Haruki Murakami

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the first two books were only available in japan, sort of study aids for japanese people learning english. 'pinball 1973' is long out of print and sells for silly amounts of money, but 'hear the wind sing' turns up regularly on ebay for £10-20. it can also be ordered through amazon.co.jp but this is very complicated & the postage is extortionate.
both are easily found online though.

― zappi (joni), Monday, 13 September 2004 18:03 (nineteen years ago) link

"Pinball 1973" is in .pdf format here: http://morales.pressurize.net/pinball1973.pdf

― zan, Friday, 17 September 2004 20:00 (nineteen years ago) link

one month passes...

One day, I will read Norwegian Wood, next.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 09:10 (nineteen years ago) link

If you need a copy, PJ, you can have mine. Via the medium of the postal service or something.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 09:16 (nineteen years ago) link

That is very kind of you, Archel. I will try and think of something to send in return. Something else, something good.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 09:18 (nineteen years ago) link

Ooh, ok. Does that email address work? I will write to it if so.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 09:22 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't think it does, although it ought to. The normal one is pj-miller@blueyonderREMOVE-TO-SPAM.co.uk

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 09:29 (nineteen years ago) link

"I like the world they have created, and the sense of something menacing lurking just over the horizon."

That's what I think about Philp K. Dick.

I think the "Sputnik Sweetheart" is the most non-Murakami Murakami book I've read, and it's rather good. Strange how nobody mentioned it.

― Pingu, Tuesday, 19 October 2004 09:30 (nineteen years ago) link

Nobody`s mentioned Sputnik Sweetheart yet. I only mention this because I`ve just read it and it scared the shit out of me. His matter of fact style veered into boring in the first half or so,, but it got better and included some memorable images (ripe for filming as others have mentioned above). Sometimes he has an annoying way of rooting things in the present by being very specific about products and brand names. I was quite takenn aback by this while I read Sputnik. On film this would be called product placement.
As for the Elephant Vanishes dramatisation, I saw it when it was on. it was great fun - lots of Mcburney trickery without losing the murakaminess of the stories.

-- Japanese Giraffe (nihonnokiri...), September 2nd, 2004 4:51 PM.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 10:10 (nineteen years ago) link

I am back reading "Underground". It rocks.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 13:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Thank you, Archel!

I will retaliate in due course.

You keep your books in very good condition.

I wonder if I will stay up all night to read it, like Mooro did.

Please note: I will soon have read 3 Murakamis for the price of 1, thus beating the original Borders offer by 1 Murakami. If I take up Mooro on his offer of a loan, I will make it 4 for the price 1.

I've got to hand it to myself.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 29 October 2004 10:33 (nineteen years ago) link

I seem to be struggling with Hard-boiled wonderland but it's early doors yet.

― Tag (Tag), Friday, 29 October 2004 11:54 (nineteen years ago) link

just bid on 'kafka on the shore' on ebay...

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Friday, 29 October 2004 12:24 (nineteen years ago) link

I think the "Sputnik Sweetheart" is the most non-Murakami Murakami book I've read, and it's rather good.

I'm not surprised.

― You've Got to Pick Up Every Stitch (tracerhand), Friday, 29 October 2004 12:31 (nineteen years ago) link

I have got another Murakami book from the British Red Cross shop. It is called 'Boiled Egg Wonderland' or something. One pound fifty. Up yours, Borders!

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 5 November 2004 17:25 (nineteen years ago) link

This is the thread where I said thanks, Archel.

Archel didn't see it, everybody else.

She thought perhaps it had got lost.

We need to talk about YASUNARI KAWABATA one day.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 15 November 2004 14:22 (nineteen years ago) link

He's great, Sound of the Mountain, and A Thousand Cranes are brilliant. I found Snow Country a little harder to get into. I never seem to be able to find Beauty and Sadness in book shops, this makes me a little annoyed.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 15 November 2004 18:25 (nineteen years ago) link

one month passes...

So, I bought Kafka on the Shore today, I haven't started it yet. It feels decadent to have such a large hardback book.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 30 December 2004 18:38 (nineteen years ago) link

hmmm... available already? indie bookstore or something?

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 30 December 2004 20:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Borders - Tottenham Court Road. I was surprised myself, I thought Jan 6th was official day.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 30 December 2004 20:03 (nineteen years ago) link

i prefer his books about weird stuff to the love stories, so i'm preordering this. US release date is the 18th, d'oh.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 30 December 2004 20:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Good news for residents of second-rate towns: MURAKAMI books 3 for 2 in OTTOKAR'S.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 31 December 2004 11:59 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm about 60 pages into Underground and it's pretty good. It's a collection of interviews from victims of the Aum sarin gas attack. I like how he's organized the interviews into groups from specific subway lines.

― Drake Beardoooo, Friday, 31 December 2004 14:10 (nineteen years ago) link

I really liked Underground, his conclusions at the end are quite touching.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 31 December 2004 14:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Right now, Murakami seems to be stressing the point that none of these victims are necessarily angry with Aum. Maybe later interviews are not like this, but for now I find that fact pretty interesting.

― Drake Beardoooo, Friday, 31 December 2004 14:33 (nineteen years ago) link

Murakami's are all cheap in Fopp. Must get round to reading some of his. Norwegian Wood seems to be the title that comes up the most, so...

― stew, Friday, 31 December 2004 15:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Another despatch from the boonies:

PJM's beloved Ottakars are selling 'Norwegian Wood' for a mere 99p, see http://www.ottakars.co.uk/Internet/home/harukimurakami.jsp

+ £3 off 'Kafka on the Shore'

+ still doing 3 for 3 offer

― Mooro (Mooro), Saturday, 8 January 2005 18:41 (nineteen years ago) link

D'oh! Maybe that should be 3 for 2 ...

