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| What I Talk About When I Talk About Running | 
 enlarge | Author: Haruki Murakami
Creator: Philip Gabriel
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $21.00
Buy New: $10.99
You Save: $10.01 (48%)
New (32) Used (16) from $9.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 446
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 175
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0307269191
Dewey Decimal Number: 895.635
EAN: 9780307269195
ASIN: 0307269191
Publication Date: July 29, 2008
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Product Description
In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a dozen critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and—even more important—on his writing.
Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and takes us to places ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvelous lens of sport emerges a panorama of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back.
By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and revelatory, both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in running.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Wonderful running memoir by one of my favorite authors. August 3, 2008
14 out of 19 found this review helpful
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.
Murakami Talks About Life August 4, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I have not read any of Murakami's novels (this may change soon), but in his short stories he often employs subtle nostalgia for his characters' pasts. Often this nostalgia blurs the line with philosophy, and after reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, it became apparent why Murakami enjoys crafting his fiction this way: his style of writing mirrors his perspective on life. After traveling the world, training for and participating in marathons and triathlons, Murakami wants to share his runner's experiences and how they have molded him and his perspective on life. He presents us with a thought-provoking and entertaining narrative (some of it culled from journal entries and old magazines articles he wrote years ago, but most of it original stuff).
The book is 1/3 travelogue, 1/3 self-help, and 1/3 runners guide. We read about the running environments and typical weather patterns where Murakami has trained: New York, Boston, Japan, Greece. We read about the mental discipline and courage it takes to be a long-distance runner. But, most of all, subtly emerging on each page, we read about Murakami the philosopher. His favorite topic is the merciless and stubborn passage of time and its effects on the body and mind. He writes candidly about his thoughts on training as he grows older (Murakami was in his late 50s when he wrote much of the book). He writes about what he thinks about as he runs (ususally nothing); he writes about discipline. To paraphrase one of Murakami's favorite quotes (I forget the source): "...pain is inevitable; suffering is optional."
Murakami tells us that he was neither a natural novelist nor runner. He has had to work hard at both, but both are things which require a steady effort, skills with which Murakami prides himself. As we read along, we learn about Murakami's start as a novelist, his love for baseball, his strong character, and how he applied his strong character to defy his friends and relatives and open a restaurant, become a writer, and eventually, a marathon runner (even once running a 62-mile ultra-marathon). He had opened a restaurant before he became a writer, but one day, after the success of his first novel, he decided to close the restaurant and become a professional writer. It was at this time when he also decided to start running and quit smoking (in that order).
Although the chronology of the book might be a little out of order (the book is not structured chronologically), and this might throw a few more traditional readers, this wasn't a problem. The translation seemed genuine (although I can't read Japanese!), as the translator kept all of the little Murakami-isms one would expect: little phrases such as "...as I mentioned before," or little tangents into the second person. The style remains informal throughout.
Despite its ostensible subject matter (running), this is a book for everyone, because its real subject matter is not about running -- it's about how Murakami gathers meaning from life. Using a master's touch, he shows us how this meaning derives from his simple act of running each day. I, for one, became inspired.
Run Haruki-san Run!! August 4, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
You do not have to be a runner to be inspired by this little book. Murakami's memoir details his hard work, perseverance and dedication with regard to a certain craft, long-distance running, and the positive affect it has had on his life and writing. Murakami's lessons can applied in life no matter what your profession or passions may be. For myself, his dedication, hard work, focus, goal-setting and commitment to a quality life are all inspiring. Plus, this a very enjoyable, fun read.
What I Thought About When I Thought about "What I Talk About When I Talk About RUNNING" August 1, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I first heard of Haruki Murakami by looking up the Amazon running book stats. Since I check these often it wasn't the ranking that got my attention but the title. I was intrigued. The title: It's too long by modern standards, and it speaks to deep thought as well as another culture. I ordered the book and anticipated its arrival.
To my surprise, it wasn't the running that stood out. In fact, I found the running sections ordinary. Now, understand that I am a runner, and have read about running day-in and day-out for the last 13 or so years. I know triathletes, ultra runners, and people who thrive on doing the extreme. So running with goals, sticking with it, running on a daily basis, marathons, triathlons, never walking- always running, are ideas that I hear and see everywhere. To a non-runner, Haruki will seem like a star, but to me, it's fairly ordinary, even with Haruki still having these goals in his 50s.
