[Books] April 2021 Reads

April was not a great month for reading for me. As much as I read a lot of interesting things, my overall number of titles read in the month wasn't just lower than previous months, but it was also below the a-book-a-day pace I need to keep up with my end of year reading goal.

But these things happen. Work was pretty busy, so that's a big "barrier" to extra reading. but perhaps my decision to finally read Haruki Murakami's Killing Commentadore may have played a larger role as well. Allow me to explain once I've gone over the numbers.

[Books] The Strange Library

Given all the press around Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage after its release, it became a little too easy for The Strange Library to escape notice. And given its rather unusual format, it also feels very different from his other releases. And I'm not just talking about it's relatively short length or its creative cover design.

To be fair, The Strange Library isn't exactly a new book - what makes it feel "new" to the rest of the world is the fact that it was only released in English last year. The original story itself had been published in 2005, so as usual we're all playing catch-up with Japan. It's just not immediately apparent why it took so long for an English translation to be released for this particular book.

Then again, it's not like it's easy to find his earliest works including Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, the first two books of his Trilogy of the Rat series of books. No matter how popular an author you are, I guess it's still up to the publishers to figure out an effective strategy for such international releases.

[Books] Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Given how much I'm into rather focused genre fiction like science fiction and fantasy titles, my appreciation for the works of Haruki Murakami is a bit of an aberration. You're never really sure what you're going to get with every new book and I guess that is part of the whole brilliance of the discover process. And while a few books have recurring characters like the Sheep Man, they mostly exist as individual adventures of their own.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki is one of his more recent releases that finally got translated to English mid-way through 2014. Unlike most of his books, this one seemed really light on the fantasy elements and instead is mostly a straight up exploration of one man's childhood trauma leading to the discovery of a greater mystery of sorts And while the fantasy elements have always made his books pretty interesting and unique, they by no means define what makes his books so powerful.

This was a really thoughtful piece and one that left me thinking about my own school days immediately after finishing the whole thing.

[Books] 1Q84

It took me a while to finally get around to posting a review for this book, which probably makes sense given how long it took me to actually finish reading it to begin with. And while the works of Haruki Murakami aren't typically known to be light or casual reading by any standards, this book was definitely a bit of a challenge to get through due to sheer length beyond anything else.

Now I don't claim to be some literary expert and thus those landing on this review hoping to pick up something that might be usable in a term paper based around the book are out of luck. While I will do my best to express my honest opinion about the title, I don't necessarily claim that I'll be following any sort of pattern related to more "established" schools of literary theory and the like.

But I am a major Murakami fan, and that's the perspective that you can expect here. I've read most of this books and I'd like to think I've walked away with a decent enough understanding of the various books and stories. But this may definitely be a case of not fully getting things on the first go and I'm not quite sure I'm willing to go through the book once more any time soon just to get a better grasp of things.

[Books] Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

The noble adventure that is writing is different for every author. Some find their voices writing poetry in various forms in order to convey a message. Others immediately find themselves writing lengthier novels in order to capture the many thoughts racing in their heads. And in the middle somewhere is the realm of the short story, which I've always found to be a rather challenging medium.

In my college years, the very question of defining what constitutes a short story was a challenge in itself. How long can a short story be before it becomes a novella? When is a short story "too short" or is that even possible? What differentiates a longer poem written in free verse from a relatively short tale with a prose-like tone? There are a lot of questions when it comes to trying to figure out what short stories are and why they work, but in the end they just do. Like a lot of other writing, they're very slippery fish with mutable forms. Their length can only be truly determined by the writer and it will be just as long as it needs to be.

Not all novelists are short story writers and of course vice-versa. But thankfully one of my favorite authors, Haruki Murakami, is delightfully both - and his short fiction work is just as engaging and fulfilling as his lengthier writing efforts. This collection was certainly an interesting read and one that belongs on any Murakami fan's shelf.

[Books] South of the Border, West of the Sun

Had it not been for my Communications and Humanities classes in college, I would never have encountered Haruki Murakami. What started as simply enjoying On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning lead to me jumping directly into getting through The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle eventually turned into me becoming a lifelong fan of his work.

