What I Talk About When I Talk About Writing - Haruki Murakami

My friend Eric gave this one to me for my birthday. We are both fans of Murakami's fiction, and we spend a lot of our time talking about our recent work-outs and plans for working out. So, this was a perfect book for me. It's Murakami's non-fiction/memoir account of his training for the 2006 New York Marathon. By this time, Murakami had already run 20+ marathons, as well as completed several middle distance triathlons. He recounts how he became interested in running in the first place, how he finds time to run amidst his busy writing and traveling schedule, his training log, and in general what he thinks about running and its place in his life. Murakami is a determined individual - and he is also clearly very hard on himself. He tries to run most everyday - and in the book tells of his completion of a 64 mile ultramarathon (I became parched just reading about it). He runs through pain and bad weather and sets incredible goals. Although the book is short, it can get a little tedious - particularly, I'm sure, for readers who do not themselves keep running logs or plan their lives around their work-outs. Even though the triathlon training was a bit of an aside, I really appreciated Murakami's description of the open water swim and his efforts to take lessons and become a more fluid and efficient swimmer. It is a testament to Murakami's character that despite his overwhelming success as a writer that he would go to such great lengths to better himself in something the rest of the world couldn't care less if he did. As I am currently struggling to get back into a training regimen I seem to have abandoned over the summer, this was the book I needed to remind me that while it is not an easy road back to fitness, it is an important one and it's all about having personal goals and the strength to stick with them.