Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

I read this book after I started seriously preparing for the 2020 LA Marathon. I picked it up for two reasons. The first is that I wanted to continue cultivating my reading habit (I’ve read more than this list indicates, I promise). The second reason is that I wanted to get some insight into why other people run.

Murakami’s book gave me a lot of insight into why he runs, and I think his philosophy is a more thought-out version of many other runners’ philosophy. While reading this book, I began to view running as an opportunity embrace solitude, an opportunity to practice persistence. No doubt I had entertained similar thoughts before picking up Murakami’s memoir, but the book helped me transform my vague, passing thoughts into concrete realizations.

Around the web (week of 8 July)

Reading

• Bedlam for the ages, by Vithushan Ehantharajah on Cricbuzz, about what was probably the best ODI Cricket game of all time.

With nine needed off the final three balls of the match, Ben Stokes dived, scampering back for a two. Only the throw from the deep cannoned off his bat, squirting away to the boundary in front of the Lord’s Pavilion. What could’ve been seven off two was now three off two. Stokes was on his knees, hands out in apology. Trent Boult, in charge of the 50th over, just laughed. The umpires conferred to see if there was something they could do even though they knew there was not. The Blackcaps simply cursed their luck and got on with it.

Around the web (week of 9 June)

Reading

• The Simply Complex: Trendy buzzword or emerging new science?, by John Casti, available in “Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight”.

A more direct reason for trying to create a science of the complex is to get a handle on the limits of reductionism as a universal problem-solving approach.