WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT
RUNNING
Berbeda dengan buku fiksi Murakami yang lainnya, buku
ini merupakan catatan kehidupan nyata milik Murakami tentang ketertarikannya
dengan lari dan pengalamannya dia selama menerjuni dunia tersebut.
Saat membeli buku ini saya tidak ekspektasi
apapun, saya hanya pergi ke toko buku, melihat sekilas pilihan yang ada,
kemudian memilih buku ini. Tapi setelah saya baca sekitar 50 halaman pertama,
saya amazed. Yang sangat saya sukai dari buku ini adalah kecocokan cara pandang
saya dan Murakami terhadap orang lain maupun dirinya sendiri. Baru pertama
kalinya saya merasa sangat terhubung dengan penulis dan membuat saya berpikir
kalau saya tidak sendiri karena punya pemikiran seperti ini atau itu.
1. “When I'm running I don't have to talk to
anybody and don't have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can't
do without”
2. “I’m the kind of person who likes to be
by himself. To put a finer point on it, I’m the type of person who doesn’t find
it painful to be alone. I find spending an hour or two every day running alone,
not speaking to anyone, as well as four or five hours aloneat my desk, to be
neither difficult nor boring. I’ve had this tendency ever since I was young,
when, given a choice, I much preferred reading books on my own or concentrating
on listening to music over being with someone else. I could always think of
things to do by myself”
3. "At least that’s why I’ve put in the
effort day after day: to raise my own level. I’m no great runner, by any means.
I’m at an ordinary – or perhaps more like mediocre – level. But that’s not the
point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday"
4. “I don't think most people would like my
personality. There might be a few--very few, I would imagine--who are impressed
by it, but only rarely would anyone like it. Who in the world could possibly
have warm feelings, or something like them, for a person who doesn't
compromise, who instead, whenever a problem crops up, locks himself away alone
in a closet?"
5. “Maybe the only thing I can definitely
say about is this: That’s life. Maybe the only thing we can do is accept it,
without really knowing what’s going on”
6. “In real life things don’t go so
smoothly. At certain points in our lives, when we really need a clear-cut
solution, the person who knocks at our door is, more likely than not, a
messenger bearing bad news”
7. “I never could stand being forced to do
something I didn't want to do at a time I didn't want to do it. Whenever I was
able to do something I liked to do, though, when I wanted to do it, and the way
I wanted to do it, I'd give it everything I had”
