What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

I listened to this while crocheting and/or taking apart something I had crocheted badly and/or lying in bed trying and failing not to fall asleep. The tone of Murakami‰ЫЄs personal writing is very similar to the tone in his novels (particularly 1Q84): simple and laid back and matter of fact with occasional attempts at descriptive passages that usually come off as awkward. The parts where he went on about New England weather were unnecessary. Of course I enjoyed most the parts where he talked about writing. The audiobook narrator‰ЫЄs voice reminded me at times of Tom Hanks‰ЫЄs voiceover readings of his emails to Meg Ryan in You‰ЫЄve Got Mail which was cute at the beginning but got annoying.

I don‰ЫЄt read many memoirs (or any non-fiction) so of course this reminds me of probably the only other memoir I‰ЫЄve read in the last year, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, because it similarly explores the concept of pushing your body to certain limits and learning that the difficult things can be proportionately rewarding, and using that concept as a metaphor for pushing your mind and your identity beyond your instinctual/socially-imposed/self-imposed limits and learning that you can become a better person or a better writer.

I can very much see the connection Murakami draws between pushing himself as a runner and as a writer. They are not just metaphors for each other; they are tied together, because the same principles are at work in being a good runner and being a good writer – practice, discipline, motivation, perseverance, willingness to move beyond perceived limits. The idea is so clear to me and I can envision myself as someone who exercises regularly and writes every day and keeps learning and growing – and yet, here I am, not exercising enough and not writing the kind of thing that I really want to write, allowing myself to spend most of my energy at my day job. I know I can be so much better – and yet I need something more to get me there, and that can only come from myself.