2018: The joy of books

Upon being asked "what's a life lesson that's taken you your entire life to learn?" Barby Bosco responded, "the joy of books". And, as with all Barby Bosco-isms, she's right. 2018 brought these books into my life and they were incredibly full of joy.

Here's a look at each one in order.....

1) Tribe

Haley Bosco brought this book into my life in February of 2018, at a time when I found a new bottom in life. She inscribed a note on the front page that reminded me of our family Tribe and gave me strength to keep moving, a note that is just as powerful now even a year later. Here are two quotes from page 59 that acutely tell the tale of this incredible book by Sebastian Junger:

“The beauty and tragedy of the modern world is that it eliminates many situations that require people to demonstrate a commitment to the collective good”

and

“What would you risk dying for—and for whom—is perhaps the most profound question a person can ask themselves”.

2) North

This book found me when Katherine Jugler did. Coming from San Francisco, she arrived in Chicago and we became fast friends over a shared love of Ultrarunning. One random Tuesday, she had heard through the grape vine that Scott Jurek—one of the most iconic runners in America’s ultra running community (dude can run), was in Chicago for his book tour. We had to go see him, of course!

Scott starts each section of this book with a quote to correspond with where he’s at on the trail, the Appalachian Trail that is. The section titled “Virginia” on page 95 has a great quote that I love:

“What matters most is how you walk through the fire”

I like to write in all my books, when I read this in March, I underlined the word “how”. Not too much further, on page 104, he also says something that epitomizes this book, his journey to go almost 2,200 miles by foot and it speaks to this idea I’ve been playing with in my head for awhile—does life inform ultra running or does ultra running inform life? I don’t know yet, maybe it’s both. Here’s what Scott writes….

“I had to forget about how many hours or days I had left. Why bother calculating? So I thought about the step in front of me, and the step in front of that one. The Scope was overwhelming. There was nothing to do but keep going”.

3) Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

This book found me in February 2018 from my sister’s friend Laura at Trivia night in Cullowhee, NC. She couldn’t stop going on and on about how amazing this book was. She was so convincing, I opened my phone, bought 2 copies on Amazon, they arrived at my sister’s apartment the next day for us.

The book is about death. But really, it’s the author’s effort to tell us, inspire us and shake us to see more of life in our lives. In true 'life and death' fashion…the very first line of the book is light and whimsical (which quite literally had me laughing out loud) and the last lines of the book are deep and meaningful. I shall share the last line and you can borrow my book if you want to read the first line.

 “...we can wander further into the death dystopia, denying that we will die and hiding dead bodies from our sight. Making that choice means we will continue to be terrified and ignorant of death, and the huge role it plays in how we live our lives. Let us instead reclaim our mortality, writing our own Ars Moriendi for the modern world with bold, fearless strokes”

4) Endure

Rich Roll interviewed Alex Hutchinson about his book Endure and about the Nike "Breaking 2" Documentary (absolutely worth a watch). Alex spoke about this beloved topic of running with such vigor, clarity and conviction....I was in. After reading the book, my biggest takeaway, distilled into one idea is

“perceived effort”.

This was a new and radical idea that I have ferociously applied to my ultra running training. How is your mind interpreting the signals your body is sending it? There's a story at the top of page 149 of a British Research Study in 2012 that showed

"cyclists in a heat chamber went 4 percent faster when the thermometer was rigged to display a falsely low temperature"

WHAT?! The entire book is covered in stories like this.

The hypothesis is, if I can train my body to 'perceive' pain differently, then I can go further, longer, harder, braver in my running.....and that sure sounds fun.

A favorite line from the documentary that pairs nicely with the theme in Endure, is a quote from Kipchoge. Upon being asked how he's going to change his training plan to break the 2-hour marathon record he responds....

"I'm not. I'm going to change my mind"

5) How Bad Do You Want it: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle 

The order, here, matters. Reading Endure first was vital to understanding the science and history of this concept. Reading How Bad Do You Want It next, allowed the stories of each athlete to truly come to life because my mind had already been changed. The three stories that captured my heart the most are:

• Chapter 2: Jenny Barringer the runner
• Chapter 3: Greg Lemond the cyclist
• Chapter 7: Joe Sullivan and Nathan Cohen New Zealand Olympic Rowers

There’s a great youtube video highlighting each of these athletic feats. Just like Disney world, it’s fun to watch the story come to life after you’ve read about it.

6) The White Darkness

This is a story about a man that wanted to walk across Antarctica in 2008. In fact, this feat has only just now (quite recently actually) been accomplished 11 years later by both: Colin O'Brady and Captain Louis Rudd. 

