Neal Bascomb has written The Perfect Mile (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2004) in which he recounts the 1950's story of the pursuit of the four-minute mile by Roger Bannister, Wes Santee, and John Landy. For those of us who love running, the book is a delight.

In its earliest pages, Bascomb writes: "All three runners endured thousands of hours of training to shape their bodies and minds. They ran more miles in a year than many of us walk in a lifetime. They spent a large part of their youth struggling for breath. They trained week after week to the point of collapse, all to shave off a second, maybe two, during a mile race—the time it takes to snap one's fingers and register the sound. There were sleepless nights and training sessions in rain, sleet, snow, and scorching heat. There were times when they wanted to go out for a beer or a date yet knew they couldn't. They understood that life was somehow different for them, that idle happiness eluded them. If they weren't training or racing or ...