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By popular demand, we have updated the way we are handling Book Club comments. See below for more details, and as always, if you have suggestions, please let us know!

Below you’ll find this week’s discussion questions, which cover Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Haruki Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" (about 1 hr and 9 minutes worth of audiobook/slow reading). Note, that since these chapters are short, we'll have a separate post for each chapter's questions (below). A reminder that you can easily get Chaski Book Club posts delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for our Book Club email list.

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To comment on the discussion questions, please visit our Book Club Page. You can also click on each Chapter/Question heading or click the link at the bottom to visit our discussion space.

This is our first monthly book, so please don’t hesitate to send any feedback - positive or negative. We want this to be simple and fun for you and we’re sure we’ll figure things out better once we actually start the discussion.

Thanks and happy reading!

Ch 5 - Is running bad for your health?

In this chapter, Murakami talks about how many people view being a novelist as being “bad for your health” while he views it as part of his identity. Are there ways in which you view your running or athletic pursuits as “bad for your health”? What about others -- do you ever hear comments from family, friends, or the media about how your running (or athletics in general) is bad for you?

Ch 6 - Runner’s Blues

Have you ever experienced the “Runner’s Blues” that Murakami describes feeling after his 100K race? Was it the result of a breakthrough performance or a disappointment? How did it manifest for you? What did you do (if anything) to get over/through it?

Ch 7 - A serious injury or just a niggle?

Murakami describes his minor knee injury in this chapter in a way that’s familiar to so many of us. Something that pops up randomly doing something completely normal, like walking down the stairs, but becomes worrisome. Luckily for him, the injury did turn out to be relatively minor and after a few days off he was back to running. How do you weigh the seriousness of an injury? Do you have steadfast rules that you hold to when determining whether to “run through” something or take time off? Do you have a tendency to be overly cautious or overly aggressive?

We are now confining our Book Club discussions to our site, rather than using Facebook, as we feel that this is a much better way to create a unified conversation. We have created a book club discussion page to do so.

You'll have the option to either sign in with a Facebook/Google account or create your own account with us, and then you'll be able to comment or create threads with additional discussion questions if you'd like. Please keep the feedback coming, as we're still working hard to improve.