There was a time when I compulsively read Haruki Murakami. It began with ‘Kafka on the Shore’. Then I read ‘Norwegian Wood’ and ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ before moving on to his collection of short stories, ‘After Dark’, and then picking up the novella, ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’. All his stories share a similar theme and, unlike reading other authors, I feel reading Murakami can mess your head a little after a while—all the surrealism can be a bit too much sometimes.

And so, I had been on a Murakami break when I discovered ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’. Initially I was hesitant to get back to reading Murakami and left without buying the book but a memoir of sorts by a prolific writer wasn’t something I could resist for long, and I bought it the second time I visited the bookstore. And I am glad I did.

What I like about Murakami is that he writes short, beautiful sentences. I guess one has to also credit Philip Gabriel’s translations for that. But Murakami’s style is such that the words just flow. And that makes for easy and impactful reading.

‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ introduces us to Murakami as more than a writer. Here, he tells us how he began running seriously when he was 33, back in 1982. He has since competed in more than 20 marathons. On average, he runs six miles a day, six days a week, and though these days he isn’t in top form, he has no intention of not running anymore. For “to give up running would be like giving up writing, which would be like giving up living”.

Murakami knows he will never win a marathon but he doesn’t seem to mind. Then why does he still do it? One reason could be that he feels the focus and endurance required in marathons could help him apply the same disciplines to his writing. “Most of what I know about writing, I’ve learned through running every day,” he says. But more than that, as Murakami further writes, it gives you a special kind of awareness—you understand yourself better.

Devoid of any elements of magical realism, ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ doesn’t feel like reading Murakami at all. For a change, you enjoy the conversational style and the self-deprecatory tone that you aren’t used to in Murakami’s works. It also gives you a window into the mind of an author you can’t help but love. For me, I think it has got me out of my self-imposed break on Murakami and now I can’t wait to start reading ‘Killing Commendatore’ where, apparently, paintings become magic portals.