Books

This morning (Wednesday) I received a book through the post - it was from ex-member Alex ylan now living in Canada. He has held numerous posts in the Canadian Football Association and was coach to their Junior Lympic team in 1984. He has fond memories of the Harriers and has sent photographs and information on a grand scale to me which was used in the writing of the club biographies that have just been printed. However: the book was 'What I Talk About When I talk About Running' by Haruki Murakami. I have read a lot of his stuff but never realised that he was a runner. He has apparently been running marathns for over 20 years, almost all outside the 3 hour mark and several outside the 4 hours. The book is a kind of reflective look at running and what it means to him and worth a look at least.

There have been a plethora of books about the Olympics recently and oen that I particularly liked was 'The Austerity Olympics' by Janie Hampton which deals with the London Olympics of 1948 when everything was in short supply. Athletes had to make their own uniform, they travelled to the venues on public transport, they were given a packed lunch (before going to their event) which consisted of an egg, an apple and a cheese sandwich - and it had to do them until supper! If you are interested in the history of the event, then this is a good one. It even covers all the main endurance events - Zatopek and Mimoun in the 5000 and 10,000 plus, of course, the marathon. The other thick Olympics one was 'The Marathon Makers' by John Bryant which was given such a good write up by Doug Gillon. Well, the content is very good but in his attempts to dramatise events, Bryant at times sounds like the 'Wizard' or 'Hotspur' comics. eg when Halswell is running in a race at his regiment's base in the Far East, one of the men mutters "By God, the man's got class!" Which just sounds really, really bad! There are another couple such sentences as well.

Whatever you read though,just make sure you read about your event. I could recommend 'The Boston Marathon' by Tim Kerkorian which includes stacks of stuff about Jock Semple, late of this parish! get it through the Library because the paperback version costs about £20.