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  On 11/4/2017 at 10:47 AM, usagi said:

where does a total noob begin with Murakami?

elephant vanishes or wild sheep chase. Then windup bird then maybe Sputnik sweetheart or after the quake. Hard boiled wonderland is his weirdest. Norwegian wood is boring.

Edited November 10, 2017 by zaphod

Finished Paperbacks from Hell and fighting the urge to go on an eBay splurge for old pulp horrors. The second in the Southern Reach trilogy is next, still no idea how it can be a film.

  On 11/10/2017 at 7:36 PM, zaphod said:

 

  On 11/4/2017 at 10:47 AM, usagi said:

where does a total noob begin with Murakami?

elephant vanishes or wild sheep chase. Then windup bird then maybe Sputnik sweetheart or after the quake. Hard boiled wonderland is his weirdest. Norwegian wood is boring.

I liked Kafka on the Shore as well.

  On 11/10/2017 at 7:36 PM, zaphod said:

 

  On 11/4/2017 at 10:47 AM, usagi said:

where does a total noob begin with Murakami?

 

 Norwegian wood is boring if you have no soul

 

The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer

Might re-read Invisible Man next (the Ralph Ellison one).

  On 11/10/2017 at 7:36 PM, zaphod said:

 

  On 11/4/2017 at 10:47 AM, usagi said:

where does a total noob begin with Murakami?

Hard boiled wonderland is his weirdest.

 

Just bought this yesterday and can't put it down, great stuff, thanks. Looks like I jumped the gun and I'm gonna have to buy another book or two before vacation.

Murakami is pretty consistently excellent. I recently read the Men Without Women anthology and put down Absolutely on Music as well, which was ironically both a boring and completely satisfying read for me. Slowly working through 1q84 for the second time now.

funny you say that because i think Murakami is the most inconsistent writer i've read.

 

i've just finished All The Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy). it was pretty slow going in parts, though others were great. it took me a while to get through. i've picked up the 2nd in the trilogy (The Crossing) but i think i'll leave that for another time. decided on something short (Animal Farm) to go next.

The Crossing is amazing. ATPH was decent, and the third is interesting, but The Crossing hits hard...imo obviously.

  On 11/20/2017 at 11:09 AM, QQQ said:

funny you say that because i think Murakami is the most inconsistent writer i've read.

What of his have you read? This is my 3rd after Wind-Up Bird Chronicles and Kafka on the Shore, so you probably have a broader perspective than me on this.

  On 11/20/2017 at 2:45 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 11/20/2017 at 11:09 AM, QQQ said:

funny you say that because i think Murakami is the most inconsistent writer i've read.

What of his have you read? This is my 3rd after Wind-Up Bird Chronicles and Kafka on the Shore, so you probably have a broader perspective than me on this.

Wind-Up Bird Chronicles is definitely the best i've read so far. i haven't read Kafka so i might pick that one up next.

 

i've read:

 

1Q84 (up to book 3)

Wind-Up Bird

Sputnik Sweetheart

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki

South of the Border, West of the Sun

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (non fiction)

 

oh and I've seen the film Tony Takitani. i don't think it's that well known but i really liked it

There is a documentary called Dreaming Murakami out soon about translating his writing.

  On 11/4/2017 at 12:28 PM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 11/4/2017 at 10:47 AM, usagi said:

where does a total noob begin with Murakami?

 

Wind Up Bird or Norwegian Wood I M O 

 

 

 

Wind up bird or Kafka on the shore.. norwegian wood is a solid start too. 

currently reading:

 

 

Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation

 

it's awesome. really digging it. short book about transition to a monied economy and capitalism and popular heresy and war on women.. burning witches etc. it's like a 'secret history' or "here's some stuff they don't tell you in school" look at a really important time period. the church has always been full of seriously corrupt fucking douchebag assholes. it's amazing how they manipulated people along w/the elites.. what a scam. anyway.. it's a fascinating book.. great look at power structures

 

https://www.amazon.com/Caliban-Witch-Women-Primitive-Accumulation/dp/1570270597/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511636625&sr=8-1&keywords=caliban+and+the+witch+women%2C+the+body+and+primitive+accumulation

Edited November 25, 2017 by ignatius

Finished Hard-Boiled Wonderland on Wednesday and was kind of disappointed at the ending. I vaguely remember this same kind of feeling with how his other novels wound down their conflicts. I really enjoyed the pacing and imagery, though, as usual.

