Last fall, I read another book in the “running” genre, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami. Upon my research, it turns out this is a rather famous and popular Japanese author and this book has been translated. I received this years ago as a gift and like many of my books (maybe yours, too), it sat on the bookshelf for at least a couple of years before it gets picked up to be read.

Just because I run, doesn’t mean I always want to read, watch, and dream about running. The same for chemistry: just because I’m a chemist, doesn’t mean I only want to read chemistry books in my spare time. Same for business. With that said, as I’m sure we’ve discussed before, I don’t mind reading the occasional book on a passion of mine. While we’re at it, one of my favorite business books is The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People by Gary Chapman and Paul White. I highly recommend this one!

And as for chemistry, I co-founded the Detroit Science Book Club, LLC and currently I’m reading, The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder through Science & Poetry by Maria Popova and Ofra Amit. It’s good so far! Ironically, the last book of 2025 that the book club read together was The Elements: An Illustrated History by Tom Jackson. This was sitting on my book shelf (also received as a gift) for a number of years…. like 12 years.

In 2025, I also read the book, Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World by Lauren Fleshman, also in the running genre. It was filled with so much good things that I mostly agreed with or had no personal experience with (collegiate-level cross country and track teams) that I cannot possibly break down for you as I once believed I could. My one astonishment is that I didn’t realize Lauren Fleshman is the same person as the Believe tracking journals and the Picky Bars founder! What?!- I never put the two together!

Back to Murakami’s book! As this book started off, I questioned how this book was considered a memoir. He weaves his work as an author in. But once he wrote about how long-distance running “suits him” – I was in. I totally understand: not that we aren’t competitive enough for team sports but that this running works for us.

“I’m much more interested in whether I reach the goals that I set for myself, so in this sense long-distance running is the perfect fit for a mindset like mine.” (Murakami, page 9)

Here he dives in to what most of us runners undoubtedly can relate to. We pick a particular goal or race distance or time and we set out to achieve it. We aren’t necessarily running to beat a particular person. We are doing it for ourselves. The book made me chuckle at parts. Of course running the Athens Marathon route in summer will be hot (Murakmi, page 59)!

And, “It was draining physically, as you can imagine, and for a while afterward I swore I’d never run again.” (Murakami, page 103)

Raise your hand if that’s something you’ve said after your first half marathon or full marathon – “never again!” Until a few weeks go by and you catch yourself thinking about the next one!

“I’d run a lot of marathons, but this was my first time it was my arms, not my legs, that paid the greatest price.” (Murakami, page 116)

This reminds me of cross-country skiing, afterwards my arms and shoulders are sorer than my legs! He also covers the runner’s blues. How after a race you’ve worked hard for, you’re not who you were before and it’s kind of a feeling of sadness.

“I’ll enjoy and value things that can’t be expressed in numbers.” (Murakami, page 121)

Though an initial hesitancy to start the book, I’d rate this one 4 stars (of five). I’m glad I kept reading! I can see how a non-runner may not enjoy it as much but I wonder what a fellow novelist would think. And – I’d like to read one of his other books!