recommended reading

After a week of being babysat ala verbosity by Murakami, this novel deserves a two-thumbs up!!!
It is a memoir of sorts for the running novelist, and in the absence of a normal story that is usually slow-to-warm (very much like his leg muscles hehe), this one eases me in quick.  

And on more than one occasion I have found myself nodding to his general views about running, writing,and the lot called life.  Quite unsubstantiated but I would say that this author must be a helluv'n individual who possesses a larger-than-life passion for his perceived 'small life,' beliefs and hobbies.  

The immersion into his head is quite a welcome for me.  They say that the Japanese lot are quite  repressed.  He clearly got out of the basket, this one!

There is a deep-seated affinity I feel for him, both as  a runner and an individual.  I am quite confident that should this bloke Murakami and I ever have a chance meeting at some decrepit old bar,  share drunken conversation, it will doubtless be one of the most eyeopening conversations in my lifetime.

Not just in the way he words his thoughts and opinions, his interpretation of his smallness in the world and his seeming cluelessness to his status as a writer. HIs ability to be self-deprecating and very linear are evident as well.  And I thoroughly agree with him when he says, "It's pretty thin.  The wall separating healthy confidence and unhealthy pride."  When he talks about enjoying solitude.  I couldn't have said it better.  I am a pretty sociable person myself, but my interests are surprisingly anti-social and autodidactic.

In so little words, Murakami has given me so much nonsensical advice about a whole damn lotta things I happen to care for.  Looking at it from the standpoint of a giddy fan, I am one who is impressed by his very simple and thorough views on the life he has lived so far.