 

Anyone recommend something with a similar kind of vibe but a little less tidy, maybe a little more complex plot-wise? Honestly I am a novel pleb -  I like Murakami, PKD, and DFW for differing reasons and they have just been my go-tos for like a decade now. I tried Life: A User's Manual in the summer and didn't get too far into it - it was too arty and conceptual and I wanted something I could sink my teeth into and feel a bit more. I also tried Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, really wanted to like it, and I was really disappointed at how much his writing and general vibe gets on my nerves. It seemed like it could have been really good but maybe he drank too much dandelion wine while he was writing it or something because yuck.

 

For now I might work on the book of Chekhov short stories I got around the same time. I want to read Diary of a Part-Time Indian - I was going to read it around the same time as well but ended up losing it. I was thinking about re-reading Dune or Foundation (only have books 1 & 2 and want to pick up 3 sometime) but the whole sci-fi universe building shtick with all the made-up words feels really tedious to me and I have a hard time slogging through it.

 

Oh yeah as long as I'm thinking about it, I did read Confederacy of Dunces earlier this year. It was fun and funny but I felt like it also lost steam toward the end, cleaned things up a little too tidily. Overall I enjoyed it, though. 

 

Other than that I have a huge non-fiction backlog. I want to read Being and Time so I can feel cool and smart like Mark Fell but I'm kinda skeert of that one too. I think I checked it out from the library a while back and it was definitely no easier to read than Herbert or Asimov.

Otherwise... I'm in more of a Murakami or DFW mood than a PKD mood. Sooo I might just get more Murakami... or try Infinite Jest for the 4th time? Heh.

  On 11/25/2017 at 10:48 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

 

Oh yeah as long as I'm thinking about it, I did read Confederacy of Dunces earlier this year. It was fun and funny but I felt like it also lost steam toward the end, cleaned things up a little too tidily. Overall I enjoyed it, though. 

 

 

 

 

yes it does. it was pieced together after his death as you probably know.  i read a biography about him that's pretty interesting. had strange life.  that book had a strange life as well.. from when it was written to finally published. 

 

there's some great stuff in there but it has a weird flow. i forget the details about how it came together in its final form. 

Definitely not stressing about this, but maybe Murakami deserves his own thread? His stuff comes up ITT constantly and usually it's the same-ish conversations when it does...

  On 11/25/2017 at 11:33 PM, ignatius said:

it was pieced together after his death as you probably know.  i read a biography about him that's pretty interesting. had strange life.  that book had a strange life as well.. from when it was written to finally published. 

 

there's some great stuff in there but it has a weird flow. i forget the details about how it came together in its final form.

Yep, I think my copy even mentions that. It makes sense for sure and it's not fair for me to be too critical of it.

 

I will say that I think it was the same situation with DFW's Pale King and I actually liked that one quite a bit more - it sounds like there was less meddling and trying to make it flow, too. Also, it was more a kind of cubist collection of vignettes, so tragedy aside, it worked out better for the format.

 

  On 11/25/2017 at 11:34 PM, auxien said:

Definitely not stressing about this, but maybe Murakami deserves his own thread? His stuff comes up ITT constantly and usually it's the same-ish conversations when it does...

 

Done - https://forum.watmm.com/topic/94318-haruki-murakami/

Don Quixote is a total jerk! Honestly, he's basically a yob: attacking people at random for their belongings. And some of the detours the book takes is ridiculous: there's a section a hundred or so pages long where people in an inn read a novel they found. Kinda boring, and adds nothing to the story. No wonder the copy I have is 950 pages long.

 

Also depressed to read that, even four hundred years ago, people dismayed of simple-minded works being so popular and more intellectual fare being ignored. Shit never changes.

been on a bit of an Orwell kick recently

 

recently read:

 

Animal Farm - good

Down and Out in Paris and London - great

Success (Martin Amis) - not great

 

now reading:

 

Burmese Days

 

read a little of The Waves (Virginia Woolf) as well but the soliloquy style she uses in it isn't something i really enjoy

  On 12/16/2017 at 5:30 AM, Nebraska said:

 

Saw a documentary about her, nuts story.

recently read The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guinn, which I really liked, so am now reading The Left Hand of Darkness, also really good.

Artemis by Andy Weir - disappointing, but didn’t have real expectations to begin with. Feels like a Hollywood cash grab after the deserved, but fluke success of The Martian.

  On 12/16/2017 at 3:12 PM, caze said:

recently read The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guinn, which I really liked, so am now reading The Left Hand of Darkness, also really good.

my two fav UKL's, altho I'll never forgive her for the mother of all Deus ex Machinas at the end of Dispossessed