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Anyone who’s into running and fitness knows that it’s easy for well-meaning friends and family to get it wrong when it comes to gift-giving. They do their best, bless ’em, but if they’re not out running beside you, they never know what you really, really want.
So, rather than end up with socks that don’t wick or technical tees that don’t fit, why not ask them to buy you one of the books on The Veggie Runners Guide to the Top 15 Running Books? You never know, they may end up reading it themselves and joining you next time you head out for a run.
To make things even easier for you, we asked our followers on Twitter and Facebook to tell us their favourite running and fitness books so you can be sure these are the books that real runners read. Here it is, our list of tried, tested and thoroughly recommended books for people who are fit or would like to be. Share it with your friends, and pass it on to loved ones whenever they’re stumped for a gift for you.
Chi Running, Danny Dreyer
Feet in the Clouds, Richard Askwith
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami
Born To Run, Christopher McDougall
How To Run: From Fun Runs to Marathons and Everything In Between, Paula Radcliffe
Eat and Run, Scott Jurek
Run!, Dean Karnazes
Lazy Girl Running: How I Got Off The Sofa and Ran A Sub-4 Marathon, Laura Fountain
Running Like A Girl, Alexandra Heminsley
The First 20 Minutes, Gretchen Reynolds
Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide To Running Ultra-marathons, Eddie Grossman and Byron Powell
Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself, Richard Roll
Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, Hal Higdon
The Lore of Running, Tim Noakes
Can’t Swim, Can’t Ride, Can’t Run: My Triathlon Journey from Common Man to Ironman, Andy Holgate
Thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions. If you have any more to add, let us know in the comments box below.
The Fool says
Feet in the clouds is one of my favourite books of all time, fascinating to read about the history of fell running while also getting an insight into the challenge of attempting such a run.
Bibi and Janey says
We’re just getting our heads around the idea of fell running. We’ve done years of road racing, have added trail running to our repertoire and are now getting the idea that simply charging and down hills might be a great idea too!
Nick says
How about… ‘Once a Runner’ by John L. Parker Jr. It’s fiction but really does bring it all to life… Especially intervals! Great blog, just popped in via the Guardians’s “the running blog”.
Janey says
Good heads up – we’ll add it to our v long list of books to review! Enjoying them all so far… Thanks for your kind words about the blog too. We’re enjoying writing about running and eating almost as much as we enjoy doing them 😉
Ellie says
Running Made Easy by Lisa Jackson and Susie Whalley!
It helped me to get back into running after I thought my knees weren’t up to the challenge.
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