What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir (Vintage International), Book Cover May Vary

I have placed this book atop my listmania group of literary running books. Haruki Murakami's marvelously entertaining WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING is about his running, yes, but it also touches on other interesting ideas, including the author's affinities for music, literature, and baseball, Japanese and American:"As if to lament the defeat of the Boston Red Sox in the playoffs (they lost every game in a Sox vs. Sox series with Chicago), for ten days afterward a cold rain fell on New England. A long autumn rain. Sometimes it rained hard, sometimes softly; sometimes, it would let up for a time like an afterthought, but not once did it clear up.""From beginning to end the sky was completely covered with the thick gray clouds particular to this region. Like a dawdling person, the rain lingered for a long time, then finally made up its mind to turn into a downpour. Towns from New Hampshire to Massachusetts suffered damage from the rain, and the main highway was cut off in places."Murakami says he took the title of his book from the title of the Raymond Carver short story collection, WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT LOVE, and thanks Carver's widow for giving him permission. Murakami has translated many of Carver's works into Japanese, as well as other American fiction. He says:"One other project I'm involved in now is translating Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY, and things are going well. I've finished the first draft and am revising the second. I'm taking my time, going over each line carefully, and as I do so the translation gets smoother and I'm better able to render Fitzgerald's prose into more natural Japanese.""It's a little strange, perhaps, to make this claim at such a late date, but GATSBY really is an outstanding novel. I never get tired of it, no matter how many times I read it. It's the kind of literature that nourishes you as you read, and every time I do I'm struck by something new, and experience a fresh reaction to it. I find it amazing how such a young writer, only twenty-one at the time, could grasp--so insightfully, so equitably, and so warmly--the realities of life. How was this possible? The more I think about it, and the more I read the novel, the more mysterious it all is."Music, baseball, literature, and running. My kind of writer. Runners looking for a similar read might want to try Don Kardong's THIRTY PHONE BOOTHS TO BOSTON. Readers new to Murakami who enjoyed this one might be inspired to try one of the author's many novels, and I highly recommend THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE.

WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNINGMe running together with MurakamiThis is a very special kind of book. I wonder whether anybody having nothing to do with running would be interested in reading this book. On one hand the subject matter of the book calls for personal engagement with running, but on the other, the author is a big master of formulating his ideas so that.... He could make an interesting story out of a block of wood, why then not of his personal experiences of looking around while using the simplest means of transportation in a most effective way.Murakami really runs his eyes open and observing. Having done that already a quarter of a century as a means to writing books and distributing them in millions of copies in tens of languages all over the world is utmost impressive. What a fantastic simplicity in combination! Just running, seeing and writing!While reading this book I felt myself his co-runner, already for the reason that I started my running only a few years before Murakami, in 1977 at the age of forty years. But sadly enough, especially looking at it now, in the light of this story, finished my career only seven years later, physically, but not spiritually. Twelve marathons, half an hour faster than Murakami - proud to say. Once runner, always runner, that is the main thing and the motivation to read this book.The second chapter of the book is a good rough description of my own career. The same steps, same transformation of every day habits in eating, resting, body hurting and enjoying a new way of life. Murakami started his career as writer about parallel to his running. I also wrote books, text books in economics, but was at that time already finishing my career after tens of thousand books and going over to computer programming, still continuing it today. And differently from Murakami, never have I been able to see any direct connection between my motioning and writing.Murakami's devotion and stamina are impressive. At several occasions he is telling, how important it is to make running an everyday habit. I found it shocking, when he tells about leaving his smoking. Perhaps, instead of pills, running should be advised as a means of getting rid of smoking! Running and smoking - a completely impossible combination, it really seems to me. My big thing was getting rid of 20 kg overweight. Another big was that I first time found myself a long distance runner after having been a sprinter in my young days, up to 20 years of age.Starting this running book I was already familiar with Murakami's grass root level writing style from his later book about the lone rider Tsukuru in 'Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage'. Now having finished this running book I only remember, how I was somewhat disappointed with some overly detailed description of certain technicalities after the takeoff of the flight in running and even more interesting in the parallel start of his author's career. There are two more very big causes of disappointment in this otherwise so excellent and under the skin going story. One is his, or the editor's, or the translator's, or the publisher's harring to miles as the measure of distance. Is it only the English translation that requires miles, or is this true also in Japan in general? Another disappointment was that he never gives his exact running times in plain numbers. I would have preferred that way in stead of roughly putting it in words like three hours forty five minutes etc.There is still another very personal disappointment to me. I expected that I would find in this book the solution of the main riddle after the other book mentioned above. How on Earth does Murakami give my country Finland a special treatment in that other book? Perhaps something to do with running? With the Finnish great champion, his exact coeval Lasse Virén, double gold medal winner of long distance running in two olympic games, that is: one man, four gold medals! No answer to this question. Not in the other book, not in this, not even in Wikipedia. So perhaps I must continue reading Murakami. Not an unpleasant undertaking for the future! Do I dare to give only four stars - mainly because of the continuous nuisance of miles in stead of kilometers?20150204

