{"product_id":"9780307700025","title":"Room for Improvement: Notes on a Dozen Lifelong Sports","description":"From the author of the novel \u003ci\u003eSpartina,\u003c\/i\u003e which won the National Book Award and has established itself as a modern classic, comes a collection of essays that describe with tenderhearted candor and humor a lifetime’s worth of addiction. No, not an addiction to booze or drugs, but an addiction to a more natural gratification: the joy of sport, exercise, and the sheer elation of being ready and willing to say yes to a challenge. Want to run a marathon? \u003ci\u003eOK.\u003c\/i\u003e Climb Mount Katahdin? \u003ci\u003eSure!\u003c\/i\u003e How about canoeing the entire length of the Delaware River? \u003ci\u003eWhy not?\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Spanning more than fifty years of ambitious and sometimes peculiar endeavors, these essays take us along on some of Casey’s greatest adventures: a twenty-six-day Outward Bound course in Maine during the dead of winter; being pinned by a two-hundred-pound judo instructor whose words, “Come on, white boy. Don’t give up,” encourage at least one more attempt at escape; leading a lost couple on a yacht through the rocky waterways of Narragansett Bay by a simple rowboat; and completing—on his seventieth birthday—a 70K marathon of his own devising that included rowing, bicycling, skating, Rollerblading, and finally, trotting the dog out for a mile. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Be it a preoccupation with health, vanity, or just an indomitably playful sense of adventure, John Casey’s \u003ci\u003eRoom for Improvement\u003c\/i\u003e is a joyful self-portrait of a writer who loves going to extremes, just to find out what it’s like once he gets there.","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47012015669488,"sku":"9780307700025","price":25.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780307700025_p0.jpg?v=1763673095","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780307700025","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}