What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

As a mediocre endurance athlete, I identified with a lot of this book, and it inspires me to get out there, even on bleh days. Murakami incisively describes the personality traits that motivate people who run crazy distances, and how it informs our approach to life and work (in his case writing). But it also could feel rote and banal, and at times like Star Trek's Data describing human behavior. Overall a good read.

Lovely memoir with an inspiring take on exercise, specifically, a running life. This book was insightful and fun but it also talks about the downsides of his running life. His failures and pains. And what happens in his mind when he runs:

???The thoughts that occur to me while I???m running are like clouds in the sky. Clouds of all different sizes. They come and they go, while the sky remains the same sky always. The clouds are mere guests in the sky that pass away and vanish, leaving behind the sky.???

It's not terrible, but it certainly didn't set me on fire. My main problem perhaps is that I am mostly ambivalent towards long distance running, especially after I know the long term health problems you get from it. The deification of the sport had always puzzled me, so Murakami's poetic musings did not stir me. And although he does give some insight into writing, they were not mind blowing. He just doesn't go deep enough: it's all very surface though they were some good tips. Therefore, it wasn't impactful to me, not on the level of Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott or Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. Those were fantastic! This book was an all around meh to me. I STILL don't get why he's so popular.

I was disappointed in this book. The writing felt so amateurish and unpolished, like a collection of stream of conscious notes that were in the process of being turned into a first draft. He repeated points over and over within paragraphs as well as throughout the book, over-explaining and in the process killing the vitality of the ideas. Also, there was the big problem that the book didn't make any point - it felt like listening to a very detailed and long-winded description of a mildly interesting person's day.

"At Least He Never Walked"

Where I’m an avid Haruki Murakami fan, me and running are casual acquaintances at best. I don’t enjoy running the way other runners seem to, and even trying to understand the mentality is foreign to me. I have incredible respect for people who are runners, let alone ultramarathon runners and triathlon competitors, it’s just not something for me. So when a gathering of friends decided to get together to read this book (as we all respect Murakami as a writer to varying degrees), I almost passed. I’m actually glad I didn’t, because there’s more to this book than a man talking about how much he loves running.

I mean, there’s tons of that too. Murakami is an accomplished runner as well as an author, and he has all the right to talk to us about how he prepares for marathons and approaches running in general. He lives an incredibly disciplined lifestyle, makes time for a considerable amount of running each day, and generally takes very good care of himself. There’s lots here for the people who run, where Murakami finds the motivation to do so, how deep he has to dig when he’s in the thick of a marathon, the mental preparations he goes through leading up to a race. I mean, at the core of it, it’s just a matter of strapping on some sneakers and going at it, but it’s easy to say that on paper and a thousand times harder to actually do.

For the rest of us like me, who find running a chore and something to only trot out when escaping a bear or something, there’s good thoughts here too. I liked Murakami’s thoughts on persistence, approaching tough problems, and many other little things that I can apply to everyday life. The troubleshooting he goes through to figure out a problem (like his swimming form) and the importance of just keeping at something are good things to keep in the back of your brain. While you may not be swimming, being able to identify a problem exists and trying to figure out how to fix it rather than just scrapping the whole thing/idea/race/hobby will get you far.

Not a long book, but I appreciated this look into his head as he runs.

I read this book 8 years ago and I remember how much I liked it. I never read sport book or athlete's memoirs, but there is something about this book that really spoke to me. A reflection on his daily life, on the habit of writing and working out, on experiencing your body beyond its limits, on the silence that occurs when you've been running for hours... I would need to re-read to write a more accurate review, but I enjoy the warm feeling I still have for this book.

Stop it, Amazon. Reading this book doesn't mean I'm a runner and need more recommendations for how to up my running game. Nor (sigh) am I a writer either, in need of recommendations for how to finish a book (though I kinda-sorta do need a book like this, if one exists).

I read this book because it was recommended as a good read by a book friend. It is. It's a book about how Murakami became a writer and how he became a runner and it's a little bit of a memoir, but it's about more than that. It tells about how Murakami gets into a meditative state when he runs and when he writes. It tells about how running and writing are alike and difficult and good. It doesn't proclaim to know the truths about either of these; it's not a self-help book but I did take away a lot of self-help that wasn't explicitly stated...good books are like that.

This book is a lot about running and a little about writing. I don't quite fancy running myself, yet I enjoyed every bit of this book. Murakami has this ease in the way he expresses himself and his values and philosophies in life which I quite admire. There's a lot to read and learn, perspectives that clarify some of our own perceptions...

It's nice to peek a little into the life of a writer whose works I'm familiar with as it does add some depth to my understanding of them