books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

He has conquered the whole world with his writing, Haruki Murakami. I am not sure if many or even if anybody on this forum is familiar with his work. This Japanse writer sells books all around the world but I am not sure how known he is in America.

My first familiarisation with Haruki Murakami was a tv show where I saw Tim Crabbe talking about how wonderfull this writer is. Normally I am not a big book fan and havent finished a book in probably 10years but these book were onces I defenitly wanted to check out.

Haruki Murakami is a writer who only wants to write and lives an isolated life. He wakes up at 4 in the morning and goes to bet at 9. This writer doesnt want to be a known Japanse or well known writer, he just lives to write. His stories are humerous and surreal and at the same time reflects an essential alienation, loneliness, and longing for love.

Books I have read:

1) The elephant vanishes
This is the first book I have read from this Japanse writer, its a bundel of stories with a surrealistic treatment. Haruki Murakami exceeds each time to stay on the border between dream and reality. Immediatly after finishing this book I was hungry for more. I can't really explain but his writing is really good and this book is a real pageturner. His stories are kind of vage and dont have a ending, its really about life. I have lend this book to two of my friends(both female) and they finished it in a week loving the stories.

2)A Wild Sheep Chase
This lunatic titel had caught my attention after reading good reviews looking for a new book to read after the elephant vanishes. The story is about a reporter who goes with its girlfriend, a little girl with sensational beautiful ears, in search to a very special sheep with an star on the back. He is forced for that purpose by a sinister dude who is following orders from the leader. A friend had send him a picture of this sheep and he published it, this photograph is the only indication he gets to find this sheep. If he doesnt find this sheep it could be the end of the world. This story might sound really weird but this was really the best book I have ever read, and you should really check this one out.

3)Norwegian wood
This is the book which made Haruki Murkami famous. The story is more realistic than his other books and doesn't have many surreal elements. Still this book will keep you reading. The story is about a quite and serious student in Tokio and his relationship with a beautifull young women. They both suffered a terrible loss when their best friend died. I can't really tell to much about this story it would spoil to much but its a really good book and I finished it a couple of weeks ago. However I found that there was allot of sex in this book but I dont know if thats a problem with you. Millions of copies were sold of this book.

4)Kafka on the Shore
This is the book I am currently reading.

interview with Haruki Murakami

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

I haven't read Murakami yet, I now have some on the way, thanks for the recommendation.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

I liked The Wind Up Bird Chronicle.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is also good.
He's one of my favorite writers. I think I've read all his books to date.
I would stay away from Norwegian Wood and South by Southwest? (something like that).

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

The Wind up Bird chronicle is one of the best books i have ever read. I've read it in 2 languages, multiple times. amazing book. His writing style is very unique, and lots of fun to read. I've also read Norwegian wood, but didn't like it as much. I thought it was well written but I couldn't really get into it for some reason. Also, i haven't read his stuff in a few years, which reminds me that I should probably reread the Chronicle again....

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

I read his Dance, Dance, Dance in high school, and to date, it is still one of my favorite books. He is really a great writer.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

I'm about halfway through his newest book atm, I'll report back with my thoughts. In general he's one of my favorite writers.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

http://msittig.freeshell.org/docs/Mu...fect_Girl.html

One of the best short stories I've ever read, probably the best. This guy rules.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

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http://msittig.freeshell.org/docs/Mu...fect_Girl.html

One of the best short stories I've ever read, probably the best. This guy rules.

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wow, pretty amazing! I'm definitely going to pick up one of these books this week.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

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http://msittig.freeshell.org/docs/Mu...fect_Girl.html

One of the best short stories I've ever read, probably the best. This guy rules.

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Nice. I kinda feel Enternal Sunshine ripped this guy's idea. Its pretty similar.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

I'm about to take a 3 week trip to Europe. I'll have a lot of time to catch up on some fiction reading.

I haven't read any Murakami yet, but after reading his interview/synopsis/prose I'm eager to...Recommendations of which of his novels I should read first?

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

Nice writer that I haven't revisited in some years. I liked both Dance, Dance, Dance and Norwegian Wood, but my favorite is Hard Boiled Wonderland, which I read in both English and the original Japanese (I recommend the English version, it's a much easier read).

