What I Talk About When I Talk
About Runn - Haruke Murakami
일전에 한국어로 번역된 이 책을 읽었다. 달리기 내용과 더불어 소설 쓴 이야기들이 있어 재미있게 읽었다. 인도네시아 공항에 있는 서점에 갔다가 이 책을 발견하고 구입했다. 얇고 작아 들고 다니며 짬짬이 읽기에 좋았다. 영어 문장이 다른 책에 비해 그리 어렵지는 않았다. 오랜만에 원서를 읽는 거라 시간이 오래 걸리긴 했다. 앞으로 원서를 조금씩 더 읽어보려고 한다.
- book text -
- As I’ve gotten older, though, I’ve gradually come to the realization that this kind of pain and hurt is a necessary part of like. If you think about it, it’s precisely because people are different from others that they’re able to create their own independent selves. (p.19)
- As I run I tell myself to think of a river. And clouds. But essentially I’m not thinking of a thing. All I do is keep on running in my own cozy, homemade void, ny own nostalgic silence. And this is a pretty wonderful thing. No matter what anybody else says. (p.23)
- When I finished the novel(A Wild Sheep Chase) I had a good feeling that I’d created my own writing style. My whole body thrilled at the thought of how wonderful-and how difficult–it is to be able to sit at my desk, not worrying about time, and concentrating on writing. There were untouched veins still dormant within me, I felt, and now I could actually picture myself making a living as d novelist. (p.32)
- The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school. (p.45)
- The age that Scott Fitzgerald started to go downhill. The age may be a kind of crossroads in life. That was the age when I began my life as a runner, and it was my belated, but real, starting point as a novelist. (p.47)
- There ar three reasons I failed. Not enough training. Not enough training. And not enough training. (p.54)
- In private correspondence the great mystery writer Raymond Chandler once confessed that even if he didn’t write anything, he made sure he sat down at his desk every single day and concentrated. (p.79)
- Even when I grow old and feeble, when people warn me it's about time to throw in the towel, I won’t care. As long as my body allows, I’ll keep on running. Even if my time gets worse, I'll keep on putting in as much effort-perhaps even more effort-toward my goal of finishing a marathon. I don't’ care what others say-that’s just my nature, the way I care what others say-that’s just my nature, the way I am. Lake scorpions sting, cicadas cling to trees, salmon swim upstream to where they were born, and wild ducks mate for life. (p.149)
- I’ll age one more year, and probably finish another novel. One by one, I'll face the tasks before me and complete them as best I can. Focusing on each stride forward, but at the same time taking a long-range view, scanning the scenery as far ahead as I can. I am, after all, a long-distance runner.
