In his book "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running", Murakami does not claim it as his own. I do think it captures both running and meditation well.

If you enjoyed this article, there's an entire collection of Haruki Murakami's writing on running titled "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2195464.What_I_Talk_Abou...

I believe this is a direct quotation from Murakami's memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. The whole book is worth a read, especially if you liked this article.

If you want to read an actual novel by him, I highly recommend 1Q84, which is an engaging and somewhat surreal story.

If you're interested in Murakami in general, his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is really interesting, showing the intersection of Marathons and writing in his life.

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Surprised at the amount of wisdom about life succinctly communicated on so many of the pages. Recommended.

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley.

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

Thanks for the list. Principles by Ray Dalio is next on my list. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami is one of my favorites ever. Murakami is such an amazing writer. Check out Kafka on the Shore and Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami, great books.

If you enjoyed this article it's hard to imagine there exist other things on the subject you wouldn't enjoy much more. Read What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, which is mentioned in the article, for instance.

Highly recommend Harumi Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" if you wish to read more inner thoughts about running.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki was also quite interesting, it's all about the feeling of detached loneliness and trying to rectify it, in this case due to some catastrophic incident, but loneliness nonetheless.

I also liked his What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, it's more philosophical and about the progress of art, the nature of creation.

"Nothing we do can guarantee a long and healthy life" it true, and shit happens. But running (or swimming, hiking or <insert your favorite non-violent sport here>) are not just a fad, and none made this promise. Their only promise is to exercise some vital functions, in a form of body maintenance, and maybe/even pleasure. You without a doubt believe exercising your brain (through reading, coding, etc.) is a sound occupation, why not your body?

Truth is, you aren't much without it. Stephen Hawkins might be able to think and write wonderful essays while occupying a severely diminished body, but you might not. I've seen people sinking into their growing disabilities due to lack of exercise, and I myself suffered from physical traumas (severe back pain, hernia), which seriously impacted my psychological stability and self-confidence.

Take care of your body, it will take care of you. Haruki Murakami has a wonderful book about body and mind, and their equilibrium, called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running [1], I very much recommend it.

[1] http://www.amazon.ca/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/0385681...

I'm reading Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays. I forgot until I picked this book up again how much fun it is to read David Foster Wallace. Despite all the footnotes, he's very engaging.

Also, my girlfriend just sneaked Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love into my computer bag the other day. I haven't read him in a long time, but coincidentally was just very recently talking to a friend about What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, which is mostly unrelated to the Carver book, but also a really good read about his life of running.

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - David Sedaris, My Life as a Quant - Emmanuel Derman, Plato at the Googleplex - Rebecca Goldstein, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami

Not all pain is equal. As in anything else one learns the difference between discomfort and muscle fatigue/exhaustion and injury. I ran a half-marathon in freezing rain, and my feet started blistering badly about halfway. If I had been doing a marathon and my feet blistered that badly between 6 and 10, I probably would have dropped out, but it wasn't really bad until about mile 10, and I'd have had to have walked to the finish anyway, in freezing rain!

Most elites will stop and accept a DNF (Did Not Finish) if they a are really injured, and most fitness/recreational runners get a good sense of when it's the mind and not the body really screaming quit. It's like getting your breath knocked out of you. It's scary as hell the first time, but it's not a heart attack.

There's lots of good, sound research on endurance running:

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed

Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance

Life Is a Marathon: A Memoir of Love and Endurance

Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World's Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself

As an example of how running has impacted, not a CEO, but an international award-winning novelist, short story writer, and essayist see: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami.

And, related to the topic in general, see:

The Beauty of Discomfort: How What We Avoid Is What We Need

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life

Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment

Here you go:

  - The Wreck of Time - Annie Dillard
  - Death of a Moth - Virginia Woolf
  - A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf
  - The Study of the Negro Problems - W.E.B. DuBois
  - On Going Home - Joan Didion
  - In History - Jamaica Kincaid
  - Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema - Laura Mulvey
  - How It Feels to be Colored Me - Zora Neale Hurston
  - Memory and Imagination - Patricia Hampl
  - Anger and Tenderness - Adrienne Rich
  - In Plato's Cave - Susan Sontag
  - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami
  - The Laugh of the Medusa - Hélène Cixous

I'm sure I'm missing many others...

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami

I sometimes read less rigorously to determine whether the paper deserves a rigorous reading. However, I don't get much out of a casual reading. This may be a quirk of my brain: maybe ADHD tendencies at play, or maybe I really need to go slow and internalize the content.

I see some people can read quickly and get some benefit, but I don't really envy them. I think going slow and struggling with the material teaches me more. I am reminded of Haruki Murakami.

On his book "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running", he says roughly the following. Gifted writers write without effort; everywhere they touch in the ground the water pours. Other writers have to strive (he gives himself as an example); they have to learn to dig wells to get to the water. But when the water dries (inspiration leaves) for the gifted writer (which happens sooner or later), he becomes stuck and clueless because he has not trained for this. On the other hand, under the same situation, the other type of writer knows how to keep going and succeed.

http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2012/01/tell-me-about-your-...

So I am not too worried about my slowness :-)

They aren't all self help. Some just shook my world view so much that I couldn't help but introspect, reviewing everything I believe from a new angle. I find the experience I had with each fairly intimate. I hope others may have the same experience with any book, but think that these may do it.

1. This Is What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami

Murakami talking about his decision to become an author and also his lifelong hobby of running.

2. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - David Sedaris

Made me laugh for the first time in awhile.

3. The Myth of Sisyphus - Albert Camus

Absurdity.

What made me exercise in the first place: I saw bathroom scales at department store and randomly decided to buy them. Back at home, first time stepping on them I realized I'm not just a little overweight, I'm way overweight. I started weighing in every day and writing down the number. Always knowing my exact weight was a motivator to change diet and start exercising.

Around that time I also read Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". It was inspiring, and I started doing 5K runs each morning.

Next few years a big motivator to work out was seeing my results improve in amateur bike races. In the biggest local cross country amateur racing series, I went from finishing in top 500, to top 100, then 30, then top 10.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. I'm on at least my third reading and imagine I'll read it again.

Also re-listened to Getting Things Done by David Allen. This could also be any number of times.

Sort-of related, currently re-watching Westworld. I burned through ten episodes in two sittings first time around and wanted to properly appreciate it this time at a more leisurely pace.