― Mooro (Mooro), Saturday, 8 January 2005 18:43 (nineteen years ago) link

Mooro beats me to it again!

I've got mixed feelings about 'Norwegian Wood' costing less than the postage Archel paid.

Jel, I've seen the film of 'Sound of the Mountain'! Corking proto-'Vera Drake' stuff.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Sunday, 9 January 2005 13:38 (nineteen years ago) link

40% into 'Kafka On The Shore', well into familiar Murakami territory. Reading the book is literally compulsive, had to take it into work today for a few sneaky chapters. Of course I don't have a fecking clue what it all means but I do know that if I think about it too much my world seems to start unravelling.

And I don't think that I will ever be able to drink Johnnie Walker again ...

― Mooro (Mooro), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 23:23 (nineteen years ago) link

I recently read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. A very impressive work - the first and only of Murakami's that I've read. I was fascinated from the beginning. The delicate simplicity of his imagery makes it very easy to digest his ideas, and the gradual introduction of the surreal elements gives you space to accept the bizarre and inexplicable without getting disoriented or flustered.

This thread has put me off reading more of his stuff though, as I don't know if I could go through a similar experience again so soon.

― Andrew (enneff), Monday, 17 January 2005 02:21 (nineteen years ago) link

i enjoyed 'kafka', but i wish he'd turned the quirkiness down a couple of notches.

― zappi (joni), Monday, 17 January 2005 02:35 (nineteen years ago) link

i haven't been this excited about a book coming out ever. maybe if _mason & dixon_ hadn't been about mason & dixon, but... though when is a new delillo coming out?

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Monday, 17 January 2005 03:09 (nineteen years ago) link

gah

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 17 January 2005 03:29 (nineteen years ago) link

Guh?

I sorta begin to think I'll enjoy reading fiction again if/when I can get one of my own books published.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 17 January 2005 03:31 (nineteen years ago) link

is gah you don't like murakami?

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Monday, 17 January 2005 03:34 (nineteen years ago) link

That price of Norwegian Woord is still 99p too much. I am sure Tracer Hand will agree with me on this.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Monday, 17 January 2005 03:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Hopefully Norwegian Wood is not the only Murakami you've read. I didn't like that one and he is, by far, my favorite author. Probably.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Monday, 17 January 2005 03:52 (nineteen years ago) link

I have just discovered Murakami (apparently I'm late to the party) and find myself addicted in a slightly shameful way. Have read hard boiled wonderland and sputnik sweetheart and have yet to hit that eww of reading the same book too many times (a la vonegut or palahuniuk).

― mouse (mouse), Monday, 17 January 2005 04:03 (nineteen years ago) link

he is an author that you can get addicted to. i haven't been as obsessive about buying every single book by an author since my kiddie reading years.

― jellybean (jellybean), Monday, 17 January 2005 08:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Finished Kafka last night, thought it was pretty good - a bit hmmm, 'dodgy' mind. The charcter Hoshino, is kinda who you feel like reading Murakami, you don't get it all, but you follow along anyway.

Blimey, I must track this "Sound of the Mountain" film.

I'm going to borrow Natsume Soseki's "I Am a Cat" from the library tomorrow.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 18:53 (nineteen years ago) link

i just started it... and currently i am hoping to find a way to skip work the next couple days to just stay home and read.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 19:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Sound of the Mountain film:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047682/

I think it's better than that review implies.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 20 January 2005 09:46 (nineteen years ago) link

i enjoyed 'the wind up bird chronicle' and 'dance dance dance' but recently gave up in exasperation on 'hard boiled wonderland' after a couple of chapters. i think maybe his style and imagery have become a bit played out for me.

or maybe i am a snob, and i just don't like the sort of people who read him. it makes me vaguely irritated that he is often compared, favourably to paul auster, who i rate a lot more highly.

― debden, Thursday, 20 January 2005 15:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Finished 'Underground' two days ago. Ronan OTM upthread about Murakami's conclusions. It was a great read and vastly different from what I experienced with 'Hardboiled Wonderland' and 'Wind-Up Bird'.

― Drake Beardo (cprek), Thursday, 20 January 2005 15:21 (nineteen years ago) link

They had the new one in the library, but I didn't get it.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 20 January 2005 17:40 (nineteen years ago) link

two months pass...

i finally read Kafka over the weekend, and I was really disappointed. It just didn't have the feel and excitment of the older books. Maybe I started on the best ones (Wind Up Bird Chronicles and Hard Boiled Wonderland)

― jellybean (jellybean), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 22:28 (nineteen years ago) link

I finished Kafka last Friday...and I really enjoyed it. I haven't read his others, but I enjoyed just being carried along by the story. Plus I love that even though you get caught up in the dreamlike narrative, he writes so well that every so often you stop & go 'Wow, that's a great sentence', etc. I'm in love with the cover as well. That ceramic face haunts my dreams.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 22:51 (nineteen years ago) link

three months pass...

Has anyone seen "Tony Takitani"? I'm getting a burn of it later today and my friend says it's really good, she mentioned La Jetee and Eureka which made me more enthusiastic than I thought I'd be. I vaguely remember the story from a New Yorker a few years ago, but I always thought someone should attempt Murakami on film.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 7 July 2005 16:40 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.tonytakitani.com/e/index.html

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 7 July 2005 16:45 (eighteen years ago) link

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