Other books that might interest you

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  Ducking Long Way - Ultra Running...

  Mark Atkinson

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  Mark Atkinson is living proof that you don't have to be 'good' at running to make it through a marathon or even further. Packed with insights and tips, pitfalls and joy, Ducking Long Way invites you to join him for a beer at mile thirty as he pushes himself as far as he can while still running for the sheer joy of it.

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  All Fishermen Are Liars

  John Gierach

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  For John Gierach, "the master of fly-fishing" (Sacramento Bee), fishing is always the answer-even when it's not clear what the question is. In All Fishermen Are Liars, Gierach travels around North America seeking out quintessential fishing experiences, whether it's at a busy stream or a secluded lake hidden amid snow-capped mountains. He talks about the art of fly-tying and the quest for the perfect steelhead fly ("The Nuclear Option"), about fishing in the Presidential Pools previously fished by the elder George Bush ("I wondered briefly if I'd done something karmically disastrous and was now fated to spend the rest of my life breathing the exhaust of this elderly Republican"), and the importance of traveling with like-minded companions when caught in a soaking rain ("At this point someone is required to say, 'You know, there are people who wouldn't think this is fun'"). And though Gierach loses some fish along the way, he never loses his passion and sense of humor.Wry, contemplative, and lively-that is to say, pure Gierach-All Fishermen Are Liars is a joy to listen to-and, as always, the next best thing to fishing itself.

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  Mastering Data to Win -...

  Mark Chisnell, Gilberto Pastorella

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  The modern racing yacht is awash with onboard instruments and electronics giving enormous amounts of data. But few people fully understand how to get the most out of all the information at their fingertips, let alone make it useful for the team to enable them to win races. But ace navigators, Mark Chisnell and Gilberto Pastorella, do – both have worked with professional sailing programmes all over the world – from America's Cup to Maxi, ORC / IRC and one-design fleets. In Mastering Data to Win they take the reader through the process: from understanding the concepts, ensuring accuracy, using the data to win races and then post-race analysis to find performance gains. By mastering your instruments you can make the right calls every time and know for certain when to tack, which shift to look out for and how the tide can work with or against you. With colour diagrams and photographs throughout, this instructional guide turns information into excellence.  Accessible to those new to racing, it also has a depth of information that will transform the performance of even professional sailors.

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  Why We Fight - One Man's Search...

  Josh Rosenblatt

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  Finally, we can talk about Fight Club! 
  or, 
  A physical and philosophical mediation on why we are drawn to fight each other for sport, what happens to our bodies and brains when we do, and what it all means 
   
  Anyone with guts or madness in him can get hit by someone who knows how; it takes a different kind of madness, a more persistent kind, to stick around long enough to be one of the people who does the knowing. 
  Josh Rosenblatt was thirty-three years old when he first realized he wanted to fight. A lifelong pacifist with a philosopher’s hatred of violence and a dandy’s aversion to exercise, he drank to excess, smoked passionately, ate indifferently, and mocked physical activity that didn’t involve nudity. But deep down inside there was always some part of him that was attracted to the idea of fighting. So, after studying Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and boxing, he decided, at age forty, that it was finally time to fight his first—and only—mixed martial arts match: all in the name of experience and transcending ancient fears. 
  An insightful and moving rumination on the nature of fighting, Why We Fight takes us on his journey from the bleachers to the ring. Using his own training as an opportunity to understand how the sport illuminates basic human impulses, Rosenblatt weaves together cultural history, criticism, biology, and anthropology to understand what happens to the human body and mind when under attack, and to explore why he, a self-described “cowardly boy from the suburbs,” discovered so much meaning in putting his body, and others’, at risk. 
  From the psychology of fear to the physiology of pain, from Ukrainian shtetls to Brooklyn boxing gyms, from Lord Byron to George Plimpton, Why We Fight is a fierce inquiry into the abiding appeal of our most conflicted and controversial fixation, interwoven with a firsthand account of what happens when a mild-mannered intellectual decides to step into the ring for his first real showdown. 

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  Trout Water - A Year on the Au...

  Josh Greenberg

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  It's the beginning of trout fishing season, and Josh Greenberg—proprietor of one of the nation's most famous fishing outfitters, on America's most iconic trout-fishing stream, the Au Sable River in Michigan—is standing in the Au Sable at dusk when he gets the call that a dear fishing buddy has died.The solace he takes from fishing—from reading the movement of the river water, studying the play of the light, and relying on his knowledge of insect and fish life—prompts him to reflect on the impact of the natural world on his life in his fisherman's journal.Over the course of a year, the journal transcends fishing notes to include some beautifully lyrical nature writing, entertaining stories of the big one that got away, cheerful introspection about a love that's hard to explain, and yes, a tip or two.Eventually, Josh Greenberg realizes he hasn't been all alone in the woods, not really. Much of his relationship with his family and friends has played out on the river. And as he catches—and releases—trout after trout back into one of the most beautiful rivers in America, Greenberg comes to help us realize, too, that there's more to fishing than catching fish.

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  Running & Being - The Total...

  George Sheehan, Kenny Moore

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  Written by the late, beloved Dr. George Sheehan, Running & Being tells of the author's midlife return to the world of exercise, play, and competition, in which he found "a world beyond sweat" that proved to be a source of great revelation and personal growth. But Running & Being focuses more on life than it does, specifically, on running. It provides an outline for a lifetime program of fitness and joy, showing how the body helps determine our mental and spiritual energies.Drawing from the words and actions of the great athletes and thinkers throughout history, Dr. Sheehan ties it all together with his own philosophy on the importance of fitness and sport, as well as his knowledge of training, injury prevention, and race competition. Above all, he describes what it means to experience the oneness of body and mind, of self and the universe. In this, he argues, we have the power to discover "the truth that makes men free."

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