In this latest read, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami shares his tales of life as a runner and novelist.  Murakami shares how his perspective on life has been molded by his experience as a distance runner.  He talks of how he came to writing (truly just an idea he had one day while at a baseball game) and how through writing, he came to running.  The reader follows him through his training for the New York City Marathon and picks up stories of his life along the way.

I thought this book was a fun read and pretty fast to get through; though, I’m not sure I would call it a must read.  If you’re into running or into writing, I think it’s definitely worth taking the time to check it out.  If you’re not into either, well, you might enjoy it or you might not.

Here’s what I liked about it:

First, I haven’t attempted running in quite a while.  After I finished the Los Angeles Marathon in May 2009, I pretty much gave that up.  But reading this book totally took me back to the experience of training, and I started to feel nostalgic.  I’m actually thinking of going back to the sport and perhaps training for a half marathon in the near future.

Murakami talked about his first experience running a marathon, and I loved that he mentioned his emotions after nearing the end of the race.  He reached a certain point and found he was just mad — not for any clear reason.  He simply felt angry.  I can totally relate to that.  I had a similar feeling after mile 22 that I seriously just wanted to yell at people.  So much so, that I actually found it funny.  It was nice to hear I’m not some crazy person and someone else has had this experience too.

And last, I loved his story of becoming a novelist.  After running a successful nightclub/bar for several years, he decided to sell it, close shop and devote himself entirely to writing.  He figured that if he wanted to write, he should give it his all and really find out if he could make it.  Lots of people told him he couldn’t and thought it was crazy that he leave a successful business.  But he did it anyway.  And he was an incredible success.  Stories like that are always an inspiration.

photo credit: Ed Yourdon