This is a very short book, a small hand held book with very few pages, but they pack a punch. In a lot of conversations that I have with people about the endurance events I partake in, the number one question I get is “Why?”. I’ve struggled to answer this because I don't have the language nailed down yet, the narrative. What I like about this book is that Henry Worsley, gives us the language, the words, the narrative that can bring even just a little bit of the “Why” to life...he actually uses Shackleton's words....

Pg. 16:

"....the mysterious fascination of the unknown"

Pg. 33:

"reached the naked soul of man"

These adventures may appear to be an outward exploration, but in fact, I'm learning myself that they are certainly indeed an inward exploration.

7) Endurance

By far the best and my most favorite book of 2018. I read it twice actually. It’s a tool to fill my mind with very specific thoughts so as to guide my beliefs before a big event—like a 100-miler. I actually feel like Ernest Shackleton found me. This book showed up in my life from Abby Lauterbach and now I’ll never be the same, in the best way.

What the 27 men in this Antarctic expedition endured will have you believing that we as humans are capable of anything. 

There’s too much in this book to point out, read it and you’ll see. So, I’ll just pick one. One that was so powerful, my friend had it printed and framed for me to keep by my desk. 

I’d raise my hand for this adventure in a heartbeat. In fact, Shackleton did get 3 applications from women. A total of around 1000 people applied for his voyage.

This ad is truly just legend because Shackleton is an eternal optimist and he would never write that ’safe return was doubtful’. Still yet, when I have this by my desk, I’m easily reminded and compelled to go forth in a courageous way that Shackleton might.

8) Deep survival

Chris Demorotski shared this book with me on a whim, thank goodness he did. There are two key quotes, that I’ve painstakingly distilled down here (the whole book is full of learnings about life), here are two I just love…

Pg. 277

“….the first rule of survival: to believe that anything is possible”

Pg. xxI

“The maddening thing for someone with a Western scientific turn of mind is that it’s not what’s in your pack that separates the quick from the dead. It’s not even what’s in your mind. Corny as it sounds, it’s what’s in your heart”.

9) Shackleton's Way

This book is written as a guide on how Shackleton approached his leadership. Pointing out the key choices and decisions he made, which resulted in the men in his crew, writing furiously in their diaries over their two year ordeal about how incredible their leader was, how they’d follow him anywhere.

What I like about this book is that in the middle of pages, the authors highlight in bold, the key point of each story.

This book is a great reminder that culture eats strategy for lunch and that success is going to be defined by how well we work as a team, not defined by the individual skill. A few learnings I love....

Pg. 59

Shackleton wanted people who shared his vision and enthusiasm for exploration

Pg. 84

On the Endurance, he [Shackleton] focused on the one thing that gave him the best chance at reaching his goals: unity.

10) Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson

I read this book 1x (or more a year) I pick it up when I need it. My mom gave me this book for Christmas many years ago. Shadow Divers is a crazy story, just bananas. These guys found a German U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey that no one, and I mean no one, knew was there. But, it’s not what they did, it’s how. My favorite quote, that guides me always is:

“Rarely does the problem itself kill the diver, but rather, the divers response-his panic-likely determines whether he lives or dies”. 

11) Forged in Crisis

This book chronicles 5 leaders: Shackleton (yay!), Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Rachel Carson. These humans chose to rise against incredible odds. They chose to continue taking one step in front of the other. Which, a lot of what I’m seeing time and time again, what I’m hearing Brenè Brown talk about courageous leaders, is that the willingness to continue, the choice to simply keep going, plays arguably a more vital aspect than any other one thing when it comes to being a leader. 

This is actually language Lincoln used in a letter to a young man who was considering a legal career, the last line of the letter said:

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing”

One thing I learned from this book, that I did not realize before with such gravity, is the true dark personal moments Lincoln faced. Nancy eloquently points out that 

“Histories and biographers have pointed to a number of Lincoln’s strengths and their role in his leadership. But the most significant of these strengths is not often mentioned and this is that Lincoln simply kept going."

This book will grab you and not let go. Nancy Koehn is a Harvard Professor and her prose here is some of the most enjoyably direct I’ve ever read (at the risk of hyperbole, it just is).  

So, which books have their grip on me in 2019? So far--Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" and Matt Gutman's "The Boys in the Cave". The books sitting in line are from: Michelle Obama, David Goggins and Stanley McChrystal. Game on boys and girls. See you out there.