Books Read:
41. The Queue — Basma Abdel Aziz
42. Mercenary English — Mercedes Eng
Kilometres Ran:
this week — 41.56
to date — 958.79
I imagine that when Trump wins the US presidential election this November that America will soon descending to the Kafkaesque post-Arab Spring world that Aziz describes so uncomfortably well in The Queue. It’s disheartening to think that what she describes may very well be happening in many places in the Middle East right now. Egypt comes to mind as most obvious. A post civil war Syria seems likely as well. I followed The Queue with a revisit to Eng’s Mercenary English — from a book about ultimate government surveillance, bureaucracy and control, to one about a group of people and a neighbourhood that for too long was largely ignored in the hopes that it would just go away. I’m currently working on an expanded new edition of Mercenary English for CUE Books. The new edition has a new introduction from Eng along with some additions to the autocartography section, and concludes with an interview between Eng and the inimitable Fred Moten (that I am [still] anxious to see/read). I’m hoping to have it out by September, but all of a sudden it’s nearly the middle of July — it’s not looking good. But I’m going to try.
After putting bout 550 kilometres on my Adidas runners I went out on my birthday (back in June) and bought some new Nike runners from The Right Shoe. And they were great. She was great. I cannot remember her name. Anyway, it was a first for me. Until then all of my runners have come from Costco or Winners. And I’ve had mostly good luck. My physiotherapist suggested The Right Shoe because, well, it’s not just a clever name. And the woman that helped me (Tashaorsomething) made me try on a whole pile of shoes and I honestly went with the ones that I thought felt the best and then I started to get a pain in the top of my foot and the last time this happened was when I bought a pair of Saucony runners (from Winners) and in the first run on them I started experiencing extensor tendonitis and as soon as I went back to my old runners (Nikes, also from Winners) it went away. So I thought that me and Saucony just weren’t going to get along. So I went and bought Adidas runners (from Winners) and they were great, and I wore them out and then bought another pair (from Costco) and (now we’re full circle) and wore them out and then ended up at The Right Shoe on my birthday buying a pair of Nikes that I’d previously had good luck with but this time I did not. So I’m at a bit of a loss because there was zero indication in the store that these shoes were going to hurt my feet (also, gave me my first running blister ever during the Scotiabank half marathon). Anyway, it’s just a bit frustrating. And I don’t know what the solution is except to just chance it and see.