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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  A Few Seconds of Panic - A...

  Stefan Fatsis

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  In Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis infiltrated the insular world of competitive Scrabble players, ultimately achieving expert status (comparable to a grandmaster ranking in chess). Now he infiltrates a strikingly different subculture-pro football. After more than a year spent working out with a strength coach and polishing his craft with a gurulike kicking coach, Fatsis molded his fortyish body into one that could stand up-barely-to the rigors of NFL training. And over three months in 2006, he became a Denver Bronco. He trained with the team and lived with the players. He was given a locker and uniforms emblazoned with the number 9. He was expected to perform all the drills and regimens required of other kickers. He ws unlike his teammates in some ways-most notably, his livelihood was not on the line as theirs was. But he became remarkably like them in many ways: he risked crippling injury just as they did, endured the hazing that befalls all rookies, daily gorged on 4,000 calories, and slogged through two-a-day practices in blistering heat. Not since George Plimpton's stint as a Detroit Lion more than forty years ago has a writer tunneled so deeply into the NFL.At first, the players tolerated Fatsis or treated him like a mascot, but over time they began to think of him as one of them. And he began to think like one of them. Like the other Broncos-like all elite athletes-he learned to perfect a motion through thousands of repetitions, to play through pain, to silence the crowd's roar, and to banish self-doubt.While Fatsis honed his mind and drove his body past exhaustion, he communed with every classic athletic type-the afable alpha male, the overpaid brat, the youthful phenom, the savvy veteran-and a welter of bracingly atypical players as well: a fullback who invokes Aristotle, a quarterback who embraces yoga, and a tight end who takes creative writing classes in the off-season. Fatsis also witnessed the hidden machinery of a top-flight football franchise, from the God-is-in-the-details strategizing of legendary coach Mike Shanahan to the icy calculation with which the front office makes or breaks careers.With wry candor and hard-won empathy, A Few Seconds of Panic unveils the mind of the modern pro athlete and the workings of a storied sports franchise as no book ever has before.

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  Canary Islands Cruising...

  Marek Jurczyński

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  The Canary Islands are an idyllic cruising ground, either as a destination in their own right or for those on their way through the Atlantic. Winter charter is a popular option for Northern European sailors. This authoritative pilot guide offers the sailor a perfect handbook to the nine main islands, all 40 ports and 26 anchorages in this amazing archipelago. Packed with comprehensive pilotage and nautical information as well as suggestions of where to eat and what to do ashore, it is designed to help you make the most of your visit to this fabulous area. It is enhanced with colour charts and detailed photography, including spectacular aerial shots of ports, harbours and anchorages.The Canary Islands are an idyllic cruising ground, either as a destination in their own right or for those on their way through the Atlantic. Winter charter is a popular option for Northern European sailors. This authoritative pilot guide offers the sailor a perfect handbook to the nine main islands, all 40 ports and 26 anchorages in this amazing archipelago. Packed with comprehensive pilotage and nautical information as well as suggestions of where to eat and what to do ashore, it is designed to help you make the most of your visit to this fabulous area. It is enhanced with colour charts and detailed photography, including spectacular aerial shots of ports, harbours and anchorages.

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  Found - A Life in Mountain Rescue

  Bree Loewen

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  Mountain search-and-rescue volunteer Bree Loewen's to-do list isn't quite the same as most people's. On any given day, it might include:● Go grocery shopping● Bake pie seen on Pinterest● Figure out what to do with my life● Rescue climbers caught in avalanche on Chair Peak● Pick up Vivi at Mom'sA former Mount Rainier climbing ranger and trained leader in mountain search-and-rescue, Bree shares the drama and the camaraderie of this work, as well as the challenges of trying to fit her other roles as wife and mother into what is still largely a masculine environment. In a fearless voice—disarming yet laced with dark humor—Bree guides us through intense recoveries, vivid wilderness landscapes, and the warmth she discovers in motherhood, community, and purpose.

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  China to Chitral - Mountains are...

  H.W. Tilman

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  In China to ChitralH.W. 'Bill' Tilman completes one of his great post-war journeys. He travels from Central China, crossing Sinkiang, the Gobi and Takla Makan Deserts, before escaping to a crumbling British Empire with a crossing of the Karakoram to the new nation of Pakistan.
  In 1951 there still persisted a legend that a vast mountain, higher than Everest, was to be found in the region, a good enough reason it seems for Tilman to traverse the land, 'a land shut in on three sides by vast snow ranges whose glacial streams nourish the oases and upon whose slopes the yaks and camels graze side by side; where in their felt yorts the Kirghiz and Kazak live much as they did in the days of Genghis Khan, except now they no longer take a hand in the devastation of Europe'.
  Widely regarded as some of Tilman's finest travel writing, China to Chitral is full of understatement and laconic humour, with descriptions of disastrous attempts on unclimbed mountains with Shipton, including Bogdo Ola—an extension of the mighty Tien Shan mountains—and the Chakar Aghil group near Kashgar on the old silk road. His command of the Chinese language—five words, all referring to food—proves less than helpful in his quest to find a decent meal: 'fortunately, in China there are no ridiculous hygienic regulations on the sale of food'. Tilman also has several unnerving encounters with less-than-friendly tribesmen …
  Tilman starts proper in Lanchow where he describes with some regret that he is less a traveller and more a passenger on this great traverse of the central basin and rim of mountain ranges at Asia's heart. But Tilman is one of our greatest ever travel writers, and we become a passenger to his adventurers.

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  The Rant Zone - An All-Out Blitz...

  Dennis Miller

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  In this fourth installment of his acclaimed Rants series, bestselling author, Emmy Award-winning talk-show host, and wisecracking analyst for ABC's Monday Night Football Dennis Miller makes hamburger meat out of society's most sacred cows as only he can, with the kinds of allusions that require high SAT scores -- or at least a smart crib sheet.This time around, Miller takes on child stars with rap sheets, women with bigger muscles than his own, herbs you don't smoke, God, and football. As always, nothing is out-of-bounds.

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