The other day I finally completed my reading of Joshua Khan's childishly dark and forgettable 2016 fantasy novel Shadow Magic and promptly wrote a mainly negative blog article review on it. Now I'm ready for more books. I persuaded Melissa yesterday to look in my old wallet for my ancient, dilapidated public library card. We eventually found it and went on down there. After discovering a thick, very heavy volume claiming to discuss every Beatles song ever recorded and released, I found a book about running for absolute, rank beginners by Martinus Evans titled Slow AF Run Club. We checked both out for 4 weeks and renewed my library registration. I started reading Evans and found his unapologetically Earthy language did not interfere with his book's compelling message, which claimed that running is 90% mental and that his goal with the book was to light a fire under readers' asses and have them get up and start running, with speed playing no factor in the process. That really hit the spot with me, for I couldn't care less about running a fast race...only getting through them no matter how slowly. Evans has a training protocol that mixes light, limited running with more time-extended walking, interspersed with rest and recovery breaks. His simple plan is something I'd like to get started with soon, and I'm on board with his notion about how much of a role the mind plays regarding how runners limit themselves. I'm 69 and a half and firmly believe that light, light running is the way to go for me. And my future running aspirations are pretty much set in stone: let me get to where I can cover the distance, and then on race day show up, finish and walk away with the medal. Or the Parkrun postings on Saturday mornings..
The Beatles were such extreme head cases that I was somewhat turned off by their combative attitudes toward each other during their studio recording sessions, lead by George Martin. I watched on YouTube, on its Film Retrospective channel, showing how different famous rock albums were recorded, and how disruptive and chaotic the sessions tended to be, mainly with acts like the Beatles and Rolling Stones often on drugs, carrying on with their fighting. And then I saw a show about the making in 1970-71 of Led Zeppelin IV and was impressed (and surprised) by how that band was depicted as being professional, not at all subject to runaway egos. So this Beatles book stands at home as couch reading, not a reading endeavor project per se but rather as something I might look at based on the topic...
