What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

While training for the New York City Marathon, Haruki Murakami decided to keep a journal of his progress. The result is a memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing — full of vivid recollections and hard-won insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, it is an intimate look at the solitary passions of one of our greatest living artists.

More than a book about running, this is Murakami thinking aloud about endurance, creativity, and what it means to commit to something over a lifetime. It elevates the human need for motion to an art form — and makes a compelling case that the two pursuits, writing and running, are not so different after all.