Scientific research proves that regular exercise (150 minutes per week, which is about 30 minutes, five times per week)—and running in particular—has health benefits that extend well beyond any pill a doctor could prescribe. Running can reduce stress, improve heart health, help you live longer, sleep better and prevent many other unpleasant disorders. Racking up miles can also help vastly improve the quality of your emotional and mental life
Especially under our current stay at home conditions, running in a park or around your neighborhood (of course with the recommended precautions) can provide that much needed touch of nature, and leave you feeling invigorated.
For this post I started by looking at titles on running as a physical activity; I then decided to have some fun with it and look for books with run or running in the title.
As it turns out, books with run/running in the title are way more common than you would think.
Here is an assorted selection of ebooks that includes fiction thrillers, running guides, and memoirs by runners. The commonality here is that the characters in all these works are either running towards or away from something ,or maybe, they are just running!
Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré
Nat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him. Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies.
Always Running La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. by Luis J. Rodríguez
The award-winning memoir of life in an LA street gang, by one of the most acclaimed Chicano writers of his generation. spares no detail in its vivid, brutally honest portrayal of street life and violence.
Running Blind by Lee Child
Jack Reacher races to solve the perfect crime in the fourth novel in Lee Child’s New York Times bestselling series.
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner McDougall sets out to discover the secrets of the blissful Tarahumara Indians who have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. . In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe.
Daniels’ Running Formula by Jack Daniels
Provides an expert training and racing blueprint for dedicated runners of all abilities. Containing a complete, updated system, this new edition simplifies the physiology of training to facilitate every runner’s quest for peak performance.
Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness by Scott Jurek & Steve Friedman
Jurek,a dominant force in ultrarunning, opens up about his life and career as a champion athlete with a plant-based diet and inspires runners at every level. Full of stories of competition as well as science and practical advice—including his own recipes—the book will motivate readers and expand their food horizons.
Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running From Madness by Suzy Favor Hamilton
The former middle distance Olympic runner and high-end escort speaks out for the first time about her battle with mental illness, and how mania controlled and compelled her in competition, but also in life.
The Incomplete Book of Running by Peter Sagal
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. This is a commentary and reflection about running with a deeply felt personal story.
Run Away by Harlan Coben
You’ve lost your daughter. She runs. And you do the only thing a parent can do: you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line.
Running Home: A Memoir by Katie Arnold
Over the course of three tumultuous years, Katie ran alone through the wilderness, logging longer and longer distances, first a 50-kilometer ultramarathon, then 50 miles, then 100 kilometers. She ran to heal her grief, to outpace her worry that she wouldn’t live to raise her own daughters. She ran to find strength in her weakness. She ran to remember and to forget. This is her story and also a story of fathers and daughters, grief and renewal, adventure and obsession, and the power of running to change your life.
Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron
This story follows Jean Patrick Nkuba, a gifted Rwandan boy, from the day he knows that running will be his life to the moment he must run to save his life, a ten-year span in which his country is undone by the Hutu-Tutsi tensions.
See How They Run by James Patterson
Outside New York City, the palatial home of Dr. David Strauss’s parents is attacked by gunmen during a glittering party. As he watches helplessly, his wife is murdered. In Los Angeles, Strauss’s brother is killed during the Academy Award ceremonies. In Manhattan, his past sweetheart, Alix Rothchild, is running for her life. Dr. David Strauss is soon obsessed with finding the explosive secret behind the murders of his family members. His dangerous odyssey takes him across Europe, and finally to the Olympics, where one of the most shattering surprises in suspense fiction will take place.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami
While training for the New York City Marathon, Murakami decided to keep a journal of his progress. The result is a memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid recollections and insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer.
Lastly, if you are looking to run faster and farther and have more fun doing it our digital magazine collection RBDigital provides access to Runner’s World magazine. https://www.rbdigital.com/bccls/service/magazines/landing?mag_id=1043
Every issue brings you the strategies, tips and advice to fuel your performance, prevent injuries, burn fat, shed stress, and achieve your personal goals.
Keep running and reading!
-Archana, Adult Services and Acquisitions Librarian