And he's a stellar writer whether we're talking about his short stories or his full length novels. Of course given (1) he's a Japanese author and (2) all of his books require skilled translation before being released outside of Japan, his books tend to be rather pricey regardless of length. Over the years, I've amassed a respectable collection of most of his books of which I'm still getting around to actually reading. So yeah, I finally bought a lot of the thinner titles that didn't seem quite as cost effective as his lengthier works, but what can a fan boy do, right?

And man has the trip been rewarding, regardless. I've now taken to trying to get some reading time in during my train rides home and I've limited myself to books that are easy to manage with one hand. Thus the inevitable addition of my slimmer Murakami books to my reading queue as much as this gesture seems a tad arrogant given your average MRT rider. You can only imagine the looks I get from other riders when I whip out my Murakami book with their strange covers and bizarre plot synopses at the back. Fun.

[Birthdays] Happy Birthday, Haruki Murakami!

Today's the birthday of one of my favorite authors and also one of the more celebrated ones in the contemporary writing scene.





Happy Birthday to Haruki Murakami!

For those sadly ignorant, he's the same genius behind books like Wild Sheep Chase, Dance Dance Dance and my ever favorite Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It's hard to pinpoint precisely why I love his books so much. Maybe it's the whole magical realism to his stories. Perhaps it's his unique style in terms of use of metaphorical language. Or it could be how each story is so widely different and unique as compared to the others and yet still somehow related, as if they all live in the same magical universe.

Or maybe it's because Haruki Murakami's writings speak from the mind of a introvert like myself and that resonates for me on so many levels.

[Books] Dance Dance Dance

Haruki Murakami remains to be one of my favorite novelists. His particular approach to storytelling is unique among authors plus his concepts are a bit out of his world. Okay, maybe very out of this world, but that's really one of the main draws of his stories.

His books, for the most part, stand alone. They're all masterful independent works that all remain independent. In his earlier years, there were a series of novels that were loosely related to one another. In terms of those that were translated into English and slated for a broader release, the one stands apart given it is in fact a direct sequel to a prior work, that being A Wild Sheep Chase.

I'm still of mixed opinions in terms of whether or not I'd like to see more sequels to his books. Part of the joy of exploring his titles is the fact that every novel feels like a new adventure. Each title is a completely new world to explore and this remains a very fun experience. Then again, there are a lot of characters that I'd love to learn more about and stories that I'd like to see continue on.

It's really up to the individual to decide how things should go.

[Books] Wild Sheep Chase

Most of Haruki Murakami's books are pretty much one-shots - standalone stories of wonder and beauty. So when I discovered that there were actually two interconnected titles that act almost like a little franchise amongst all the other books, well, then I knew it would be worth getting into. But then again, I also feel that almost any Murakami novel is worth getting into.

Okay, maybe I believe any book written by Haruki Murakami is more than worth it. So there.

Murakami is a visionary writer who manages to mix contemporary character with worlds of wonder and situations that seem more like fantasy than mundane reality. Plus he is able to mix in elements of post-war Japan into this amazing tapestry of words that helps paint a clearer picture of what may be just beneath the surface of Japan's wounded psyche.

This book was striking for so many reasons and it certainly stands apart from the others even after almost three decades since its original publishing.

[Books] The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

I was first introduced to Haruki Murakami in college. At the time most if not all of my reading interests were firmly locked within the realms of science fiction and fantasy. Trying anything outside of that seemed highly unlikely since I really enjoyed escaping to those far-flung worlds. So when we were made to read a variety of more contemporary authors, I soon realized that I had been missing a heck of a lot.

But of all the different authors I was introduced to during my college years, Haruki really stood out as something completely different. His style is deceptively simple in terms of words but amazingly complex in terms of concepts. His usual mix of the familiar with the strange and exotic is unlike any other I've read thus far and he manges to weave all these diverse elements together into a beautifully seamless whole.

So when it came time to try and explore his writings on my own, I relied on the recommendations of my professor at the time and picked up this particular book. I don't regret the decision one bit, no matter how expensive his books tend to be in most stores. While this wasn't one of his simpler books, it was certainly one of his most powerful and striking in so many different ways.