Loved it. Recent convert to running, and I really enjoyed his reflections on what running, and writing, means to him. Great reading for accepting your own limitations.

Easygoing, casual reading that got me entangled since beginning to its end. What a great writer sharing his view of this sport

Ero libero dagli esami e sono un amante dei libri e questo libro è fantastico da leggere. Lo consiglio assolutamente.

First of all, I am korean and I already read this book in korean. After move to Canada, I need to study English so I choose this book that I always love to read. Some words are very hard to understand for me at first, but Kindle helped me a lot (haha). It is my favorite book. It mede me run, and think how to live. If you like haruki, you will never be disappointed!

How it comes to the point that Marukami started writing? It was a mood, not real intention to start a career. Trial and error. Why not to take this approach. He did it with his jazz club and had success. He wrote the novel Hear the Wind Sing in 1978 and got an award. So, he was able to write and get paid to write. The next novel „Pinball, 1973“ was published in 1982.I can see my readers in my mind. I want to evolve, get better and a real conceptional human relationship helps me to go further and improve. Like running, with training he will reach excellence. Murakami apply the Pareto-Principle without mention it. He wants to run his jazz club in that way that 1 of 10 will be happy and will come again. So, he sees the readers of his books. If 1 of 10 like it they will buy the next book from him.He is an early bird. He starts early in the morning and work hard but doesn’t forget the pauses, the sport. His productive time is from 5 am to 10 pm.He set to the desk for four hours regularly and write or think about something and makes notes or do some translation. Murakami translated „The Great Gatsby“ by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He wondered how such a young man can have so much human experience. F. Scott Fitzgerald was just 29 years old. He must be a real talent, a giant.His training for Marathon was a 5-miles stretch in Imperia Park, he repeated it 7 times to get the marathon distance.He explained that the Marathon will get difficult at about after the first 22 miles. This is the power of will the mental power that counts.He eats fresh fish and vegetables and cut down on indulgence to get fit for the marathon. What counts are the three pillars: talent, focus and endurance.Talented writers are seldom. Most writers had to work hard to accomplish the story. He likes writing as he likes running. And both are essential. Tendencies can be adjusted, essence not. So. he believe in having a talent, a talent to a long-distance running and top write. He had not finished the novels without running. He is proud to accomplished the novels and he is curious about what is coming next. He would say this is life – the evolvement and the relationship between body and mind. He balanced the stories between inner and external stuff. Fantasy and reality. The contemplation about this is during the running. Something is achieved by reflection others by intuition or by chance. Unconsciously.He compares himself as a long-distance runner with the proud running pony-tail girls from Harvard University who don’t know what pain is. They are always on the bright side of life and it seems like they are in a perfect world: young, pretty, rich, successful. He is brag to know what matters what he knows about running.The top experience was the super marathon he took in and achieved it. He was running the last miles like an auto pilot. He did much work with his arms because the feet failed to obey, don’t did what they should have done.Murakami sensed resignation after the super marathon. He developed a new relationship to running. He started triathlon.A valuable reflection is his retrospective. As a young man he had created a list of deficiencies he discovered, The „sad spreadsheet of my life“, he said. But then he decided that we all have deficiencies but as well impaccable sides. So debts and assets are given but one has to develop the best of it.He failed in swimming. He solved the issue by taking a coach. Finally, he took revenge and accomplished the race. Sometimes one wants to do but cannot do. „Sometimes taking time is actually a shortcut “. Good things need time and slow thinking is sometimes valuable approach.Learning from experience makes a lot of fun. Experience is often linked to pain. Pain is needed. It is life and to overcome pain is what is what a marathon runner experienced.One has to accept something that is inefficient and fruitless. That is life.