What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

I think my title says it all.

I couldn't stop playing this book - it just drifted over me, yet motivated me to lace up my shoes and get running.

A great read for any runner or endurance athelete.

..perhaps a bit to introvert and slow. It had me thinking of what I think about when I run. That's all well and nice. But the book became a bit boring in the second half.

I read a review of this in this week?s Sunday Times and had the great satisfaction of knowing straight away that the reviewer was not a reader of Murakami?s fictional works and had completely missed the point of What I Talk About.
This book - which is, in fact, a collection in the classic essay form, was written and released by the writer for his established readers. There can be no other interest in the minutiae of running routines and preparations, what is going through the mind, how the programme is structured, where the running took place, what the weather conditions were like, how the muscles hurt, how the relaxation took place and who was running alongside....other than to get to know the mind (and is that the soul) of Murakami.
To that end, the essays work perfectly, it is a one-way dialogue where the author sits and gives you insights which are, for once, not filtered through the narrative and invention of the story.....we certainly believe that Murakami runs every day and has done for the last 20 odd years, his achievements against public running events such as the NYC Marathon are verifiable, as verifiable as his descriptions of the waterfront in Boston. So, if they are verifiable they must be ?true,? and so easy to absorb.
But what if all the running is an invention - it can?t be, we trust Murakami and in this iteration we have a true, prosaic voice we can trust - he?s on Facebook and he gives lectures so he must be OK....so where does all that Johnny Walker and Sheepman stuff come from......?
A really enjoyable, absorbing and diverting read, so different from anything else Murakami and so the same as same as.

I didn't know what to expect from this book. As a casual runner who struggles to get motivated I was looking for a book that would get me back out there more often. This isn't so much that sort of book, but I did find myself entirely immersed in the author's philosophical musings on what it means to be a runner, what his training means to him, and his autobiographical story, all of which combine to make almost a meditation on life and running.



This book has clarified some of my own thoughts when I run, which unfortunately is still a too-rare occurrence. It has also made me want to seek out some of the author's other non-running related titles. Recommended for thoughtful runners and non-runners alike.