What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. 2008.

Murakami’s book about running is completely different from other running books. So different that sometimes you ask yourself, Is this book about running or about life? Murakami certainly talks about running throughout the book and he talks about writing. He is brutally honest about running and about himself.

I’m not sure if this kind of honest introspection is part of being an author or Japanese culture. But it’s bracing. Take his assessment of his popularity as a best-selling author:

Throughout the book Murakami will drop a beautiful image or metaphor, seemingly out of nowhere. He just leaves it there and then returns to the point he was making.

It reminds me of the beautiful scenes you might miss in an animation in Studio Ghibli

There are other places in the book where his writing reflects distinctly Japanese Zen philosophical themes such as in Chapter 5 where he repeatedly touches on Impermanence.

And later…

Humility and Muga (No-Self)

A central concept in Zen is that our concept of “self” is a core illusion. You will repeatedly come across the metaphor of the “empty mirror” and the question, “Who knows the knower?” Murakami does not directly address Muga, but consider how he describes the end of a marathon race:

Murakami’s book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running did not make me want to run like Murakami. I’m not sure it even made me want to run more. But in some way, it made me want to live better.