I should not have liked Born to Run because I am not a 32- to 68-year-old old marathon-running man.
But I liked it anyway because "Born to Run" is an obsessively compelling book about one man鈥檚 quest to get to know a hidden tribe of some of the world鈥檚 greatest distance runners. Tucked into the deep crevasses of Mexico鈥檚 Copper Canyons, the Tarahumara Indians have been running unthinkable distances as a means of transportation, sport, and pleasure for thousands of years. We鈥檙e talking 400-plus miles at a time. For fun. "Born to Run" mixes genre, reaching across science, history, sociology, and sport to great effect. The result is an exuberant book that is much more than the sum of its parts.
