Category: Non-Fiction

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.


Christopher McDougall – Born to Run [REVIEW]

Title: Born to Run

Author: Christopher McDougall

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 296

Rating: 4/5

I picked this book up because I’m a keen runner and I’m always looking to learn more about the sport, and from a runner’s point of view, I was kind of disappointed. Sure, running is central to the story, but in the same way that transportation is central to On the Road. The book wouldn’t exist without it, but it’s also largely incidental.

Instead, it’s more about the disappearance of cultures and ways of life, and the way that cisgender Caucasians tend to bulldoze their way through whatever they find, even when they do so with the best of intentions. For example, Christian missionaries introduced all sorts of diseases to the Tarahumara Indians, the tribe that McDougall sets out to find at the start of the book.

This, then, is the story of his adventure into uncharted territory as he tries to track down these elusive super-runners, but it’s more about the journey than the destination. That’s why there’s less about running in this than I was expecting.

With that said, I still enjoyed reading it, and it’s the kind of narrative non-fiction that could appeal to a lot of readers, especially if they’re fans of writers like Bill Bryson. If it was only about running then it wouldn’t have been as widely read, and that means that I wouldn’t have found it going cheap in a charity shop.

And so all in all, I think Born to Run is worth reading, but if you’re looking for something on the philosophy and act of running then you’re going to want to look somewhere else. That’s fine, just know what you’re letting yourself in for.

Learn more about Born to Run.