SLEEVE'S READING LIST

Order one of these books from amazon.com, via Microfracture Woohoo™, and guess who receives commission????  Support this starving graduate student, por favor.  Click on any one of the book covers below to find out more details and ordering information.  All books listed receive my 5 microfracture rating.

No runner should be without these.  Bought my copy of The Complete Book of Running when I was in high school back in 1986 and still have this prominently displayed on the bookshelf.  The Lore of Running gets into the nitty-gritty physiological and psychological aspects of running--there's even a whole page and a half on women, anorexia, and running in the 19th century--it reads like a made for tv movie!   Running with the Legends--Training and Racing Insights from 21 Great Runners covers all of 'em, from the milers to the ultramarathoners, but with the deafening omission of the guy who started the whole marathon mess--Pheidipiddes!   And finally, Breakthrough Running, which includes an excellent chapter on injury and recovery by my podiatrist, Dr. Amol Saxena, in addition to other chapters by marathoners like Joan Benoit and Pete Pfitzinger.  Oh yeah, and if youre getting tired of big-city US marathons that all seem the same, make sure to check out the Ultimate Guide to International Marathons, which provides excellent profiles and data on some of the best marathons on the 7 continents.

I survived two years of living in China on the Lonely Planet China travel guide.  Take it from this Chinese-Mexican (by citizenship)-American, you dont want to be lost in China without your Lonely Planet guide.  In addition, Cantonese Colloquial Expressions saved me many embarrassing moments haggling with the local Chinese in Hong Kong, to where I escaped twice a month, from Guangzhou during my years on the mainland.  Although Cantonese is the only Chinese you will ever need to know in San Francisco, if you insist on studying Mandarin, Practical Chinese Reader is a good place to start--I studied the series for a year in college, then promptly forgot it all after graduation, then picked it all up again while living in China, then lost it again after returning home--use it or lose it.  Finally, given that Cantonese food is, by far, the most celebrated cuisine of China, and rightfully so, it's only fitting to include Canton's, San Francisco's and the Cal Aggies' own Martin Yan--Yan Can Cook Book.   I actually learned to make potstickers from this book, while I was on crutches after surgery.   But, on a more serious crutch, the well-read traveler in China should familiarize himself with modern China and The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.  That said, I'll get off this soap box now.

I traveled to the roots of the marathon and one of my college majors, Rhetoric, with the aid of the Lonely Planet Greece travel guide.  Ended up getting lost on Crete, after running the Athens Marathon.  In 2000, I ran the Turin Marathon in Northern Italy, and given the long list of other Italian marathons to be run, including those in Rome, Venice, Florence, and Milan, the Lonely Planet Italy travel guide is a must have.  My future marathon destinations will require adding to my libary of travel guides, Lonely Planet Brazil, Lonely Planet Germany, and Lonely Planet Egypt.  But if you dont purchase an amazon book through Microfracture Woohoo!™, how can I collect commission for these trips, then????

The Merck Manual of Medical Information makes for some great bedtime reading, or commute-time reading if youre stuck in traffic on 101 at peak rush hour.  Try to diagnose your symptoms, correctly or incorrectly.  I mis-diagnosed pulmonary embolus for pregnancy once!

Eegadz!  Into Thin Air had me gasping for air, hyperventilating at the tragedy that struck the oxygen-deprived climbers atop Mt. Everest.

No Marathon or Final Exam should proceed without the music of this adrenaline-drenched CD, The Rocky Story, including the classics Gonna Fly Now, Eye of the Tiger, Burning Heart, and Living in America.