The memoir that I chose is a book by Haruki Murakami called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. The memoir follows Murakami's life as he trains to run the New York City Marathon, while writing a memoir about it at the same time. I selected the memoir because I came across it on a famous photographers blog. I found one of his posts saying some of his favorite books to read and there were two memoirs on that list. What he wrote about this book is that, although it is about running, the book can apply to any athlete in the way that they train and live life. I thought that it might be interesting and may relate to how I train parkour. At the same time, the book is about Murakami writing a memoir while he is training. I enjoy the fact that he can write about his training and make it sound interesting, rather than just creating a log of what he did everyday. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running seemed like an interesting title because I had to read it twice. The first time I saw the title I read it fast and it didn't make sense, so the second time I read it slower and really thought about what it said. It really intrigued me and, like I said, the description of the book seemed to relate to my life as well, so I figure that I will enjoy the book.

The cover of the book is very simplistic, with a blank tan page and the title in red writing. At the bottom there is a very small picture of the author while he is running. The simple cover definitely made the book more interesting to me as well. It shows me that the book is not going to have a ton of detail about random things, but it is going to be very focused on his training, as well as him writing a memoir while training. Overall, the book seems very simple, while at the same time intriguing as it follows Murakami writing a novel, while he is training for the New York City Marathon.