What I talk about when I talk about running, Haruki Murakami, 2007 - The title of the book is a take on Raymond Carver’s (another one of my favorite writers) ‘What we talk about when we talk about love’ (excellent collection of Carver’s shorts). Murakami is a writer almost all of whose works I have read, including this one. Since my mind hasn’t been into fiction (enough in the balance sheets and the business models), I haven’t been able to read any in the last few years. This work is almost autobiographical, although its about running. I wanted to re-read some Murakami which wasn’t fiction and wasn’t an essay (he has a few of those) and was a book (which I had), so well, this was the only choice I had. Murakami calls himself the running novelist - fitting title, as he had run 25 marathons, one every year for 25 years when he wrote the book.
There were some parts in the book that were stuck in my head from my first read - of all the hardships and toil he goes through, to prove a point to no one but himself, year after year, in rain and sun, across countries and continents, despite his tight schedule and how he relates that to his writing - as he claims he doesn’t have a natural flair for it, he has to toil and dig until he finds a rich vein of words that spillforth. It is a quick, and somewhat motivating read as it is filled with his inadequacies and how he overcomes it with nothing but his persistence. It is part philosophical as well, without being overbearingly so. He voices his running thoughts, in the cadence of a jog along a beautiful river and you are bound to feel like a fellow runner listening. 8/10