[Books] After Dark

Haruki Murakami became one of my favorite articles after one of my best professors in college introduced me to his books. I'll forever be grateful to her for going above and beyond just teaching a basic writing class. She turned it into a whole lot more as enriched by some major pieces of good modern literature.

Murakami's books are far from easy to comprehend when you get down to it. His characters are diverse and highly unusual such as psychic prostitutes and men dressed as sheep. His plots are bizarre and sometimes disturbing whether it involves a mad search for a missing cat or a plot to destroy the world.

But what is always consistent is his particular style and approach to putting these stories together. He has an amazing gift for alternative description techniques. Plus he really knows how to build characters and establish amazing stories through dialog. Seriously, I envy him for the kind of scenes and conversations he manages to create. Plus there's the genius that is Jay Rubin, who manages to translate Murakami's words while somehow preserving his genius prose.

[Writing] Authors Serving Different Purposes

Image by Kenn Wilson via FlickrAs of late, I'm finally reading my long ago purchased copy of Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, an anthology of various short stories he's written. Like any other frustrated writer, reading really good stories or novels from authors like Gaiman are certain to trigger a wide variety of possible reactions and thoughts. As I pondered over my own sentiments based on this particular Gaiman creation, the idea for this entry really came to be.

As much as I love and respect a select number of authors, I appreciate them for very different reasons and they make me think or do different things as well. Yes, I know there's nothing special about this and it's a near certainty given the diverse world of writing and who unique we all are as individuals, but still I thought it would be an interesting exercise to think about the authors I like and try to better understand what each one brings to my virtual writing table.

Let's start with the author that triggered this entire line of thought - Neil Gaiman.This master of the fantastic and mystical is one of those rare authors that really strike me in a significant way. Sure, like many other I recognize and respect his talent as a writer and I enjoy reading his various works, but that's not it. For me in particular, Neil Gaiman is the author that inspires me to write. I can constantly battle with the challenge of writer's block on my own as long as I want to but there are few writers that make me want to return to the desk and try again. Gaiman is that kind of an author for me - he just does something for me that makes me want to try writing again and again and again even though I often run out of steam and hit road blocks as I try to develop stories to their logical end.

In contrast, the man I tout as my more favorite author of all - Frank Herbert - does not inspire the same creative drive in me. Instead Herbert is the man I return to in order to find new insights or wisdom to some extent. I've read all of the core Dune Chronicles books and I've re-read all of them countless times already. With every reading I uncover some new gem or marvel, something else that reminds me of just how complex the world out there is and how closely we skirt danger just by being human in a world of average people. I don't necessarily go running back to write down my thoughts after an intimate encounter with Herbert;s stories, but the intellectual exercise is certainly refreshing in its own way and certainly rewarding one way or another.

Another author I go out of my way to follow is the rather enigmatic Haruki Murakami. I couldn't possibly expect to write stories of the same caliber as he does nor could I claim to fully understand everything he writes about. Oh no, Murakami certainly has a way of testing the very limits of your imagination at times and then effortlessly breaks those definitions apart and forces you to re-think your perspective of the fantastic. Murakami is the author I return to when I want to feel a sense of wonder with the world and to better appreciate the possibility of things beyond our mortal ken. His stories make even the most mundane events become extraordinarily strange given his penchant for blurring the lines between cold reality and surreal fantasy.

Then there's Terry Pratchett who I dare not try to emulate in terms of writing style and who clearly does not inspire one into deep philosophical thinking. Instead I turn to him for humor of a higher order - not your common slapstick or tired cliches but more along the lines of witty and intelligent humor, pointed barbs formed by word craft that really provide an interesting perspective to things and never fail to make me smile. His Discworld novels retain a very special place in my heart (and in my shelving arrangement) given they're the kind of books a pseudo-intellectual geek like myself can always return to when the "real world" gets too overwhelming.

