A Marathoner's Playlist: E-Audiobooks for Runners by Ricci Yuhico, Managing Librarian, Young Adult Services, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL)November 2, 2018

Women running at mile 7 of the 2015 New York City Marathon — Elite women runners at mile 7 of the 2015 TCS NYC Marathon.Via Flickr, Creative Commons
Taken by S. Pisano

An assortment of 4 photos from the 1979 New York City Marathon, on a brown background — NYC Marathon, 1979. Manhattan,1st Ave., between 76th and 77th Streets. Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy; NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 732890F

With only a few days until the 2018 TCS New York City Marathon, posters have been placed throughout the NYC subway, stating: #itwillmoveyou, #itwillfreeyou, #itwillenergizeyou, #itwillwelcomeyou, and more.

The sentiments are not exaggerating. 26.2 miles is no joke and is often presented as the distance runner’s ultimate goal. If they have prepped properly, runners will have dedicated countless hours to running hundreds of miles during the spring and summer to make sure they can cross that finish line strong—no matter if they're a novice or professional.

Often, the struggle really is endurance—pushing the body to its limits, to run and go. This requires pacing, training, a lot of understanding of your own body and, quite frankly, external encouragement. This can range from your go-to music playlist, to movies on the treadmill at the gym when the weather gets too cold, to changing up the scenery to engage with the city in a way no one else does.

For my training for the TCS New York City Marathon, I listen to a Spotify playlist that I’ve built upon since I started running. But for those long runs that come with increased mileage, 125-beats-per-minute for more than two to three hours has energized me so much that I would start out way too fast, my efforts petering out in the end, leaving me unable to finish my goal for that day.

What has really helped the miles go by and kept me on a consistent, even pace, has been e-audiobooks.

As a "run-brarian" (yes, okay, a combination of runner and librarian), I couldn’t believe how proud I was to combine two of my favorite things in one effort. But not every audiobook is created equal! Sometimes, your own preferences may not jive with the voice actor reading your book—try not to judge whether you like the book based on that, especially if it has been on your to-read list for some time.

In the list below, I've included e-audiobooks I’ve listened to and found to have: 1. good, even profound stories, and 2. really engaging audio. These include fiction and nonfiction, adult and young adult. I have laughed out loud and even cried on my run with some of these selections. (Summaries adapted from the publishers.)

Runners and fellow run-brarians? See you out there at the finish line in Central Park on November 4.

Recommended E-audiobooks for a Runner's Playlist

Between the World and Me

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Read by the author

Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a framework for understanding our nation's history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race," a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

This is Coates's attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children's lives were taken as American plunder.

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

By Jenny Lawson
Read by the author

It's the difference between surviving life and living life. It's the difference between taking a shower and teaching your monkey butler how to shampoo your hair. Jenny Lawson—aka The Bloggess—returns with the follow-up to her bestselling memoir, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, recounting stories from everyday family life in her inimitably frank, hilarious, bizarre and endearing way.

She describes her battles with depression and anxiety, and her quest to overcome them by saying 'yes' to even the absurdist opportunities and making the good times gloriously good. As Jenny says, "You can't experience pain without also experiencing the baffling and ridiculous moments of being fiercely, unapologetically, intensely and (above all) furiously happy…" It's a philosophy that has—quite literally—saved her life.

Flying Lessons & Other Stories

Edited by Ellen Oh
Read by various narrators

From basketball dreams and family fiascos to first crushes and new neighborhoods, this anthology, written by award-winning children's authors, celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us.

America is Not the Heart

By Elaine Castillo
Read by Donnabella Mortel

How many lives fit in a lifetime? When Hero De Vera arrives in America—haunted by the political upheaval in the Philippines and disowned by her parents—she's already on her third.

Her uncle gives her a fresh start in the Bay Area and doesn't ask about her past… His younger wife knows enough about the might and secrecy of the De Vera family to keep her head down. But their daughter—the first American-born daughter in the family—can't resist asking Hero about her damaged hands.

I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor's Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope

By Chessy Prout
Read by the author

The numbers are staggering: nearly one in five girls ages 14 to 17 have been the victim of a sexual assault or attempted sexual assault. This is the true story of one of those girls.

In 2014, Prout was a freshman at St. Paul's School, a prestigious boarding school in New Hampshire, when a senior boy sexually assaulted her as part of a ritualized game of conquest. She reported her assault to the police and testified against her attacker in court. In the face of unexpected backlash from her once-trusted school community, she shed her anonymity to help other survivors find their voice.

Heretics Anonymous

By Katie Henry
Read by Michael Crouch

When non-believer Michael transfers to a Catholic school in 11th grade, he quickly connects with a secret support group intent on exposing the school's hypocrisies, one stunt at a time.

Interested in following a runner during the marathon? Download the TCS NYC Marathon app and keep track of your favorite athletes and friends.

View all posts by Ricci Yuhico