The best books about runners

“Dean Karnazes’ writing wakes up the appetite to run long distances. In this book, Dean takes us on a lifelong journey of ultramarathons, through the ups and downs, the friendships and lonely moments, and the struggles and rewards of each race. Dean writes in a direct and intimate way that keeps us reading like he runs -- without stopping." - Kilian Jornet, World Champion Ultramarathoner

How would you feel if your depressed father made you move away from your perfect life in a Southern California surfing town to a trailer in Oregon, an hour away from an ocean so cold the fish freeze? What would you do if your mother turned into a hippie and traded the family Corvette for a purple Volkswagen bus? 

This is what happens to 14-year-old Solo Hahn. When a Great-horned owl steals the only friend Solo has left, he commits a crime that earns him community service at a raptor rehabilitation center where he's forced to clean up bird poop and feed dead rats to his sworn enemies . . . owls. Will Solo survive his family’s total meltdown? And why is there bird poop on his best surfing shirt?

The Pumpkin Runner is the story of a man who ran for the joy of it. It is based on the real-life adventures of a 61-year-old Australian farmer who, amidst ridicule, entered an ultra-marathon from Sydney to Melbourne. 

The story is a combination of fact and fiction told in the style of a tall tale. Inspired by Cliff Young, the story is fictionalized with the likable character, Joshua Summerhayes. Both had a generous, humble spirit and knew how to persevere. The author gave Joshua a dog to run along with him – spunky Yellow Dog. Everyone believed it was pumpkins that gave Joshua the energy to run, but readers learn that it was much more than that.

The River Road is an evocative novel about becoming a runner in 1972. Filled with compelling stories of runners, running, history, the 1972 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials and the Munich Olympics, it brings to life an era in which the U.S. competed for gold in nearly every distance running event. As many of the sport’s icons dominate their events in Eugene and prepare for Munich, fifteen-year-old Lenny prepares for his first season of varsity cross country. Inspired by Jim Ryun, Frank Shorter and Steve Prefontaine, Lenny also learns that Olympic distance runners have come from Minnesota and trained on the same River Road on which he runs. A world of running lore that he never knew existed is opened to him and helps him begin to explore and realize his own ability to run.

Can running save your life? This memoir explains how running saved mine.

Nearing my 49th birthday, I was chronically depressed, overweight, grief-stricken, and couch-bound. Then, I saw a high school friend’s social media post: “Call me crazy, but this running is getting to be fun.” Running? Fun? I watched for months until desperation caused me to leash up our yellow Labrador retriever, walk to a secluded area of our neighborhood, and jog for sixty seconds. Two years later, at 51, I ran my first marathon. But the emotional transformation outshines any physical progress. I went from a woman contemplating suicide to one who wanted to thrive. In running, I found the piece missing from my wellness toolkit. It’s never too late to chase your dreams!

Undefeated is my most recent book. It tells the tale of the United States Military Academy’s perfect 1944 basketball season. It also relates the story of the team’s graduating seniors—Minnesota’s Ed Christl, Michigan’s Bob Faas, and Chicago’s Jack Hennessey—who fought in Europe and in the skies over Japan after their commissions as U.S. Army second lieutenants. Sadly, it would be a war that not all of them would survive. One reviewer called the book “Hoosiers meets Band of Brothers,” and I don’t think I can describe it any better than that!

From tasting his own blood while running hard as a Notre Dame miler to producing the top U.S. marathon legends in the epicenter of the running boom of the 1970s and into the ‘80s, Bill Squires not only survived being born with a misdiagnosed and potentially fatal defective heart, but the late-developing skinny kid also amassed numerous track records as a collegiate All-American while struggling academically.

As the first coach of the groundbreaking Greater Boston Track Club, Bill Squires was the key figure in the creation of the greatest generation of American distance runners. Coaching for years at all levels, it is with this vast accumulation of firsthand knowledge and experience that legendary Olympians and major marathon champions dominated the landscape and set the pace for future generations.

As Little As Nothing is a literary historical novel set in the year before World War II in the south of England. This is the story of Miriam, recovering from her fifth miscarriage who looks to flight as an escape, and Audrey, a 53-year-old, upper-middle-class activist who lectures on reproductive rights, lives in a Reading caravan and whose daily ritual includes a swim in a nearby river.

This period in the 1930s was a time when, increasingly, women were learning to fly, and reproductive rights activists were making considerable gains. As Little As Nothing explores the issue of flight both literally—by highlighting an expression of early feminism—and metaphorically—as women sought to ‘take flight’ from the burden of unwanted pregnancy.

The subtitle tells you much of what you need to know. The Joy of Running qua Running is an “ode in twenty poems, thirty-six short essays, and one logical proof dubious in both soundness and validity.” It is a playful yet spirited celebration. 

Scott F. Parker approaches running as a phenomenologist, fully attentive to the mental as well as the physical experience of the sport. This method allows running to become a prism through which Parker refracts the question of what it means to be human as he finds one way after another to extol the virtues of play as a way of living. Whether you run every day or haven’t been around a track since junior high, The Joy of Running qua Running will delight and inspire.

The subtitle tells you much of what you need to know. The Joy of Running qua Running is an “ode in twenty poems, thirty-six short essays, and one logical proof dubious in both soundness and validity.” It is a playful yet spirited celebration. 

Scott F. Parker approaches running as a phenomenologist, fully attentive to the mental as well as the physical experience of the sport. This method allows running to become a prism through which Parker refracts the question of what it means to be human as he finds one way after another to extol the virtues of play as a way of living. Whether you run every day or haven’t been around a track since junior high, The Joy of Running qua Running will delight and inspire.