What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 211-14 | Added on 星期日, 十二月 09, 2012, 09:58 上午
I’m in my late fifties now. When I was young, I never imagined the twenty-first century would actually come and that, all joking aside, I’d turn fifty. In theory, of course, it was self-evident that someday, if nothing else happened, the twenty-first century would roll around and I’d turn fifty. When I was young, being asked to imagine myself at fifty was as difficult as being asked to imagine, concretely, the world after death.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 221-24 | Added on 星期日, 十二月 09, 2012, 10:01 上午
For me—and for everybody else, probably—this is my first experience growing old, and the emotions I’m having, too, are all first-time feelings. If it were something I’d experienced before, then I’d be able to understand it more clearly, but this is the first time, so I can’t. For now all I can do is put off making any detailed judgments and accept things as they are. Just like I accept the sky, the clouds, and the river. And there’s also something kind of comical about it all, something you don’t want to discard completely.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 236-42 | Added on 星期日, 十二月 09, 2012, 10:08 上午
In certain areas of my life, I actively seek out solitude. Especially for someone in my line of work, solitude is, more or less, an inevitable circumstance. Sometimes, however, this sense of isolation, like acid spilling out of a bottle, can unconsciously eat away at a person’s heart and dissolve it. You could see it, too, as a kind of double-edged sword. It protects me, but at the same time steadily cuts away at me from the inside. I think in my own way I’m aware of this danger—probably through experience—and that’s why I’ve had to constantly keep my body in motion, in some cases pushing myself to the limit, in order to heal the loneliness I feel inside and to put it in perspective. Not so much as an intentional act, but as an instinctive reaction.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 243-48 | Added on 星期日, 十二月 09, 2012, 10:16 上午
When I’m criticized unjustly (from my viewpoint, at least), or when someone I’m sure will understand me doesn’t, I go running for a little longer than usual. By running longer it’s like I can physically exhaust that portion of my discontent. It also makes me realize again how weak I am, how limited my abilities are. I become aware, physically, of these low points. And one of the results of running a little farther than usual is that I become that much stronger. If I’m angry, I direct that anger toward myself. If I have a frustrating experience, I use that to improve myself. That’s the way I’ve always lived. I quietly absorb the things I’m able to, releasing them later, and in as changed a form as possible, as part of the story line in a novel.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 298-307 | Added on 星期日, 十二月 09, 2012, 11:25 上午
The work itself was hard. I worked from morning till late at night, until I was exhausted. I had all kinds of painful experiences, things I had to rack my brains about, and plenty of disappointments. But I worked like crazy, and I finally began to make enough profit to hire other people to help out. And as I neared the end of my twenties, I was finally able to take a breather. To start the bar I’d borrowed as much as I could from every place that would lend me money, and I’d almost repaid it all. Things were settling down. Up till then, it had been a question of sheer survival, of keeping my head above water, and I didn’t have room to think of anything else. I felt like I’d reached the top of some steep staircase and come out to a fairly open place and was confident that because I’d reached it safely, I could handle any future problems that might crop up and I’d survive. I took a deep breath, slowly gazed around me, glanced back at the steps I’d taken here, and began to contemplate the next stage. Turning thirty was just around the corner. I was reaching the age when I couldn’t be considered young anymore. And pretty much out of the blue I got the idea to write a novel.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 496-98 | Added on 星期一, 十二月 10, 2012, 11:10 上午
In other words, let’s face it: Life is basically unfair. But even in a situation that’s unfair, I think it’s possible to seek out a kind of fairness. Of course, that might take time and effort. And maybe it won’t seem to be worth all that. It’s up to each individual to decide whether or not it is.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 527-30 | Added on 星期一, 十二月 10, 2012, 11:52 上午
Whenever I feel like I don’t want to run, I always ask myself the same thing: You’re able to make a living as a novelist, working at home, setting your own hours, so you don’t have to commute on a packed train or sit through boring meetings. Don’t you realize how fortunate you are? (Believe me, I do.) Compared to that, running an hour around the neighborhood is nothing, right?
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 927-31 | Added on 星期二, 十二月 11, 2012, 05:27 下午
People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they’ll go to any length to live longer. But I don’t think that’s the reason most people run. 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. I believe many runners would agree.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 1341-44 | Added on 星期三, 十二月 12, 2012, 09:34 下午
To tell the truth, I don’t really understand the causes behind my runner’s blues. Or why now it’s beginning to fade. It’s too early to explain it well. Maybe the only thing I can definitely say about it is this: That’s life. Maybe the only thing we can do is accept it, without really knowing what’s going on. Like taxes, the tide rising and falling, John Lennon’s death, and miscalls by referees at the World Cup.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 1353-54 | Added on 星期三, 十二月 12, 2012, 09:38 下午
And one of the privileges given to those who’ve avoided dying young is the blessed right to grow old. The honor of physical decline is waiting, and you have to get used to that reality.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 1537-38 | Added on 星期四, 十二月 13, 2012, 02:55 下午
When sales of apparel go down, when tons of driftwood wash up on the shore, when there are floods and droughts, when consumer prices go up, most of the fault is ascribed to global warming. What the world needs is a set villain that people can point at and say, “It’s all your fault!”
