Mark Remy

**.5

Best as a stocking stuffer gift for a runner you don't quite know well enough to buy them anything actually useful.

Remy tries hard to both include useful information and also to be funny. Often trying too hard, leading to the inevitable consequence of neither being particularly helpful nor funny. He also endlessly and annoyingly plugs his employer (Runner's World).

There also isn't any recognition of issues that runners who aren't middle class white men face. He mentions the dangers of show more cars and dogs, but not the fears of women running alone, or the perils of "running while black." Let alone situations faced by people with physical disabilities or even common situations that half of the population experience on a regular basis, like menstruation, pregnancy, or finding a well-fitting sports bra. Not that a silly book like this needs to be a socially aware paragon of intersectional race and gender content, but it would have been measurably enriched with a slightly wider target audience. show less

Quite a hilarious - and often very clever - tongue-in-cheek compendium of the minutiae that is the running lifestyle. I saw my own humor-style in several snippets of the writing. Every runner seems to now own this book. The format is highly adaptable for other niche activities and has actually given me some good ideas...

This would make a great gift for a runner. The author's tone is chatty, witty, and humble. A good mix of "rules" that will make any runner nod knowingly, laugh in recognition, or consider their own practice of running in a new way.

Can't decide if you want choice bits or tasty morsels? Well, friend, this book has you covered with a whole bunch of each!
Many of the selections in this book made me laugh out loud, elbow my wife and read them to her out loud.
You don't have to be a runner (dumb or otherwise) to get much of the humor, but being one definitely helps.