Most-popular out-of-print book — two years running

Who the heck is Quenton Cassidy? Only the hero of the best book about running ever — and a popular pseudonym for athletes, apparently.

I’ve never read the book (it’d be hard since, according to this article in Slate, it’s pricey):

Since its publication in 1978, Once a Runner has purportedly sold more than 100,000 copies and spawned a sequel. Yet [John L. Parker, Jr.] sold the last of his original self-published editions in 2004. Demand has never subsided. The cheapest used paperback on Alibris was recently going for $77.98. And according to Bookfinder—the Google of dead books—the novel has been the most-searched-for out-of-print fiction or literature book each of the past two years.

As a novel — one that, admittedly, I’ve never read — the plot sounds a lot like a bust. Quenton trains and trains, but gets kicked off the team and has to go it alone, only to get one last shot at redemption. Yawn, I’ve seen that movie before.

But Slate author Marc Tracy (himself a runner) says that the book really captures the elusive feel of distance running:

Parker captures how it all feels: how during a tough workout a random word or phrase will materialize in your mind and be turned over and played with like “seals with a beach ball”; how as you wander around a track meet you feel as though your personal record is the dominant fact of your life… how after a race your spine feels as though it’s “made of bamboo.” … It presents the distance running life as overwhelmingly mundane.

Mundane it is … and I love it, too. Personally, I love treadmills, for example. I love the feeling that you can get, zoning out on them, letting nothing else matter except the constant rhythm of feet slapping against the belt.

I’m looking forward to a half-marathon in May, and a full marathon the year after. And I am looking forward to spring and summer runs outdoors. But nothing beats a treadmill.

After all, you can read a book on a treadmill. Perhaps this book.