Debra Bourne – Parkrun [REVIEW]

Title: Parkrun

Author: Debra Bourne

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 360

Rating: 3.5/5

I picked up this book as a Christmas present for my dad, who’s also a big fan of parkrun, and I thought that I should probably pick it up and read it first. You know, to make sure that it’s a good book. Don’t worry though, he doesn’t follow me on social media and probably won’t see this review. Probably.

If you haven’t heard of parkrun before then you’ve obviously not asked me about my weekend plans of late. It’s essentially a free, weekly 5K run that takes place in parks all over the country (and the world), and it’s one of those things where once you go to one of them, you’re likely to become addicted. I’ve been every Saturday this year except for the first one, when my local parkrun was cancelled due to bad weather.

Debra Bourne’s books aims to chart the history of parkrun from its inception in Bushy Park to the present day, and that brings us to my only problem with it. I can’t vouch for the latest edition, and I don’t even know if there is one, but the copy that I read only took us up to 2014 or so. That made it feel as though it only covered half the story.

Parkrun has continued to grow in the years since, surviving COVID-19 and coming out kicking, and there have been all sorts of interesting (and controversial) developments. Bourne dedicated a chunk of the book to talking about how important the statistics are to runners, and they’ve since been taken away by parkrun, ostensibly because they stop people from taking part. It would also have been nice to have read about the politics that have stopped parkrun from continuing in France.

But while those are little quibbles and things that I would have liked to have seen, I can’t exactly blame Bourne. On top of that, I was mostly interested in reading about the early days, and she had those nicely covered with quotes from the people involved. So all in all, not bad.

Learn more about Parkrun.


S. D. Perry – Resident Evil: Nemesis [REVIEW]

Title: Resident Evil: Nemesis

Author: S. D. Perry

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 288

Rating: 3.5/5

Okay, so the first thing to mention is that this is, of course, a novelisation of the iconic video game. S. D. Perry has actually written a ton of books in the series, and this one falls about halfway through, which makes a lot of sense when you look at the timeline for the games.

The second thing to mention is that I only read this because the Resident Evil YouTube channel happened to upload an audio book of it, and so I figured, “Eh, what have I got to lose?”

I’m pretty glad that that’s how I consumed this one, because while I’m not going to say it was terrible, it also wasn’t exactly great. Even with the story and characters all fully fleshed out for them, Perry does a pretty workmanlike job of things. That’s not to say that it’s a bad book, but it’s one that you can devour quickly and then forget.

I also found that it struggled to keep the tension as high as the game does. One of the great things about the Resident Evil games is that you never quite feel safe, except perhaps for in the save rooms. You don’t get the same sense while reading or listening to the book, because the danger only rears its head from time to time.

Still, considering that there’s a copy of it that you can read for free, it’s hard to get too mad. And I did enjoy the time I spent with the book, just maybe not as much as I would have enjoyed watching someone play it.

Learn more about Resident Evil: Nemesis.