Haruki Murakami Resources - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること)

Translated by Philip Gabriel

US Publication:
Hardcover: 192 pages,
Publisher: Knopf (July 29, 2008)
ISBN-13: 978-0307269195

UK Publication:
Hardcover: 112 pages
Publisher: Harvill Secker (7 Aug 2008) ISBN-13: 978-1846552205

An eBook wil also be available from Random House

Pre order from amazon.co.uk
Pre order from amazon.com

Writing novels, to me, is basically a kind of manual labor. Writing itself is mental labor, but finishing an entire book is closer to manual labor. It doesn’t involve heavy lifting, running fast, or leaping high. Most people, though, only see the surface reality of writing and think of writers as involved in quiet, intellectual work done in their study. If you have the strength to lift a coffee cup, they figure, you can write a novel. But once you try your hand at it, you soon find that it isn’t as peaceful a job as it seems. The whole process—sitting at your desk, focusing your mind like a laser beam, imagining something out of a blank horizon, creating a story, selecting the right words, one by one, keeping the whole flow of the story on track—requires far more energy, over a long period, than most people ever imagine. You might not move your body around, but there’s grueling, dynamic labor going on inside you. Everybody uses their mind when they think. But a writer puts on an outfit called narrative and thinks with his entire being, and for the novelist that process requires putting into play all your physical reserve, often to the point of overexertion.

synopsis

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 slew of 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 settings 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 cornucopia 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 distance running. (amazon.co.uk)

reviews / articles

I'M A RUNNER: HARUKI MURAKAMI - This novelist uses his running to make his books top-notch by Yishane Lee. Runners World interview from 2005

'When I Run I Am in a Peaceful Place' excellent Spiegel interview with Murakami (in English) by Maik Grossekathöfer (in Two Parts)

HARUKI MURAKAMI TALKS TO HIMSELF WHILE RUNNING, BUT ONLY IN JAPANESE (SO YOU CAN'T HEAR HIM) - really interesting piece by Scott on the new book, recommended reading

Tips on Becoming Running Novelist - nice review by Jenny Davidson (with some quotes from the book)

Ted Thoughts - nice article from someone's who's read the book in the original Japanese

Run Like Murakami article by Christine Thomas

Brief article by 55 Knots: Hideo Joho