88: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

"If you're resting on your laurels — or worse yet, your daydreams — What I Talk About will come as a rousing reminder that there's no substitute for hard work. Indeed, practice makes perfect."

Review by J.K. Glei

For acclaimed Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, the act of running and the act of writing are inextricably linked — like two sides of the same track-shaped Möbius strip. As his new memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, explains, one begat the other: with the start of his writing career at age 33, the sedentary nature of the activity necessitated an exercise regimen to stay fit. Thus, the book artfully marries two topics that many people don't often see as going together — sports and creativity. The result is a fantastic read with broad appeal; beyond just runners and writers, What I Talk About holds inspiration for anyone who's passionate about an athletic or creative endeavor.

As Murakami writes about the evolution of his running career — from his first marathon to his first ultramarathon (62 miles) to his first triathlon — he constantly circles back to how his athletic experiences have impacted his writing practice, and vice versa. Throughout, he stresses the importance of training in both disciplines, debunking misconceptions about the writerly life as he goes: "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."

Sure, such advice can sound a little self-congratulatory at times, but Murakami's tough-love take on writing seems bracing in the context of an unending stream of "craft"-oriented tomes.

Whereas a classic writer's book like Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird deals in trade-based tips — "The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth" — Murakami jettisons such undeniable (but not particularly helpful) truisms in favor of stressing the importance of elbow grease. Or, writing as sport.

If you're resting on your laurels — or worse yet, your daydreams — What I Talk About will come as a rousing reminder that there's no substitute for hard work. Indeed, practice makes perfect.

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Too bad, I've been daydreaming of running lately more than actually running. Kaori would say it's a "terrible excuse for not running. it's B.S. KEEP RUNNING!!!"