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Friday, March 14, 2014

Born to Run by Chris McDougall

Born to RunBorn to Run by Chris McDougall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So lets deal with the superficial stuff first: Yes, this is an inspirational book, and yes, it makes me want to rip off my shoes and run down an antelope. Aside from that I am rating this book down a couple of stars for other faults it has.

First, I spent way to much of my time hearing about partying runners or travel-log type narratives that I don't think were necessary to the message of the book. Why do I need to know that Jenn got drunk every other night? It doesn't matter, and it wasn't necessary to building her as a character in this book. I thought that this was the kind of thing that editors were supposed to fix. Also, what was up with the swearing? Again, things happen in real life that don't have to end up in the memoirs.

Second, while he did a good job of maintaining interest by avoiding a totally linear narration through out the book, I thought it was too much. Every time I turned around we were telling another side story, back story or learning about the history of the shoe industry. I liked the content, it just seemed so sporadic. I feel that the book would have been improved with a little more organization, keeping the primary objective in mind.

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