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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 895.635 EAN: 9780307269195 ISBN: 0307269191 Label: Knopf Manufacturer: Knopf Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 175 Publication Date: July 29, 2008 Publisher: Knopf Release Date: July 29, 2008 Studio: Knopf Editorial Review: 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. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - My new man!I am enthralled with Haruki. This is the first work of his that I have read. What a delight! I will be reading more of his work. Rating:  - Keep on running, old man Murakami!Taking its name from the play on the title of a Raymond Carver short story, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," the prolific and popular on both sides of the Pacific Japanese author Haruki Murakami's memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running covers a little more than a year in the author's life as he prepares to run a marathon in New York. However, as to be expected from Murakami, the memoir is much more than a simple exercise journal. Through it's all too brief 175 pages, Murakami ... Read More Rating: - Liked itFor a number of years, I was a big Murakami fan. Then a few of his books disappointed me so much, I sort of 'fell out of love' with his work. This non-fiction work appealed to me and I'm glad I purchased it. In fact, I purchased the audible version which is great. It reminds me a lot of Stephen King's "On Writing," which is half about living your life, half about the art of writing. I pulled a lot of useful information from this book that I won't soon forget. Don't expect some grand climax to this book, ... Read More Rating:  - Read Sheehan instead.The publishing world has a (monetary) fondness for pushing non-fiction books by fiction writers on us, hoping to capitalize on the author's readership. Stephen King's lovely tome about writing worked. This, Murakami's book on running, did not. I, too, am a middle-aged long-distance runner but found little insight or comfort of either subject in these pages. If you want to read something of depth about running, life, and aging, buy any one of George Sheehan's books instead. Rating: - I know how he feelsWell I'm coming at this from he opposite direction from Emma (above), but I agree with her assessment of the book. As a 50-something runner and lover of Murakami's novels I found this fascinating - read it in one sitting (well, lying - it was an overnight hospital stay). Recmmended for runners and couch potatoes alike. |
