I’ve come across books written by Ray Charbonneau in the past, such as Overthinking the Marathon and The 27th mile. Fortunately I had the opportunity to read his most recent book, Idle Feet do the Devil’s Work. “Idle Feet” as it’s called for short, is a collection of his writing from various publications, including UltraRunning and The Boston Globe. The writings are running related, as you would expect, and vary in length but are typically no longer than a few pages each. The book is a fun and easy read for runners, or those who enjoy reading about running. Some of the first few stories which he refers to as “Early Stuff” are from several years back as you can tell when reading about running with music and a cassette player and MiniDisc player are mentioned. But as the author points out, it serves as a reminder of how quickly things change. There are several interesting stories related to the Boston Marathon including the 5k split distribution at the 2014 race (overall and also by age and gender). For those of you into race and/or pace analysis it’s a story with a perspective you will enjoy and there are plenty of other charts and graphs in the book to keep you happy. My absolute favorite story in the book is the one in which Ray describes his experience of guiding a vision impaired runner at the Boston Marathon in 2013. Several other stories I enjoyed reading are the race reports, bringing to life places and races I’ve never been to. Reading this book has piqued my interest even more in his other books such as the 27th mile, which is a compilation of stories from contributors such as Amby Burfoot and Kathrine Switzer and whose proceeds go to support the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. If you are looking for a running related book for yourself or to gift to a runner in your life this holiday season you should check out Idle Feet do the Devil’s Work.
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Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post, however I did receive a copy of the book to review. All opinions are my own and not influenced in any way.