Memoir · Book club
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running book club questions
Here are 12 book club questions for What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is Haruki Murakami's memoir of his life as a runner, written during training for the 2005 New York City Marathon.
Haruki Murakami · 2007 · 4h 0m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 12 questions
- 1.
Murakami runs partly to maintain the physical capacity for writing. Do you think of your physical practices as tools for your intellectual or creative life? Should you?
- 2.
He describes running as primarily solitary — he doesn't listen to music for the first half of a marathon. What do you get from solitary physical movement that you can't get from exercise with company or distraction?
- 3.
The book argues that persistence matters more than talent in both running and writing. Is that a reassuring or depressing conclusion? What does it imply about how you invest your effort?
- 4.
Murakami doesn't run to win or compete; he runs to meet a personal standard. How does competing with yourself rather than others change the nature of an athletic goal?
- 5.
He describes the slowing of his times at fifty as something to accept rather than fight. How do you think about the arc of physical capacity over a lifetime?
- 6.
The memoir covers the physical pain of ultramarathon racing without dramatizing it. What is Murakami's relationship with suffering, and how does it differ from Goggins's?
- 7.
Running is described as boring much of the time. What do you do with boredom in your physical practice? Is boredom a sign you're doing it wrong or a necessary component?
- 8.
The book is as much about writing as about running. What practice in your life produces the same kind of reflective self-knowledge that running does for Murakami?
- 9.
He made a dramatic lifestyle change at thirty-three — quit his bar, quit smoking, started running. Do you believe in the possibility of total reinvention like that, or do you think it requires an external catalyst?
- 10.
The prose is notably calm and undramatic compared to most athletic memoirs. Does that understatement make the running seem more or less appealing?
- 11.
Murakami covers the relationship between his running and his creative output concretely — running at a particular time and pace produces certain mental states. What physical practices directly support your best cognitive work?
- 12.
If you were to write a short memoir of one physical practice in your life, what would you choose and what would you discover in the writing of it?
How to run the discussion
- Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
- Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
- Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
- Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.
Themes worth steering toward
If the conversation stalls, these are the threads that usually restart it.
Common questions
What are good book club questions for What I Talk About When I Talk About Running?
Here are 12 book club questions for What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. The strongest openers ask what each reader noticed rather than what they concluded, and the discussion usually turns on running, writing, discipline.
How long should a book club discussion of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running last?
Most groups run 60 to 90 minutes of actual discussion. That is roughly six to eight questions, not all of them, so pick the ones that suit your group rather than working down the list in order.
What are the main themes in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running?
Running, Writing, Discipline, Aging, Solitude. Those are the threads most likely to divide a room, which makes them the useful places to steer a discussion that has gone quiet.
Picking the next one? See books like What I Talk About When I Talk About Running or questions for other book club picks.
