Review: “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall

Thumbs up for Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. Nonfiction.

This is the best nonfiction book I’ve read since…oh, The Tipping Point, maybe. I could not put it down. To sum it up: This book made me, someone who hasn’t run since I was ten for any reason except to catch a changing crosswalk sign, it made me go buy a pair of sneakers. (Cheap ones. That’s important, as you’ll discover when you read this book.) I marked so many pages it’s sprouting a forest of pink post-its; and I struggled mightily to choose one, just one, paragraph to add to my review. If you run, if you hate running, if you just like a ripping good story with unforgettable characters, read this book! You won’t regret it.

“It was a five word puzzle that led me to a photo of a very fast man in a very short skirt, and from there it only got stranger. Soon, I was dealing with a murder, drug guerrillas, and a one-armed man with a cream-cheese cup strapped to his head. I met a beautiful blonde forest ranger who slipped out of her clothes and found salvation by running naked in the Idaho forests, and a young surfer babe in pigtails who ran straight toward her death in the desert. A talented young runner would die. Two others would barely escape with their lives.”