her eyes. One man out on his daily run experiences a flash of utter peace and universal clarity—a moment that he later realizes occurred at precisely the time his father passed away. The runner’s high leads one man onward to find an even higher power: true, honest love. And the ultimate story is from a man in a maximum-security prison, who, during his runs in his tiny concrete cell, finds himself beyond all walls and iron bars. This dazzling celebration of running as a spiritual experience will inspire people of all abilities to explore the metaphysical side of running.

Author : Garth Battista
Publisher : Breakaway Books
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 14,82 MB
Release : 2014-06-11
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN :

GET BOOK

THE POWER OF RUNNING. Every runner knows this, and marvels at it, and finds it hard to wholly describe: Running will change your life. These four dozen essays capture the power of running to change and shape our existence, to elevate us, to inspire and strengthen us in all our pursuits. They were selected for the fine quality of their writing, the emotional strength of the stories, and for their narrative drama. Collectively they are motivational, inspirational, and instructive, thus making a fascinating book for dewy beginners and grizzled veterans alike. In this book are personal tales of running to quit drinking or drugs, to escape a bad marriage, to lose weight, running out grief, developing self-esteem, running for the sheer joy of it. A daughter finally bonds with her distant father when she wins a local race. A man diagnosed with a tumor in his lung runs his way back to health. A teenage girl living in a crack-infested neighborhood of the Bronx takes up running and finds her strength, and a good side of life. One man, viciously attacked on a remote beach in Africa and bleeding profusely, runs miles to safety, saving his own life. One woman’s story tells us, "Everything I need to know I learned from cross-country running." A Pakistani man, as an orphaned child, was introduced to running by a kind teacher—and went on to become a national caliber marathoner. They are all here—every type of runner, and running in all its physical and spiritual glory. This is a book to inspire anyone to go run, and love every miserable, glorious second of it. Garth Battista is the editor of The Runner’s Literary Companion.

Author : Mary Ellen Snodgrass
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 277 pages
File Size : 45,50 MB
Release : 2004-07-15
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0786419032

GET BOOK

Award-winning African-American playwright August Wilson created a cultural chronicle of black America through such works as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, and Two Trains Running. The authentic ring of wit, anecdote, homily, and plaint proved that a self-educated Pittsburgh ghetto native can grow into a revered conduit for a century of black achievement. He forced readers and audiences to examine the despair generated by poverty and racism by exploring African-American heritage and experiences over the course of the twentieth century. This literary companion provides the reader with a source of basic data and analysis of characters, dates, events, allusions, staging strategies and themes from the work of one of America's finest playwrights. The text opens with an annotated chronology of Wilson's life and works, followed by his family tree. Each of the 166 encyclopedic entries that make up the body of the work combines insights from a variety of sources along with generous citations; each concludes with a selected bibliography on such relevant subjects as the blues, Malcolm X, irony, roosters, and Gothic mode. Charts elucidate the genealogies of Wilson's characters, the Charles, Hedley, and Maxson families, and account for weaknesses in Wilson's female characters. Two appendices complete the generously cross-referenced work: a timeline of events in Wilson's life and those of his characters, and a list of 40 topics for projects, composition, and oral analysis.

Author : Christopher McDougall
Publisher : Profile Books
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 50,30 MB
Release : 2010-12-09
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 184765228X

GET BOOK

A New York Times bestseller 'A sensation ... a rollicking tale well told' - The Times At the heart of Born to Run lies a mysterious tribe of Mexican Indians, the Tarahumara, who live quietly in canyons and are reputed to be the best distance runners in the world; in 1993, one of them, aged 57, came first in a prestigious 100-mile race wearing a toga and sandals. A small group of the world's top ultra-runners (and the awe-inspiring author) make the treacherous journey into the canyons to try to learn the tribe's secrets and then take them on over a course 50 miles long. With incredible energy and smart observation, McDougall tells this story while asking what the secrets are to being an incredible runner. Travelling to labs at Harvard, Nike, and elsewhere, he comes across an incredible cast of characters, including the woman who recently broke the world record for 100 miles and for her encore ran a 2:50 marathon in a bikini, pausing to down a beer at the 20 mile mark.

Author : Peter Sagal
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 31,56 MB
Release : 2019-09-10
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 1451696256

GET BOOK

Peter Sagal, the host of NPR’s Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me! and a popular columnist for Runner’s World, shares “commentary and reflection about running with a deeply felt personal story, this book is winning, smart, honest, and affecting. Whether you are a runner or not, it will move you” (Susan Orlean). On the verge of turning forty, Peter Sagal—brainiac Harvard grad, short bald Jew with a disposition towards heft, and a sedentary star of public radio—started running seriously. And much to his own surprise, he kept going, faster and further, running fourteen marathons and logging tens of thousands of miles on roads, sidewalks, paths, and trails all over the United States and the world, including the 2013 Boston Marathon, where he crossed the finish line moments before the bombings. In The Incomplete Book of Running, Sagal reflects on the trails, tracks, and routes he’s traveled, from the humorous absurdity of running charity races in his underwear—in St. Louis, in February—or attempting to “quiet his colon” on runs around his neighborhood—to the experience of running as a guide to visually impaired runners, and the triumphant post-bombing running of the Boston Marathon in 2014. With humor and humanity, Sagal also writes about the emotional experience of running, body image, the similarities between endurance sports and sadomasochism, the legacy of running as passed down from parent to child, and the odd but extraordinary bonds created between strangers and friends. The result is “a brilliant book about running…What Peter runs toward is strength, understanding, endurance, acceptance, faith, hope, and charity” (P.J. O’Rourke).

Author : Erin E. MacDonald
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 29,1 MB
Release : 2014-01-10
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0786489480

GET BOOK

One of the most prolific crime writers of the last century, Evan Hunter published more than 120 novels from 1952 to 2005 under a variety of pseudonymns. He also wrote several teleplays and screenplays, including Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, and the 1954 novel The Blackboard Jungle. When the Mystery Writers of America named Hunter a Grand Master, he gave the designation to his alter ego, Ed McBain, best known for his long-running police procedural series about the detectives of the 87th Precinct. This comprehensive companion provides detailed information about all of Evan Hunter's/Ed McBain's works, characters, and recurring themes. From police detective and crime stories to dramatic novels and films, this reference celebrates the vast body of literature of this versatile writer.

Author : Haruki Murakami
Publisher : Vintage Canada
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 33,36 MB
Release : 2009-08-11
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0307373088

GET BOOK

From the best-selling author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and After Dark, a rich and revelatory memoir about writing and running, and the integral impact both have made on his life. In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Haruki Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a slew of critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and—even more important—on his writing. Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and includes settings ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvellous lens of sport emerges a cornucopia of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs and the experience, after the age of fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in distance running.