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 1598-1603 | Added on 星期四, 十二月 13, 2012, 03:27 下午
But 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. It isn’t always the case, but from experience I’d say the gloomy reports far outnumber the others. The messenger touches his hand to his cap and looks apologetic, but that does nothing to improve the contents of the message. It isn’t the messenger’s fault. No good to blame him, no good to grab him by the collar and shake him. The messenger is just conscientiously doing the job his boss assigned him. And this boss? That would be none other than our old friend Reality.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 1895-98 | Added on 星期四, 十二月 13, 2012, 05:38 下午
But pain seems to be a precondition for this kind of sport. If pain weren’t involved, who in the world would ever go to the trouble of taking part in sports like the triathlon or the marathon, which demand such an investment of time and energy? It’s precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive—or at least a partial sense of it.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 1903-5 | Added on 星期四, 十二月 13, 2012, 05:41 下午
Even if, seen from the outside, or from some higher vantage point, this sort of life looks pointless or futile, or even extremely inefficient, it doesn’t bother me. Maybe it’s some pointless act like, as I’ve said before, pouring water into an old pan that has a hole in the bottom, but at least the effort you put into it remains.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 1903-7 | Added on 星期四, 十二月 13, 2012, 05:43 下午
Even if, seen from the outside, or from some higher vantage point, this sort of life looks pointless or futile, or even extremely inefficient, it doesn’t bother me. Maybe it’s some pointless act like, as I’ve said before, pouring water into an old pan that has a hole in the bottom, but at least the effort you put into it remains. Whether it’s good for anything or not, cool or totally uncool, in the final analysis what’s most important is what you can’t see but can feel in your heart. To be able to grasp something of value, sometimes you have to perform seemingly inefficient acts. But even activities that appear fruitless don’t necessarily end up so.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)
- Highlight Loc. 1919-21 | Added on 星期四, 十二月 13, 2012, 05:52 下午
For a runner like me, what’s really important is reaching the goal I set myself, under my own power. I give it everything I have, endure what needs enduring, and am able, in my own way, to be satisfied. From out of the failures and joys I always try to come away having grasped a concrete lesson.
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Suffering is optional
《What I Talk About When I Talk About Running》热门书评
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当我谈论村上春树的时候我在谈些什么
1056有用 38无用 a 2009-01-23
作为习惯,身在上海的我每次经过福州路时,都会去古籍书店的三楼转转,那个楼层卖的都是出版社库存的半新不旧的打折书。刚开业那段时间,它的打折方式很有趣,每本书上架时都会打上日期,而这本书的折扣力度也是采取浮动制,从五折到一折,上架日期距离当下的时间越长,折扣就越高。但对于喜欢的书,也不能一味苦等抄一折的...
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村上跑步排毒
557有用 30无用 南桥 2009-03-31
去年十月,去公共图书馆看书,看到一本《大智若驴》,作者说他坐在草地上看毛驴吃草,这简直是一种心灵疗法。一月份去公共图书馆借书,看到一本《散步是一门失传的艺术》,讲到如何通过散步来平衡自己的人生。三月份去公共图书馆看书,看到一本村上春树写的《当我跑步时我谈些什么》(What I talk about ...
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读《当我谈跑步时我谈些什么》有感,又名“论我如何用五个月减掉20斤”
433有用 16无用 fond 2013-08-02
小雨老师推荐我看看这本书:“作为一个坚持锻炼的人,应该很有共鸣。”于是从一位习练空手道的同事那里借来。豆瓣上显示我曾经看过此书,但再翻开还是很陌生。由于有了lifelog的习惯,身边常备一个本子,边看边把觉得好的话抄下来——誊写是对阅读的最高礼遇。两天时间翻完全书,对于我这样虽然在健身却一天都没有跑...
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跑步,是他的隐喻;跑步和写作,是他的哲学
187有用 15无用 一湄 2009-01-19
29岁开始写小说,怎么也算是大器晚成了吧。更何况是从33岁开始跑步。村上春树的小说颓靡忧伤,充满迷蒙和幻象。以为本人也是同样的气质,没想到的是,这部类似传记的文字,完全改变了我对他的印象。自律、专注、严格和节制。感觉他就像一棵没有长在丰饶肥沃之地的树,扎根,汲取,一寸一寸地,长成了参天。他描写29岁...
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试比较《当我谈跑步时我谈些什么》林、施译本的中文功力
118有用 23无用 toto 2009-02-04
我不是老林的粉丝,不过对比一下,还是老林的好。 施自身的语文水准没有老林高,行文有风格不统一,杂糅,啰嗦的毛病。 比如,“对于长期作业实在至为重要”,这个实在+至为太累赘,我不知道是不是村上自己在这么强调,翻译的时候有没有必要这么强调。(有一个双重强调的常用用法:“实在+太”,但“至为”本身是一个比...
书名: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
作者: Haruki Murakami
出版社: Knopf
原作名: 走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること
译者: Philip Gabriel
出版年: 2008-07-29
页数: 175
定价: USD 21.00
装帧: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780307269195