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_chaoticbooknook 's review for:
What I Talk about When I Talk about Running
by Haruki Murakami
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I have to level with you: you should only read this book if you too are a long(ish) distance runner. Otherwise this book is boring af. Thankfully it's short.
Rating is slightly higher because Murakami and I have similar reasons for and similar philosophies around running, so it was great to feel very seen.
The thing is - a lot of this book is him obsessing over his mileage and his time. Which is fine! But it is very runner-esque and therefore feels a bit annoying and pretentious if you don’t run. Even me, someone who runs, found this a bit much at times.
There are parts of this book where he does try to extrapolate the lessons he’s learned from his running to other aspects of his life ex. how his views of running - structured, disciplined, consistent - is similar to how he approaches writing; how he’s accepted that no matter how hard he tries, there are simply things that are no longer in his control due to age and different stages of life. This was nice, but certainly felt like an afterthought.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this, but I would not recommend it widely. It’s Fine.
Rating is slightly higher because Murakami and I have similar reasons for and similar philosophies around running, so it was great to feel very seen.
The thing is - a lot of this book is him obsessing over his mileage and his time. Which is fine! But it is very runner-esque and therefore feels a bit annoying and pretentious if you don’t run. Even me, someone who runs, found this a bit much at times.
There are parts of this book where he does try to extrapolate the lessons he’s learned from his running to other aspects of his life ex. how his views of running - structured, disciplined, consistent - is similar to how he approaches writing; how he’s accepted that no matter how hard he tries, there are simply things that are no longer in his control due to age and different stages of life. This was nice, but certainly felt like an afterthought.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this, but I would not recommend it widely. It’s Fine.