Surprisingly, an excellent read-a-thon book. It's a memoir about running marathons and triathlons, which focuses on resiliance, love for the sport and positive thinking above all else - something that is also applicable to any area of life. Writing novels included.Murakami's work isn't a fictionalized biography with Hollywood-esque endings (as he himself states), but it is a very positive and inspiring read which details a kind of sports (and living) philosophy that I think more people should ascribe to - staying true to your goals and doing things for the enjoyment of it, being able to seek help when you need it and be objective enough to know when something doesn't work for you.