What I Speak About After I Speak About Operating: A Memoir (Classic Worldwide), Ebook Cowl Might Range

Wonderful running memoir by one of my favorite authors.
I have placed this book atop my listmania group of literary running books. Haruki Murakami’s marvelously entertaining WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING is about his running, yes, but it also touches on other interesting ideas, including the author’s affinities for music, literature, and baseball, Japanese and American:”As if to lament the defeat of the Boston Red Sox in the playoffs (they lost every game in a Sox vs. Sox series with Chicago), for ten days afterward a cold rain fell on New England. A long autumn rain. Sometimes it rained hard, sometimes softly; sometimes, it would let up for a time like an afterthought, but not once did it clear up.””From beginning to end the sky was completely covered with the thick gray clouds particular to this region. Like a dawdling person, the rain lingered for a long time, then finally made up its mind to turn into a downpour. Towns from New Hampshire to Massachusetts suffered damage from the rain, and the main highway was cut off in places.”Murakami says he took the title of his book from the title of the Raymond Carver short story collection, WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT LOVE, and thanks Carver’s widow for giving him permission. Murakami has translated many of Carver’s works into Japanese, as well as other American fiction. He says:”One other project I’m involved in now is translating Scott Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY, and things are going well. I’ve finished the first draft and am revising the second. I’m taking my time, going over each line carefully, and as I do so the translation gets smoother and I’m better able to render Fitzgerald’s prose into more natural Japanese.””It’s a little strange, perhaps, to make this claim at such a late date, but GATSBY really is an outstanding novel. I never get tired of it, no matter how many times I read it. It’s the kind of literature that nourishes you as you read, and every time I do I’m struck by something new, and experience a fresh reaction to it. I find it amazing how such a young writer, only twenty-one at the time, could grasp–so insightfully, so equitably, and so warmly–the realities of life. How was this possible? The more I think about it, and the more I read the novel, the more mysterious it all is.”Music, baseball, literature, and running. My kind of writer. Runners looking for a similar read might want to try Don Kardong’s THIRTY PHONE BOOTHS TO BOSTON. Readers new to Murakami who enjoyed this one might be inspired to try one of the author’s many novels, and I highly recommend THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE.

A Triathlete Opines
I must state that having heard so much about Murakami and of the immense popularity of “1Q84”, I wanted to see what it was all about. Being a triathlete, I decided that this was the book to pick up first.A fast read, it is a memoir of how he first became a runner and his perception on life. He’s a bare-bones sort of guy, wants no embellishment and doesn’t glamorize anything. He is practical on his outlook on life but has that part that all athletes can relate to: the training. I was intrigued by the fifth and sixth chapters because it became more introspective (the image of the young college students running past him, their strides reflecting their attitude that no one can beat them was especially poignant).As an intro into his world and writing, I found the book a pleasant and welcome addition to my library as well as an inspiration. In the first chapter, the quote “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional” is something any endurance athlete can relate to. He asks for no pity when he doesn’t do as well as he planned and hoped (which was more or less all of the competitions he wrote about) but being Japanese, for as much as he has wandered away from a Japanese style of writing, he is very much of a Japanese heart and therefore, writes in that mindset.I do get the feeling that his other work is a bit different in style because here he adheres to the truth of how his competitions played out, how he felt and how hard he worked to reach that unattained goal. Perhaps I err but I felt that he felt more free because it was that much easier to write; I mean, he was there.All in all, I would read another book of his. He is an honest writer and doesn’t care what people think of this memoir. He just wanted to do it for himself and that gets high marks in my book.

Ero libero dagli esami e sono un amante dei libri e questo libro è fantastico da leggere. Lo consiglio assolutamente.

How it comes to the point that Marukami started writing? It was a mood, not real intention to start a career. Trial and error. Why not to take this approach. He did it with his jazz club and had success. He wrote the novel Hear the Wind Sing in 1978 and got an award. So, he was able to write and get paid to write. The next novel „Pinball, 1973“ was published in 1982.I can see my readers in my mind. I want to evolve, get better and a real conceptional human relationship helps me to go further and improve. Like running, with training he will reach excellence. Murakami apply the Pareto-Principle without mention it. He wants to run his jazz club in that way that 1 of 10 will be happy and will come again. So, he sees the readers of his books. If 1 of 10 like it they will buy the next book from him.He is an early bird. He starts early in the morning and work hard but doesn’t forget the pauses, the sport. His productive time is from 5 am to 10 pm.He set to the desk for four hours regularly and write or think about something and makes notes or do some translation. Murakami translated „The Great Gatsby“ by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He wondered how such a young man can have so much human experience. F. Scott Fitzgerald was just 29 years old. He must be a real talent, a giant.His training for Marathon was a 5-miles stretch in Imperia Park, he repeated it 7 times to get the marathon distance.He explained that the Marathon will get difficult at about after the first 22 miles. This is the power of will the mental power that counts.He eats fresh fish and vegetables and cut down on indulgence to get fit for the marathon. What counts are the three pillars: talent, focus and endurance.Talented writers are seldom. Most writers had to work hard to accomplish the story. He likes writing as he likes running. And both are essential. Tendencies can be adjusted, essence not. So. he believe in having a talent, a talent to a long-distance running and top write. He had not finished the novels without running. He is proud to accomplished the novels and he is curious about what is coming next. He would say this is life – the evolvement and the relationship between body and mind. He balanced the stories between inner and external stuff. Fantasy and reality. The contemplation about this is during the running. Something is achieved by reflection others by intuition or by chance. Unconsciously.He compares himself as a long-distance runner with the proud running pony-tail girls from Harvard University who don’t know what pain is. They are always on the bright side of life and it seems like they are in a perfect world: young, pretty, rich, successful. He is brag to know what matters what he knows about running.The top experience was the super marathon he took in and achieved it. He was running the last miles like an auto pilot. He did much work with his arms because the feet failed to obey, don’t did what they should have done.Murakami sensed resignation after the super marathon. He developed a new relationship to running. He started triathlon.A valuable reflection is his retrospective. As a young man he had created a list of deficiencies he discovered, The „sad spreadsheet of my life“, he said. But then he decided that we all have deficiencies but as well impaccable sides. So debts and assets are given but one has to develop the best of it.He failed in swimming. He solved the issue by taking a coach. Finally, he took revenge and accomplished the race. Sometimes one wants to do but cannot do. „Sometimes taking time is actually a shortcut “. Good things need time and slow thinking is sometimes valuable approach.Learning from experience makes a lot of fun. Experience is often linked to pain. Pain is needed. It is life and to overcome pain is what is what a marathon runner experienced.One has to accept something that is inefficient and fruitless. That is life.