(no subject)

[skygiants]

Last week I read Haruki Murakami's memoir-ish book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

"Becca," you may be thinking at this point, "you hate running. In high school you routinely faked illness to get out of running the mile in gym class. Reading about people running long distances makes you clutch your sides and murmur reassuringly to your lungs, don't worry, I would never make you suffer that way. Why on earth would this book ever hold your interest?"

- all right, you are probably not thinking all of that, because odds are pretty high you did not know that until right now, but rest assured that it's 100% true. And yet despite that I really enjoyed this book! I enjoyed it so much in fact that I even spent about thirty seconds thinking "maybe I COULD take up the couch to 5K challenge" until I jolted back to sanity a second later.

Largely this is because the book is as much about writing as it is about running - and while I am not an obsessive runner who feels guilty if they miss a day of exercise, I am gradually moving into the space where I feel guilty if I miss a day of writing. Which is not to say that I don't routinely miss days of writing. Often several in a row! But the point, I think, is the mindset where something without obvious or immediate rewards becomes a part of your life, for its own sake. And that I can relate to. So I would recommend this book for writers! Or for runners.

Also, I'll admit it's just kind of entertaining being inside Haruki Murakami's head. The book is as much a collection of rambles as anything coherent, and not all of them are ones I agree with, but his thoughts are generally fun to follow, even in translation. ("Like Danton or Robespierre trying to persuade the dissatisfied and rebellious Revolutionary Tribunal, I tried to talk each body part into showing a little cooperation. [. . .] But if you think about it - and I did think about it - Danton and Robespierre ended up with their heads cut off.")

Comments

[obopolsk.livejournal.com]

Largely this is because the book is as much about writing as it is about running - and while I am not an obsessive runner who feels guilty if they miss a day of exercise, I am gradually moving into the space where I feel guilty if I miss a day of writing.

This is the only thing you could have said that would get me to want to pick up this book, and now I do. Conveniently, my library queue is also, finally, empty. *adds*

[skygiants]

My write-up skills strike again! \o/ But it really is a good book for writers, and I was surprised I didn't find the running parts boring.

[ceitfianna]

I remember reading reviews of this book and thinking it sounded interesting. Also I hate running too, but now I'm curious.

[skygiants]

It's funny, because I read a whole bunch of reviews on Amazon where people were like "well there is nothing new here, it's just how runners think." But I have no idea how runners think, so those parts are almost as out there as any of his novels to me!

[ristrettoette.livejournal.com]

Belatedly: I taught a tiny fiction class last year, and one of the principal ideas I drew upon is that writing is extremely comparable to exercise. It's true! Not merely on the point you mention -- that of doing something for its own sake -- but because of the nature of it as a discipline. For instance, I find that the experience of taking more than a couple of days off writing is very similar to the experience of taking an extensive rest from exercise. You come back discombobulated, slightly clumsy, struggling at things that were once easy. Consistent, focused practice at running or writing really does push you forward... (though I think the risks of burn-out are also the same.)

[skygiants]

I totally agree! While, uh, I don't actually have much experience with regular exercise, I absolutely have always found it true that once you take time off and lose that sort of mental stamina, it's much more of a challenge to regain that ease. (Witness: the difficulties I have been having in pushing myself back into a regular schedule, after a summer-craziness backslide. :/)

Runner's knee of the mind is probably a useful analogy for something.