Book Nerd

The Dread Pirate tagged me. Arrrrrrrrrrr.

1. Pick up the nearest book.

Little did she know that asking me to grab the nearest book and turn to page 123 would leave me so many options. The computer is in the Greyhound study, which probably has 150 or more books more or less equidistant. I'm a total book nerd. If I ever declare bankruptcy, it will be because of one too many buying sprees at Borders, Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I'll pick up the book I'm currently reading, which has my highest recommendation if you like Biographies.

2. Name the book & the author.

"Bowerman and the Men of Oregon--The Story of Oregon's Legendary Coach and Nike's Cofounder" by Kenny Moore, one of Bowerman's athletes who now regularly writes for Runner's World and Sports Illustrated. Follow the link here if you want to see what Amazon has to say about it or if you think you might purchase one online.

Bowerman is one of the Great Generation, a literal war hero who served in the 10th Mountain Division in World War II before returning to teach school and coach track at Oregon and for the U.S. Olympic Teams. Bowerman coached numerous olympic athletes, includin Steve Prefontaine, who at one time held every American record at ever distance from 1500 meters to the 10K. Bowerman is responsible for America's first running boom. You would probably not be doing triathlon if not for Bowerman changing the culture such that endurance sport was acceptable beyond college athletics. Much of what goes into the design of your training plans in terms of stress and recovery is a result of Bowerman's pioneering work. He and Phil Knight, one of his athletes, founded Nike which became a mega-company on the strength of the ripples from Bowerman's original running boom. The book is a gem, written by an eye witness who wa sable to interview other eye witnesses to the Bowerman legend.

3. Turn to page 123.

4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page. Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.

This passage is about how, dissatisfied with heavy and inflexible American shoes of the time, Bowerman started to make his own track shoes. It is a conversation he had with a cobbler upon picking up a pair of his wife's shoes that had been in for repair:

"You cannot make your own shoes!" erupted the repairman. "Trust me. You cannot make shoes without a factory."

(Typical, the surest way to get something done was to tell Bowerman that he couldn't do it.)

5. Tag three more folks.

I'm tagging three who I want to jumpstart because I love to read them more. Nytro, Benny and Taconite Boy.

You're it.