i'll make sure it doesn't die in the arse k2

raises hand

i've only read norwegian wood, and sputnik sweetheart, i started reading kafka but i had to return it. and i have the short stories to read blind willow, sleeping woman.

i dont know if there's one particular thing about them that i love. i think it's just his style in general, and the feelings he evokes. it's so nostalgic or something. i remember reading the first chapter of norwegian wood and i basically didnt put it down after that.

anyways now's its holidays so i can read them all. which do you all recommend? hardboiled wonderland looks good.

i keep trying to read this guy and he bores me from the first page. i blame the translator

don't get it, sorry. carry on

dance dance dance is a beauty - it's the follow-up to a wild sheep chase but stands beautifully on it's own

south of the border west of the sun is a heart-wrenching romance

i think he's the only author i've been compelled to read everything by

he's so readable, smart, multi-dimensional, funny, quirky and senstive/romantic as well

wow, that's fascinating bonza - he gets me in from the first page everytime!

woohoo. i have lots of summer reading ahead then

He's utterly great, can't get enough of the guy.

oh i started reading the wind-up bird chronicle just last week. Great so far.

many things to say, not enough time. he is a parody of himself but i still enjoy it. favourite is also hardboiled wonderland.

will write more later. maybe.

Norwegian Wood is my fave, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle not far behind.

i thought kafka on the shore was better than a lot of people have said, but wind up bird chronicle easily my fav...
i do wanna buy this too:
norwegian wood 1st ed

what an edition!

I've only read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - just earlier this year. I loved it and must read some more of his.

tillijames: I have that version of norwegian wood... well not a signed one but one in the box with the two books. picked it up when i was living in london.

in terms of what i've read i've read just about the lot. haven't read the new one or wind up bird chronicle. my fav is still morwegian wood.

dammit!
i want that edition.
i saw it in a 2nd hand shop ages ago.
should have got it at the time...
ah well.
one day.

Just started reading "Dance Dance Dance". I found it a bit hard to get into at first, put now I really like it.
This is the first book of his that I'm reading. Should I have read "Wild Sheep Chase" first?

Read Wild Sheep Chase First Ubu. it will make more sense in so much as you will be familiar with the characters.

My favourite Murakami is Wild Sheep Chase, followed closely by Wind Up Bird. My least favourite is Sputnik Sweetheart. I have a copy of Harboiled wonderland in my bag which I have been meaning to start rereading for about the last month

Ah, so you like it now, Ubu?

I'm toying with the idea of trying my hand at writing a screenplay based on Hardboiled Wonderland, and then making a film/video art thing. In my head it looks brilliant, but in reality.. umm, yeah.

Having read one short story collection and Kafka on the shore (and currently starting Hard-Boiled...) I don't really think much of his writing style. The plots and characters are good, but he tends to describe one thing three times in a sentence to be 'poetic'. It's the literary equivalent of those white lacy curtains you get in you grandparent's house.

I don't torrent. I'll either wait, order a dvd or write a few pointed letters to distributors.

True that.
The director also directed The Scent of Green Papaya and Cyclo, should be good.

Yeh, I saw that! Love 'Cyclo'.

I didn't think much of the film. Beautifully shot, but that's about it.

Anyone read 1Q84 yet?

It's taken me a long time to warm to Haruki Murakami, but after reading South Of The Border, West Of The Sun and currently being fascinated by Kafka On The Shore, his style is finally making sense to me.

I read Dance Dance Dance and loved it. He's an amazing writer.

I had a copy of Wild Sheep Chase, but I lent it out before I read it and never got it back. This is why I never lend out books before I read them now.

Finally got 1Q84. After 100 pages, it looks like it'll be pretty good. Anyone done it yet?

I thought you people would be all over this by now... Very little mention of new book or movie though...

Nah. I stopped reading his stuff loooooooooooooong time ago.

i'm too broke to buy new books, so no 1Q84 for me for a while.

i thought the norwegian wood film was beautiful. it has the essence of the book, which is all you can hope for any adaptation to have.

I was gonna ask about 1Q84. Almost bought it today but decided I can't afford to.

So erm, what CaptainHowdy said.

Can't wait to read 1Q84. $30 at Readings, apparently.

From the AV Club review of IQ84:

It’s difficult to stress just how stylistically clumsy 1Q84 is, especially in its sub-slash-fiction treatment of sex: “Tengo remembered his older girlfriend… Her deep sighs, her wet vagina.” Aomame, fantasizing about Tengo, lingers on his “big, strong genitals,” and her bodyguard, Tamaru, bizarrely observes, “When it comes to being gay, I’m in the big leagues.”

hahahahahahahahaha

I didn't really understand Hard-Boiled Wonderland at the time, and understood it less after having it explained to me, but Sputnik Sweetheart is pretty great.

this is ridiculous.

Finally finished 1Q84 last night. It's a slog alright, very slow-moving and definitely not up there with his best. It's achingly beautiful in parts, has some great characters and like a lot of Murakami, will probably stay with me for awhile. But damn, it takes its time and unlike The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, where nothing much really happens either but I was gripped from start to finsh, this one took a lot of dedication to get through.

After putting it down for a long time, I finally got back to 1Q84 whilst taking a few days off work this past weekend.

what a fucking waste of time.
I don't think i'll bother picking up anything else of his from now on, if After Dark and this are anything to go by. It reads like it's been translated badly, as did after dark, but it's the same guy who has done most, if not all, of his past translations.
Anyways, it was overly long and overly boring and relied too much on its characters having perfect intuition and other stuff i am now too tired to complain about here.

Reading some Cormac McCarthy now to get the taste out of my mouth.

Oooopppss wrong thread!

Read South of the Border, West of the Sun. Extremely dull and not very insightful IMO.

The fact that every female hipster seems to worship him confirms my view that he's more style than substance.