Book Of The Month: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
This page may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon and Rewardstyle affiliate, we may earn a small commission for any purchases made through these links. Click here for the disclosure statement.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running... How much could there be to say, right? You’d be surprised. This short, sharp reflection on the ritual of running is not just for runners. It is for writers, thinkers, those who love staying active and playing sports, and any readers who have a similar practice of pouring their time and energy into a side hobby.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a reflection on having a passion in life, and pursuing that passion wholeheartedly, no matter what shape that takes. For author Haruki Murakami, his passion lies in pounding the pavement, putting one foot in front of the other, for miles and miles, hours and hours. Besides his reputation as a world-renowned author and “international literary icon,” Murakami has participated in countless marathons and triathlons.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Originally Published: 2007
Pages: 192
Available on: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook
GET YOUR COPY HERE
““I didn’t start running because somebody asked me to become a runner. Just like I didn’t become a novelist because someone asked me to. One day, out of the blue, I wanted to write a novel. And one day, out of the blue, I started to run-simply because I wanted to. I’ve always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I’m wrong, but I won’t change.””
Murakami’s memoir flows non-chronologically and creatively, with many interesting anecdotes and side stories, as he loosely traces his journey to train for his fourth New York City Marathon in 2005, and what that training meant to him.
This work—as all his works are known to be—is compelling and engaging: telling a simple, honest story that is playful and contemplative.
Published in 2007, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is sort of a memoir, sort of a playful creative exercise (pun intended), mixed with sort of a series of essays in which Murakami explores different concepts. He may inspire you to write, or to run, or to pour your heart a little more openly into your individual passion.
““Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life—and for me, for writing as well. I believe many runners would agree.””
Because Murakami is a serious and internationally-known author of genres such as science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, it is unique and intriguing to hear such an exploration and insight into his personal life and participation in anything not-so-literary-related, at least from a point-blank perspective. He draws the fine lines of intersection and compatibility between writing and running, how one pursuit fuels the other.
Murakami reflects on his love and daily practice of running and training for races, ruminating on how it challenges him to seek a better and more developed version of himself, taking him to a higher and previously-unexplored level of living and fighting for life. Challenging himself to run becomes his challenge to be actively and consciously alive.
As he puts succinctly:
““For me, running is both exercise and a metaphor. Running day after day, piling up the races, bit by bit I raise the bar, and by clearing each level I elevate myself. At least that’s why I’ve put in the effort day after day: to raise my own level. I’m no great runner, by any means. I’m at an ordinary – or perhaps more like mediocre – level. But that’s not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.””
The physical challenge of training hard is psychological, emotional, and fully-encompassing. Why do we pursue anything at all? Why do we gravitate towards hobbies and pastimes that capture our energy and our desire to improve? Each of us has some outlet that brings fire into our veins, some area in which we push ourselves and explore unknown territory that excites us and draws us in, despite the sweat (physical or psychological), tears, and hard labor.
““It’s precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get that feeling, through this process, of really being alive—or at least a partial sense of it.””
With humor and humility, Murakami ponders his own shortcomings and laughs at them. He is funny, sarcastic, self-deprecating, and brutally honest. He even disclaims that he considers himself to be a highly dislikable individual, but after reading this novel—no matter what he is like to speak with in person—as an author, he is inescapably likable. You have to respect an author who bravely and truthfully speaks to their own character’s failings, neither trying to impress nor gain admiration in any way (and thus definitely gaining it). What I Talk About When I Talk About Running will have you chuckling and turning pages effortlessly.
““I don’t think most people would like my personality. There might be a few—very few, I would imagine—who are impressed by it, but only rarely would anyone like it. Who in the world could possibly have warm feelings, or something like them, for a person who doesn’t compromise, who instead, whenever a problem crops up, locks himself away alone in a closet? But is it ever possible for a professional writer to be liked by people? I have no idea. Maybe somewhere in the world it is. It’s hard to generalize. For me, at least, I’ve written novels over many years, I just can’t picture someone liking me on a personal level. Being disliked by someone, hated and despised, somehow seems more natural. Not that I’m relieved when that happens. Even I’m not happy when someone dislikes me.””
As a long-distance runner and writer myself, I can say that this book speaks closely and dearly to both practices and pursuits, but readers need not have a past with either writing nor running to appreciate this work of literature. However, I appreciated it all the more and recommend it to anyone with similar interests. Ardent runners will latch onto his words and his truthful discussion of why he loves to run so much, inwardly marveling at his ability to articulate the reason for endurance running.
So, you may wonder, what does Murakami think and talk about when he runs for so long?
“I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I'm running? I don't have a clue.”
“I just run. I run in void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void.”
“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.”
If you do enjoy this light selection of Murakami’s, consider reading another of his works. He is a Japanese novelist, short-story writer, and translator, with other well-known books, including The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and A Wild Sheep Chase.
Check out this interview with Murakami for more interesting insights into his running career. Another fascinating aspect of this author is that before taking up the pen for a career, Murakami ran a jazz club in Tokyo.
Read the first short chapter of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running on his website to get you hooked!
More By Haruki Murakami:
Image: Amazon
Image: Amazon