Publisher : Blackstone Audiobooks Inc
Publication Date : 2008 08 01
>> Running and writing
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami is an odd little book It s a memoir of sorts in which Murakami writes about running In addition to running he describes his views on writing novels and compares writing to running
In this book Murakami rambles a bit as he describes what running means to him Even with the rambling if you enjoy running you ll enjoy this book His obvious passion for running is evident on every page Time after time I found myself relating to his thoughts on running He runs most days and has done so for more than 20 years At one point in the book he writes about a 100K race he ran which is interesting He also writes about doing triathlons and the challenges involved with doing a triathlon
I enjoyed this book I enjoy reading about running If you do as well check out this book
>> Running is Writing Writing is Running
Long distance running has molded me into the person I am today and I m hoping it will remain a part of my life for as long as possible I ll be happy if running and I can grow old together 172
When we discovered that we were going to Okinawa Wendy suggested one of her favorite authors Haruki Murakami I never read one of his books until I saw this in the library Strangely enough it s about running a topic I have little interest in reading an entire book about What compelled me to read something from him was the fact that he translated Raymond Carver s short stories into Japanese In fact I thought he ripped off Carver s title What We Talk about When We Talk about Love my first Carver collection
This is a memoir of sorts both of his training for several marathons and his writing process I enjoyed his ability to use running as a metaphor for writing and writing as a metaphor for running Murakami has an easy style of writing without pretension something that books about writing rarely have
I loved the descriptions of his runs around both Tokyo and Boston best but I found the most inspiration in his recounting of his run in an ultramarathon 62 miles That serves as a reminder for me to persevere in my Christian faith and to pursue Jesus as the ultimate prize
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one receives the prize So run that you may obtain it 1 Cor 9 24
>> A runner out of steam
If Murakami had never written another novel after writing Norwegian Wood he would have been a great writer Alas he did Not that his other novels are bad as such Some are even good Others are mediocre And his most recent novels seem to have been copies of other novels he wrote before And as if he realized by himself that his recent novels are all much too similar to each other he has started to write semi autobiographical books about the poison gas attack on the Tokyo subway or now about running
These are not badly written after all he is a good writer and a perceptive man But much is missing I had been looking forward as an avid runner myself to read the reflections of someone more perceptive than me someone who might have another take on running than myself Instead I found a mixture of semi baked philosophical thought and cliche observations Yes it sometimes rains when you run And yes running a Marathon requires some self discipline And yes stretching helps And Mizuno shoes are good running shoes
The book is a quick and nice read and I cannot claim that I disliked reading it But afterwards there was nothing left Popcorn for the mind
