This classic avocational memoir followsMurakamias he trains for the2005New York City Marathon& reflects on a life of serious running. The book verges on self-help—chapter titles include “Suffering Is Optional” & “Most of What I Know About Writing Fiction I Learned by Running Every Day”—but the aura of upbeat resignation that colors the proceedings alters its tone. “Life is basically unfair,”Murakamiwrites. “But even in a situation that’s unfair, I think it’s possible to seek out a kind of fairness.” You simply can’t control what happens on race day, just asMurakamican’t control his aging body & slower finishing times, much less the stubborn, avoidant personality he’s carried around “like an old suitcase.”This book is refreshingly free of exhortations for everyone to take up running. (The author in fact believes forcing people to do it is “pointless torture,” which, yes.) But the scenes of him jogging throughKauaiorCambridge, Massachusetts, thinking of nothing but crisp morning air & “the sounds of my footsteps, my breathing & heartbeats, all blended together in a unique polyrhythm,” are their own kind of Persuasion.— The Atlantic