My last reads for 2016

My last reads this year are two books that I was super excited to read: 

                    1.    What I talk about when talk about running by Haruki Marukami

      The book is a memoir by the author himself, an author that I love reading for so I wanted to know more about him, the book’s main subject is the interest and participation of the author in long distance running but also about how he became an author, so writing and running are what the book’s about, reading the book made me admire the author even more, and here are some quotes from the book that touched and inspired me.

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”

“Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.”

“Running every day is a kind of lifeline for me, so I’m not going to lay off or quit just because I’m busy. If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I’d never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit. All I can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished.”

“On the body of the bike is written “18 Til I Die,” the name of a Bryan Adams hit. It’s a joke, of course. Being eighteen until you die means you die when you’re eighteen.”

“Even if my time gets worse, I’ll keep on putting in as much effort— perhaps even more effort—toward my goal of finishing a marathon. I don’t care what others say— that’s just my nature, the way I am. Like scorpions sting, cicadas cling to trees, salmon swim upstream to where they were born, and wild ducks mate for life.”

“I started to run—simply because I wanted to. I’ve always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I’m wrong, but I won’t change.”

“No matter how long you stand there examining yourself naked before a mirror, you’ll never see reflected what’s inside.”

“One by one, I’ll face the tasks before me and complete them as best I can. Focusing on each stride forward, but at the same time taking a long-range view, scanning the scenery as far ahead as I can. I am, after all, a long- distance runner.”

“I dedicate this book to all the runners I’ve encountered on the road—those I’ve passed, and those who’ve passed me. Without all of you, I never would have kept on running.”

The book is amazing anyone that loves Haruki Murakami’s books and want to know more about the author himself should read this book.

    2.    Nomidia by Tarik Bkari

A book that I heard a lot about, since it was selected to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, but what made me actually read the book was its story that centers around the amazigh culture, the book was a huge disappointment, I didn’t like it at all, the story so depressing and the characters so boring. I just wonder if the people who reviewed this book had actually read it, the book is the first work of the author and you can sense that, there was a lot of mistakes and repetition sorry Tarik Bkari but it’s just my opinion.