"Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life—and for me, for writing as well."

This is my third Murakami book. I love how little he tries to explain anything in his books. He says that when he runs his legs need a long time to wake up, but he does not make any attempt to figure out why, he just accepts it matter-of-factly. I found this to be a recurring feature of his novels; he makes a lot of interesting observations and brings to surface some very deep discussions and ideas but never explains them. He just poses them to the reader and lets the reader think for themselves. He is purely unscientific. He is not interested in experimenting or in putting forth any theories but just presenting the results, without any guile. He is a pragmatist of the highest order, a man who sees the world as it is for what it is. (He takes it to the extreme in Kafka on the shore, where so much is just left to the reader.) Nowhere in this book does he say that running is good for you, or even that you should run for some reason. But instead, he explains how running makes him who he is and how he would not be able to write without running. If you are aspiring for something but are not able to find success for some reason then perhaps what you need to change in your life is not writing or running, but something else that you might not have been looking for. Or perhaps not.

Is this lazy writing then? I don’t think so, I think his writing shows a keen eye toward observation. It takes great skill to be able to question yourself honestly and to be able to articulate yourself with such precision, even if you only pose a question and not answer it.

I also find Murakami’s writing very calming. He takes his time to express what he has to say, his words, like his muscles, take a while to warm up. You can see from his writing that he is a long-distance runner. He genuinely cares that you are able to completely follow what he has to say and feel what he wants you to feel, and not just nod along pretending.

I also appreciate his candidness and openness. You can read from his writing that neither is he modest nor is he boastful. He recognizes that his is talented but also attributes his success to his working hard. He has practiced for and run triathlons, marathons, ultra-marathons, all the while writing and publishing a novel a year. His writing shows a kind of rare self-confidence. It takes quite a lot of courage to be so vulnerable and write about your weakest moments of failure without giving them any positive twists or happy endings, to write your saddest moments as they happened and yet be ok and content with them.

I keep coming back to Murakami’s books because I think life becomes life a bit simpler, a bit less tangled, every time I read him. I like how down-to-earth his writing is, there is no deceit hidden in his words, you are not trying to search for any philosophy to fill up the holes in your life. He is very poetic and he remembers and divulges all his thoughts, the smallest trifles that you would typically not think of putting in words. By doing so he is able to portray a very rich inner picture, one that you can immediately connect with and relate to. His is a liberating, untethered world, devoid of any judgement. Paradoxically, he presents a simple way of living by just accepting the complexities of life.