That's just a sampling of how I view the authors I tag as my "favorites" or ones that I like / follow, and you very well know there's a lot more to be said about any one of those authors. I might even take the time to expand this into a full sries of entries with more details and actual citations from their works in order to explain my thinking, who knows right? But of course, these are just my authors of interest.

How about you geeky reader? What authors do you follow? Do you know why you do? Do they inspire you into action or just into deep thought? Do they make you want to follow in their footsteps as writers or do they simply give you something to do when the power's out? Have you ever really taken a long, deep, hard look at the kinds of stories or books that you read and tried to figure out why?

Perhaps it's time you did. There's certainly value in the suggestion.

[Books] Sputnik Sweetheart

I'm a major fan of the writings of Haruki Murakami, although I read most titles before I started the Geeky Guide, hence the lack of reviews.

Over the years I've pretty much collected most if not all of his works of fiction, although I've yet to have the chance to actually read them just yet. Thus why I'm it's only now that I'm reviewing this title, Sputnik Sweetheart, even though it's been around for quite some time.

It's not my favorite book of Murakami's thus far, but it certainly holds its own against other authors. It may really depend on your tastes.

Sputnik Sweetheart is a book all about relationships. You have Sumire who has just realized that she's fallen in love with another woman, Miu. The narrator, K, is Sumire's best and is in love with her but cannot tell her this. In the meantime, K, a schoolteacher, is sleeping with the mother of one of his students. All things change when K receives a surprise call from Miu from a small Greek island to tell him Sumire has gone missing.

Now this piece is not a long one - it's only 16 chapters long across 229 pages (at least for my version), and surprisingly it takes a fair amount of time to really build up. Then again, maybe that's the desired pace of the book. Either way, it took me a long time to finish it since it wasn't quite hooking my interests.

I guess the challenge lies in the fact that normally Murakami has such amazingly surreal characters introduced very early on so they in turn drive the story. In this case they're just people and you don't really learn a lot about them in the course of things and its their relationships and the interconnections between them that really drive things.

One thing I have to say for the book is that when it hits Chapters 11 and 12, I was totally floored. That's the kind of writing that makes me love Murakami so much and in many ways many of Sumire's thoughts on writing reflect my own, which is probably why I relate so much. The book ends on an odd note, something that is somewhat typical of his novels. You usually get this feeling that his stories always end somewhat reluctantly, as if it's a struggle to pull away from these characters and thus there's bound to be even more happening beyond the horizon. Only our imaginations can try and fill up the missing spaces based on our imagination and speculations.

It takes a special kind of writer to make you want to figure out what happens after the story ends.

This was a nice title but not quite an easy read. There are better examples of Murakami's abilities although this one does give you insight into his grasp of relationships and more of his unique style of prose.

[Books] Kafka on the Shore

After having my hardbound copy of this book sit beside my bed for months, I finally found the time to finish reading Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. It's not that this was a bad book - in fact I loved every last bit of it. However it's just hard to lug any hardbound book around so I was severely limited in my chances for reading it.

Haruki Murakami remains to be one of my favorite authors and his unique style of writing is hard to describe accurately. Many interpret his works as his way of breaking up Japanese culture into unusual pieces and subject those fragments to inspection while others simply tag him as a writer who enjoys magical realism. Kafka continues to further muddy the waters and make interpreting his works just that much harder for all of us.

Most of Murakami's works involve first-person narratives where the protagonist is rarely named. This story actually has two major tracks, one involving the boy who has renamed himself Kafka and the other involving an old man who happens to be able to talk to cats. As the story progresses, you'll find yourself lost in their respective worlds and constantly try to piece together how to two story arcs are meant to come together.

To say the story is complex is an understatement. As strange as the plot lines get, it's not that difficult to keep on track. The chapters clearly alternate between the two stories so it becomes an exercise in multi-tasking your brain. As you progress, the pace quickens and you can practically taste the excitement in your mouth as the two threads tie closer and closer together until you are left with one larger story.

As always, expect a lot of surreal situations, sexually-charged scenes and very well defined characters. I think that's one of the best things about Murakami's writing - his ability to craft very human characters with just a few things out of place, those small pieces that make you realize they're not quite normal. That makes all the difference.