Desert Island Distraction

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Haruki Murakami

Matt Rayment, Trail Runner editor

I first read Murakami when I was at Unity Books and the cover appealed to me. That book took me outside by the scruff of my neck and kicked me up and down the road. Part detective novel, part love story, part science fiction, it shook me up. I’d flirted with Murakami’s other works over the years, but it was only when I became heavily involved with running media that I discovered that Murakami was a marathon runner and he had written a memoir about running.