What did intrigue me (besides the title) was his style of writing. It's a simple book, very clear, and easy to comprehend, so what clues are there in the book to his style, the style that has made him a famed writer? This is what I wanted to discover. Surely not the repetition of "I'm the kind of person who...," to explain This is who I am. This is my way. This is me.
After a few chapters, I started the book over and read each sentence carefully to see what I could discover. And here are a few samples, quotes so to speak, that make Haruki's writing special.
"As if the concept of clouds doesn't even exist." - Haruki's way of describing a sunny day.
"...as if it remembered, 'Oh, I've got some errands to do,' it whisked itself away without so much as a glance back." - Description of a rain shower.
"...slicing through the air like they had robbers on their heels." - Sprinters
"...pound the rock with a chisel and dig deep into the hole..." Finding his creativity.
RECOMMENDED FOR
- Anyone who likes to read about running.
- A new marathoner looking for inspiration for reaching goals and sticking with running.
- Writers who want to look closely at style and sentence structure.
_ People who enjoy biographies.
A BIT MORE - Other things that made the purchase of this book of value to me:
I enjoyed the little things Haruki would talk about when he wasn't running in a "cozy homemade void" - the Italian lady who wore a different outfit every day, his loss of patience with everything in sight at the end of his first marathon (a reverse running of a famous course in Marathon, Greece.)
So running log aside, this was a book that caught my interest, and intrigued me enough to want to read more by this author. I'm starting at the beginning and am going to read the first book that Haruki wrote as a novelist, Wild Sheep Chase. I'll go into this blind. I have no idea what this book is about - and hope it's not about running, but pray that the style will intrigue me enough so that I will want to absorb and analyze every line.
 Written for Murakami enthusiasts... August 19, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Murakami, 58, authored 15+ novels, many highly acclaimed. He has received many literary awards and honorary doctorates. I have read and thoroughly enjoyed most of his best selling works (including my favorites: Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood and A Wild Sheep Chase). In reading this book, I had come to learn that Murakami had completed 25+ marathons, 1 ultra marathon (60+miles) and 5+ triathlons - this is a truly extraordinary accomplishment.
Murakami is humble, candid and straightforward exposing his mistakes, flaws and shortcomings - - one passage: "But this wretched story of feeling I had as I stood in front of the mirror at sixteen, listing all of my physical shortcomings, is still sort of touchstone for me even now. The sad spreadsheet of my life reveals how my debts outweigh my assets."
You get into his mind and his incredible determination to complete marathons and triathlons - feeling the sun baking his skin and the water filling his lungs - yet he keeps his feet and arms moving despite his mind and body telling him to stop.
You also learn about the impact that advancing middle age has on his performance times and that they are no longer improving despite a rigorous training regimen - "even if, seen from the outside, or from some higher vantage point, this sort of life looks pointless or futile, or even extremely efficient, it doesn't bother me. Maybe it's a pointless act like as I've said before, pouring water into an old pan that has a hole in the bottom, but at least the effort you put into it remains. Whether it's good for anything or not, cool or totally uncool, in the final analysis what's most important is what you can't see but can feel in your heart."
The book is described by Murakami as a collection of essays he wrote between 2005 and 2007 and then pieced together and edited for this book. I felt that the book often read like a loosely edited diary - - in contrast to his visually beautiful, smooth, multi-layered, dreamy fictional works. While I found flashes of the profile of his prior novels in a few passages, I found this book to be choppy and informal in comparison.
Early on in the book, Murakami discusses his strategy in running a Jazz bar in Tokyo - he wasn't out "to please everybody" - "it didn't matter if 9 out of 10" didn't like his bar but that "if one in ten was a repeat customer" his business would survive. My sense is that this book will narrowly appeal to the "one in ten repeaters" of devoted Murakami's fans (me being one of them) - - readers who wish to learn more about his life, his experiences, what makes him "tick" - and more specifically, the role that running, biking, swimming and training for marathons and triathlons had on his writing and his life.
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