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

i've read both the wind up bird chronicle and kafka on the shore. both are excellent and highly recommended.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

I like Japanese writers. The first Murakami book I read was Wild Sheep Chase, which I saw on the shelf of my public library. I saw his name and said to myself, "A Japanese writer I haven't heard of." That was >15 years ago. The book still haunts me.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

thanks for the tip on The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, I will pick that one up when going on my holiday

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

I've read quite a few of Murakami's books, and really enjoyed all of them, but they do fall into two very distinct categories, and I know some people who enjoy one but not the other. There are his epic adventure novels which include Kafka on the shore, the wind up bird chronicles and wild sheep chase, and there are his more romantic personal novels (which feel more traditionally japanese to me, though i havn't read all that many other japanese authors) which include norweigian wood, south of the border west of the sun, and sputnik sweetheart.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

Chevy, read the Wind Up bird Chronicle. You won't regret it.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

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I'm about to take a 3 week trip to Europe. I'll have a lot of time to catch up on some fiction reading.

I haven't read any Murakami yet, but after reading his interview/synopsis/prose I'm eager to...Recommendations of which of his novels I should read first?

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I was introduced to Murakami with Hard-Boiled Wonderland and I feel like that's an excellent place to start. From there I'd move into Elephant Vanishes or Norwegian Wood.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

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I liked The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and Hard Boiled Wonderland.

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Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

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Hard Boiled Wonderland.

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Probably my favourite book.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

Yes! Murakami rules. There's defintiely that indie rock, hipster feel to his books... (to me that's a description of quality, but by no means do I mean this as a factor that limits his audience.)

Haruki Murakami is my favorite writer, and I read a lot of good books. I've read each of his books at least one time.

Something interesting about him is that he used to own a jazz club in Tokyo, and would write from the time the jazz club closed through the rest of the night.

There are great pop/cultural/musical references in his work, and some critics (who I disagree with) think this somehow delegitimizes the literary nature of his work. He is pretty popular now and gets good reviews in major publications though, so maybe this is an older sentiment that has died out, I don't know. I think the inclusions of pop references, the mystery and occult nature of some of the circumstances that arise in his novels and just the general adventure you feel while reading Murakami speak to his ability to blend good literature with pop-styling and make great stories available to a wide audience.

Regardless, Haruki Murakami seems like a really unassuming guy, and tries to stay out of the limelight, which seems like it's probably difficult when you are well known in Japan.

My favorite book ever is "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", but I also really enjoy what's referred to as the "Rat Trilogy," Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball, and A Wild Sheep Chase. The former two used to be difficult to find, I'm not sure what their availability is online.

"Dance, Dance, Dance" is probably my second favorite from Murakami, and is sort of a pseudo-sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase. You don't have to read the latter to understand Dance, but imo it makes the story more interesting.

Great author suggestion op, Murakami is definitely worthy of his own thread and attention.

(The Murakami Wiki seems to have a pretty good list of his works.)

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

p.s. You'll see translated short stories pretty often from Murakami in magazines like Harper's and the New Yorker, and legitimate copies or not of these and other of his short stories are all over the web. I would highly suggest googling for some to see if you like his style.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

I have read 4 or 5 books by him when people insisted that I should keep giving him a chance and in my opinion all of them are garbage.

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

I thought his newest book "After Dark" was really good.

I also bought a book that I _thought_ was by the same author, but just happened to have the same last name :/

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

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I read his Dance, Dance, Dance in high school, and to date, it is still one of my favorite books. He is really a great writer.

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Yeh, that's my favourite book, perhaps my favourite book ever. Norwegian wood is also really good - I'm not such a big fan of his short stories, and the factual books weren't very interesting for me... He's an author where it's definitely worth reading most of his work though

Re: books writer: Haruki Murakami
 

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I thought his newest book "After Dark" was really good.

I also bought a book that I _thought_ was by the same author, but just happened to have the same last name :/

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I didn't even realise this was out yet. I guess that's my lunchtime job then...