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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
A very entertaining memoir from a "running novelist" who has lived in Japan, Hawaii, and Cambridge, MA. His triathlon and marathon/ultramarathon race reports were engaging and fun to read. Overall, a great book!
There were some interesting moments in this book, but I am not an athlete, so most of it didn't resonate with me. (I read this for a reading challenge, a book about sports.)
I'm not a runner. Still, it's always enjoyable to listen to someone who is very passionate about a subject. Murakami lives and breathes running. This book is inspiring.
In my pursuit of fostering a daily writing habit, I remembered this memoir that has quietly resided on my bookshelf for nearly seven years. The book is not a toolkit for running or an autobiography about Murakami’s life. It simply serves as a self-reflective diary for the author “to sort out what kind of life [he’s] led.”
This was a surprisingly mediocre read. It wasn't lyrical; it used plain, economical language (maybe something was lost in translation). I also wasn't impressed with the content, frankly. Maybe it's because I was immersed for quite some time in fitness culture and triathlete culture for a minute, but I didn't find Murakami's observations to be too insightful or even unique. There were also missed opportunities for intriguing content. For example, he mentions a run he had with Irving, but he doesn't relate any of their conversation. Often we lionize authors, though, so it was nice to get a peek into a writer's mundane, relatable life.
barely made it thought the first chapter. This just wasn't for me.
Didn't love it as much as I had hoped. Perhaps this was because I listened to it on CD, but it was redundant and meandering. At the same time, I appreciated his views on running, why he runs, and the feelings that go along with it (as well as his forays into triathlon).
It was fine. I listened to the audiobook. Not sure why his voice and thoughts on running are given attention other than he's an author. And I really love his other work. I'm a fan of his fiction. Maybe at the time of publication there just were not that many people writing about running in an accessible way and that's why this was given airtime. Honestly, I probably wouldn't recommend because there is plenty of other things to read about running.