Sports Science

Nick Bullock is a climber who lives in a small, green van, flitting between Llanberis, Wales, and Chamonix in the French Alps. Tides, Nick’s second work, is the much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut, Echoes. Tides is a gripping memoir that captures the very essence of what it means to dedicate one’s life to climbing.

"Most of the serious thinking I have done over the past 20 years has been done while running," says philosophy professor Rowlands, who has run for most of his life. And for him, running and philosophizing are inextricably connected. In Running with the Pack, he reveals the most significant runs of his life - from the entire day he spent running as a boy in Wales, to the runs along French beaches and up Irish mountains with his beloved wolf, Brenin, and through Florida swamps with his dog, Nina.

In this volume the author expands on Martin Luther's exhortation from the Sermon on the Mount, "Let the little birds be your theologians". He reveals lessons on faith from the feeding of ravens, on repentance from the migration of storks, on freedom from the flight of the eagle. He combines information about birds with biblical truths and personal anecdotes.

Feeling bone-tired, anxious and overwhelmed by the rolling news cycle and the pandemic age, Katherine May seeks to unravel the threads of a life wound too tightly. Could there be another way to live - one that feels more meaningful, more grounded in the places beneath our feet? One that would allow us to feel more connected, more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet?

Anyone who has ever gazed up at the sky or stared out of the window knows something about birds. In this fun, eye-opening and inspiring book, award-winning nature writer Simon Barnes paints a riveting picture of how birdwatching has framed his life and can help us all to a better understanding of our place on this planet. How to be a Bad Birdwatcher shows why birdwatching is not the preserve of twitchers, but one of the simplest, cheapest and most rewarding pastimes around.

The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once declared "the ideal limit of aquatic sports...is waterskiing". The avid surfer and lavishly credentialed academic philosopher Aaron James vigorously disagrees, and in Surfing with Sartre he intends to expound the thinking surfer's view of the matter, in the process elucidating such philosophical categories as freedom, being, phenomenology, morality, epistemology, and even the emerging values of what he terms "leisure capitalism".

On a tenebrous winter morning in Denver, Colorado, Leo Jenkins felt the weight of the world crushing him. Leo has a decision to make - maintain a comfortable position in a career he's no longer passionate about - or take a massive leap of faith. Giving up everything he's ever known, Jenkins sells his business, purges every possession that won't fit into a single backpack, and sets off into the world in pursuit of answers.

Fishing guide and award-winning author Randy Spencer weaves a spell with quirky, colorful residents, fish-out-of-water tourists, native traditions, and a large helping of absolute wonder. Written on Water is an extraordinary collection of tales about the part of Maine that truly is, as those who reside there call it, "back of the beyond".

In this ground-breaking and entertaining exploration of athletic success, award-winning writer David Epstein gets to the heart of the great nature vs. nurture debate, and explodes myths about how and why humans excel. Along the way, Epstein exposes the flaws in the so-called 10,000-hour rule that states that rigorous practice from a young age is the only route to success.

An NFL tight end for the New Orleans Saints and a widely read and followed commentator on social media, Watson has taken the Internet by storm with his remarkable insights about some of the most sensitive and charged topics of our day. Now, in Under Our Skin, Watson draws from his own life, his family legacy, and his role as a father to sensitively and honestly examine both sides of the race debate and appeal to the power and possibility of faith as a step toward healing.

In 1969, five young men from Montana set out to accomplish what no one had before: to scale the sheer north face of Mt. Cleveland, Glacier National Park’s tallest mountain, in winter. Two days later tragedy struck: They were buried in an avalanche so deep that their bodies would not be discovered until the following June. The White Death is the riveting account of that fated climb and of the breathtakingly heroic rescue attempt that ensued.

In Meetings with Moths ecologist Katty Baird roams Scotland seeking out, documenting and observing moths. Green Longhorns, Pimpinel Pugs and Peacock Moths are just some of the species that catch her attention as she climbs into holes, ventures behind waterfalls and wanders forests with her boundless curiosity. But you needn’t travel far and wide to see beautiful moths. Katty shows that you can easily enjoy discovering moths and caterpillars without specialist knowledge by creating your own light trap or simply looking more closely at your immediate landscape.

Ben Law has lived as a woodsman in Prickly Nut Wood for over 20 years. His authentic, incredible sense of the land and the wildlife, and his respect for age-old traditions and how to sustain them offers a wonderful, inviting insight into the life and character of Prickly Nut Wood. Having travelled to Papua New Guinea and the Amazon, observing age-old techniques for living in, working in and preserving forests and woodland, Ben Law felt compelled to return home and apply his learning to a 400-year-old plot of woodland near where he grew up.

Undefeated galactic heavyweight champion Korak the Cutter has defeated all challengers, destroying everyone in his path, but the wins aren’t as easy as they used to be. After a decade of perfect fighting, his age is catching up with him. For a Quyth Warrior, that means he’s slowing down, and speed is the name of the game in mixed martial arts.

A riveting account of the greatest small-boat rescue in American history.

This download showcases some of the most exquisite sounds that can be heard in the natural world, from the rich, melodious songs of the Blackbird, Pied Butcherbird and Nightingale that are full of complexity, ingenuity and perfectly arranged phrases, to the breathtaking compositions of the Skylark, Albert's Lyrebird and White-rumped Shama, and the rhythmical variations on a theme from the Chiming Wedgebill and White-browed Robin-chat.

Al Gore has been advocating on Earth's behalf for 25 years. In An Inconvenient Sequel, he recounts and contextualizes the critical issues and moments in the climate change movement since the release of An Inconvenient Truth more than 10 years ago and highlights the real solutions we have at hand to change the planet for the better.

In November 1934 as the United States and Japan drifted toward war, a team of American League all-stars that included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, future secret agent Moe Berg, and Connie Mack barnstormed across the Land of the Rising Sun. Hundreds of thousands of fans, many waving Japanese and American flags, welcomed the team with shouts of Banzai! Banzai Babe Ruth! The all-stars stayed for a month, playing 18 games, spawning professional baseball in Japan.

A look at how commercialization has transformed youth sports from fun into a heavily commercialized and profitable venture. Examining the youth sports economy from many sides - the major corporations, the small entrepreneurs, the coaches, the parents, and, of course, the kids - Hyman probes the reasons for rapid changes in what gets bought and sold in this lucrative marketplace. He reveals the effects on kids and profiles the individuals and communities bucking this destructive trend of commercialization.

The iconic ridge of the Black Cuillin on the Isle of Skye is the UK’s most challenging mountain range. Over 11 kilometres long and above 3,000 feet in places, the ridge contains 11 Munros and 16 other summits. In The Black Ridge, Simon Ingram offers a powerful distillation of the atmosphere, history and experience of the ridge: Britain’s ultimate mountain range.