Alex Hutchinson (1)
Auteur van Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance
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Over de Auteur
Alex Hutchinson is a contributing editor at Popular Mechanics magazine, senior editor at Canadian Running magazine, and columnist for the Toronto Globe and Mail. He holds a master's in journalism from Columbia and a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge, and he did his postdoctoral research with the U.S. toon meer National Security Agency. toon minder
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Statistieken
- Werken
- 4
- Leden
- 474
- Populariteit
- #52,001
- Waardering
- 4.0
- Besprekingen
- 12
- ISBNs
- 30
- Talen
- 2
This book seems to be 3 different books mixed in a blender. One presens stories of extraordinary people pushed to their limits or even beyond them (to the fatal end), the second chronicles progress of medicine and experiments that helped us understand how our bodies work, and the last one about running - combining personal experiences of the author with a sub-2-hours marathon attempt. The shifts between these 3 modes always threw me off balance. There is no strong narrative that connects different parts - one could read chapters in random order without missing a lot - and the whole seems to be underwhelming. Oftentimes there is an intriguing premise, then a build up with a lot of meandering and skipping between anecdotes, facts, and personal stories, leading to a very inconclusive resolution that doesn't really pay off.
The writing is clear and has a distinctive style of curiosity and skepticism. The author presents research results without cherry-picking, often showing conflicting conclusions, and trying to make some sense "with the reader". The number of details provided is as admirable as excruciating. Surely the author did his homework but I think more effort could go into the editing, cutting all the facts that do not support his message. Numerous digressions and shifts between threads require the reader to keep multiple pieces of information in mind to follow the author connecting the dots, but in the end a lot of dots remain disconnected and seem to be added just to show off.
If you are an avid sports fan, especially running or cycling (extra points for the appreciation of the history of record breaking), you might enjoy this book more than I did and add one star to my rating. Otherwise, it is a fascinating but not really ground-breaking read.… (meer)