The London Marathon : The History of the Greatest Race on Earth by John Bryant

The London Marathon : The History of the Greatest Race on Earth by John Bryant (2006)
Read: November 2010

I read this leading up to the Pharoanic Run. It was a really good book to read at that time - getting me into the mind set of running a race!

It is a history of the London Marathon, but it also interspersed with a history of the marathon as a race in itself. The marathon as a race seems to have kicked off from the jogging boom and from a few city marathon races, the London Marathon was born. What was interesting is how it was really just a couple of guys who started the London Marathon off - their idea and persistance to get the permissions and get people on the streets. Each year of the race it got bigger and bigger leading to where it is today as a gold mine for sponsors and charities, as well as for top atheletes.

I've enjoyed reading sporting books before (the Bannister / one-minute mile one was good) and this was the same - getting you really into the zone and feeling the sport. I finished it just before the race and chapters that were about "the wall" and training and the crowds relaly got my heart pumping ready for my own race.

The Bethlehem Murders: An Omar Youssef Novel by Matt Rees

The Bethlehem Murders: An Omar Youssef Novel by Matt Rees (2008)
Read: March 2010

I bought this over Christmas too in the same batch as The Sphinx. When I was looking for The Sphinx on Amazon I had a list of "other people who liked this bought..." and this book was on there. It was billed as a detective-type novel, by a new writer, but set, very realistically apparently in Palestine and around Gaza.Sounds good to me, so I add it to the cart.

It's really very good this book. I got right into it straight away and almost had to slow myself down when reading it, so that I could keep enjoying it for longer. The story of the crime-to-be-solved by local-turned-detective isn't what is most gripping about this, but the setting and the character. I really feel that I know more about life in Palestine as the book is full of detailed, but not over-burndered descriptions of daily life there. In the book you see the people, hear them, see the scared landscape, feel part of their lives. You witness the small parts of life, like Omar Yussef's love of his wife's food and her concern to recieve every phonecall from her husband, you also witness corruption and confusion between rival gangs patrolling the areas and a police force that is trying to police an unsustainable situation.

I knew from the first few chapters that I would be buying more of these, and so now have ordered the three other books written in the series. It's reassuring that others have written about these books saying that they are well representative of life / society in Palestine.