So in-line with deciding to run the half marathon in July, and my tendency to read a Murakami for every second book, i started reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. This is essentially a few autobiographical stories and thoughts of Murakami, set amidst his training for the New York Marathon one year. It's nice to read a bit more about his history, although there tend to be a lot of "I'm the kinda guy" sentences which I don't like... and all of the distances are in miles, i wonder whether this is due to the americanness of the translation.
At the same time my dad gave me my uncle Colin's autobiography. Uncle Colin would love to be able to do a little of what Murakami does, he would love to be able to walk down the street, but he has been confined to a wheelchair since the age of 3. His outgoing nature and love of music has allowed him to live quite a full life, socially with a club he began in his early adulthood and throughout his life as an entertainer. Like anyone who learns to get on with it and love life in the face of a limitation, Col's most difficult moments are when he has to confront his disability head on. Whenever anything happens because of his disability - a girl's parents won't support their relationship, a wife decides it's getting to be a bit too much, his boss decides he's just a bit too slow at getting around - these moments are the hardest to deal with, because the last thing he's ever wanted to do is blame his circumstances for his happiness. When someone tells you it's specifically because he is in a wheelchair that they won't be with him, how could he do anything but blame the chair for this disappointment? Colin is also a bit of an "I'm the kinda guy" type of person, but I guess this is the essential question when someone reads an autobiography.
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