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hmmm, though that clip from cyclo looks pretty good. and that casting for naoko is great.

for sure, both of those are probably his most surreal. i just reread norwegian wood and my opinion changed drastically. i loved that book when i read it in college but it has some of his worst writing in it. it's also got some great moments, but what makes murakami interesting is his lapses into the surreal within a mundane setting. i didn't really find that in norwegian wood, and then i felt like it was extremely manipulative as well. although i do like the ending, it's a murakami ending, for sure.

  zaphod said:

  takeshi said:

Anyone heard about this?

Rinko Kikuchi To Star in Movie Adaptation of Murakami's 'Norwegian Wood'

I haven't read this book yet but I like Kikuchi and it's being directed by Tran Anh Hung, who did a beautiful movie called Cyclo.

 

weird, murakami has always battled the idea of turning that book into a movie. anyway it's probably his most melodramatic and ridiculous novel, i'm not too sure how well it would work as a film. i guess if it's toned down it might work. i'd rather see hard boiled wonderland or windup bird turned into a movie, honestly.

I'm almost done with Wind-Up and thought it would make a great movie about halfway through but I'm not sure now. So much of the novel speaks to things that would be incredibly hard to suggest in film.

  Mr Salads said:

:queues up Cyclo on netflix to prepare:

I'd be interested to hear what you think of it.

Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

tran anh hung is pretty much the perfect choice for the director. 'the vertical ray of the sun' had this really serene, but slightly weird, quality to it that reminded me of murakami anyway. ive seen cyclo and the scent of green papaya as well. all great films. actually the only thing that irks me about his films is the person who does the score for them (pretty sure its the sameperson)... i feel that his style contrasts pretty badly with hung's films (it's really 'ugly'/abrasive, while hung's images are anything but).

  takeshi said:

  zaphod said:

  takeshi said:

Anyone heard about this?

Rinko Kikuchi To Star in Movie Adaptation of Murakami's 'Norwegian Wood'

I haven't read this book yet but I like Kikuchi and it's being directed by Tran Anh Hung, who did a beautiful movie called Cyclo.

 

weird, murakami has always battled the idea of turning that book into a movie. anyway it's probably his most melodramatic and ridiculous novel, i'm not too sure how well it would work as a film. i guess if it's toned down it might work. i'd rather see hard boiled wonderland or windup bird turned into a movie, honestly.

 

I'm almost done with Wind-Up and thought it would make a great movie about halfway through but I'm not sure now. So much of the novel speaks to things that would be incredibly hard to suggest in film.

 

  Mr Salads said:

:queues up Cyclo on netflix to prepare:

 

I'd be interested to hear what you think of it.

wait until you've finished and you'll probably be convinced that it's unfilmable. and i would agree...i just have this personal wish that either wong kar wai or chan wook park would adapt it. or kiyoshi kurosawa. there are a number of filmmakers who could probably do it justice, it would just take some outside of the box thinking.

  zaphod said:

hmmm, though that clip from cyclo looks pretty good. and that casting for naoko is great.

 

for sure, both of those are probably his most surreal. i just reread norwegian wood and my opinion changed drastically. i loved that book when i read it in college but it has some of his worst writing in it. it's also got some great moments, but what makes murakami interesting is his lapses into the surreal within a mundane setting. i didn't really find that in norwegian wood, and then i felt like it was extremely manipulative as well. although i do like the ending, it's a murakami ending, for sure.

Damn. Yeah, I loved it in college too. Its like my "college book" as homo as that sounds. I guess I mean theres like that one book you read in college where its like "that reminds me of college." That was it for me. I dont know if it would be quite as resonant now. Maybe I will follow your advice and not revisit.

I'm starting House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Somebody wish me good luck!

Good luck but you won't need it - it's not a difficult novel just a (sorry) slightly gimmicky one, and it's not as long as it looks either!

yeah. more annoying than anything. overly wordy as well. I mean, I enjoy elaborate detailed plots etc, but the tangents that guy goes on can be a bit barfy in parts. He claimed he never read Borges, though I think he would have benefited from reading some immensely. Oh and I hate having to turn a book sideways to read it.

I'm certain he read Borges.

Well he claimed he never read him. I personally think it is bs as well, but he would have had a better story on his hands if he acknowledged the true master and learned a few lessons from him.

taken from the Danielewski wiki (granted, it says citation is needed)

"Many critics compare his use of labyrinths and similar themes to that of Jorge Luis Borges.[citation needed] Danielewski claims to never have read any of Borges' work."

Zampano IS Borges if you look at it. If he actually did actually say he never read/studied Borges work...

  thanks robert moses said:

Zampano IS Borges if you look at it.

Yeah, I thought this was a common interpretation.

*slaps danielewski*

None of this is to say it isn't a good novel, of course. It's a really good novel. I have no idea what happened to my copy though - it's either in a box somewhere or someone nicked it. Not read it for a few years now.

  zaphod said:

michael chabon isn't a very good writer. he's not quite as bad as jonathan safran foer, but he's close. that whole wondrous brooklyn school of jewish pseudo magical realism is the most overhyped thing ever.

i enjoyed foers books (maybe not his second one (maybe just everything is illuminated infact)) alot more than chabons yiddish policeman.

"it felt like he had tinnitus of the soul"

made me cringe

Reading Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I first read this novel when I was 13 or so, in school, and was about the only person in my class who actually enjoyed it. Last year, I dove pretty deeply into Huck Finn for a course and fell in love with the characters and setting all over again. I'd been meaning to get back around to Sawyer and I'm glad I have, it's a powerful good novel.

woody guthrie - bound for glory

so far definitely not enjoying it as much 'seeds of man'. do some people really remember their childhood this well? some great chapters (the gang base war) and some forgettable ones (...?). overall enjoying it.

in bad news my library branch closed down so i have to go far to collect books meaning i won't. think i'll just order huge books that last me 6 months

  Iain C said:

Reading Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I first read this novel when I was 13 or so, in school, and was about the only person in my class who actually enjoyed it. Last year, I dove pretty deeply into Huck Finn for a course and fell in love with the characters and setting all over again. I'd been meaning to get back around to Sawyer and I'm glad I have, it's a powerful good novel.

played that book on rockband. awesome fun yo.

and his mind is not for rent duh duh duuuuhhh

When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer

yo yo!

finished 'bound for glory' awhile ago and itching to read more bumming/freight riding type stuff. i've read kerouac and george orwells bum stuff. what else is recommending in this genre? i think i was born to be a bum

currently reading suttree and struggling to get into it. its the flowery mccarthy i don't care for so much so far. its like poetry. i'll keep going though

reread a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. really boring and tedious this time around. dave eggers has a preening sort of look-at-me earnestness that grated on my nerves almost immediately and never went away. the whole section on his time with might magazine was pointless and self indulgent, and the meta aspects of the novel weren't particularly clever or innovative, just annoying and kind of insulting, like he thinks the reader doesn't realize they're reading a book that might not be 100% true or perfectly recollected. weird how opinions can change...i loved this book when i first read it.

Job: A Comedy of Justice - Robert Heinlen

Black Rain - Masuji Ibuse

just finished Murakami's Wind Up Bird Chronicle

now starting Vonnegut's Galapagos

can anyone recommend any John Irving, I read World According To Garp a few months ago and found it a little slow but I'd like to try another of his books

lord of the rings again

  On 7/7/2009 at 4:34 AM, Coalbucket PI said:

now starting Vonnegut's Galapagos

That has to be his most boring work. I've read most of his novels and they're great, but that one I did not enjoy.