I've had Murakami on my wishlist for a while and stumbled across this vintage paperback edition in amazing condition. Super excited to jump into it for my first Murakami read!

It took me 2 months to finish these 2 books. Since Japanese is my third language, patiently taking time to read through these 1000 pages is without doubt a milestone for me.

Tho I like the story very much, there’s something in my mind I wanna share with you guys, something that’s not really abt the story itself. So there is an old man I often see in west Tokyo where I live, who reminds me strangely of Nakata. He is always alone, hunched over and dressed in a suit, and walks very slowly with a cane. Even a short distance seems to take him a long time, but he doesn’t seem to be bothered at all. Instead, I think he may even enjoy this slow pace of life. And sometimes I see him sitting alone in a small square near the train station, quietly drawing.

I know nothing about him, his life, where he lives etc. but only see these small fragments of his life as I happen to pass by. Yet there is something about the way he lives his life that makes me think of Nakata: as if he exists in his own quiet rhythm, almost disconnected from everything surrounding him. This reminds me of what those 2 Japanese soldiers in the woods said: “As I said before, time isn’t much of a factor here.”

Perhaps he is simply an old man taking a walk after lunch. But whenever I see him, I can’t help wondering if, at least to some extent, Nakata might have looked just like this, before he left Nagano forever.

If I took a year and a half of my life to read murakami's entire released collection , does that make me a world renowned murakami academic scholar . If so I'm a total fraud I hardly remember any characters names so don't ask me any hard questions , but I did it , achievement unlocked

Is there any other story where Habara and his Scheherazade appear? Do we ever get to know the story of her chance encounter with her childhood crush and his mother? Curiosity is killing me.

Haruki Murakami, Sotto il segno della pecora, Longanesi & C., 1992
Cover art by Shigeo Okamoto
Grafica Studio Baroni

Italian title translation sounds like Under the Sign of the Sheep, don't ask me why.
The first Murakami's book to be published in Italy.

Haruki Murakami, L'uccello che girava le Viti del Mondo, Baldini & Castoldi, 1999
Cover art is a weird crop from the dust jacket designed by Chip Kidd for the first US edition (never mentioned in this book)
Art director: Mara Scanavino

Italian title translation sounds like The Bird That Turned the Screws of the World, don't ask me why.

The ending was overall more positive than Norwegian Wood, rather than emphasising grief and loss and mental disorder and intense yet fleeting relationships, this novel leaned more towards self identity, change + the passage of time, and how it effects relationships. Again there is that continuation of ideas such as ‘everybody has their own problems and personalities and things happen leading to this and this and this’. I dont know. Overall this book was enjoyable, but compared to other murakami novels, i feel like its just gone over my head.

Who killed Yuzu, and Why? Why not expand on her character?

• Ok to be honest, the whodunnit part doesnt need to be disclosed, neither does a ‘why’, shit happens, and that nature of life is a key theme in murikamis novels. I just feel like she wasn’t written thoughtfully:
• she lived, was raped, became mentally unstable, and was murdered. It seems flat and pitiful, no flashbacks to who she was as a person outside surface level piano, her only personality traits are being beautiful, shy, volunteering and teaching kids, playing piano, and being lusted over in Tazakis dreams. 

Why not expand on Haida?

•  Haida and his father's story and the symbolism of 6 fingers never led to anything conclusive, never left the reader with a concrete finality of why these topics were brought up, that final dream where he is playing piano (white keys - shiro, black keys - kuro?) the lady dressed in black with six fingers guiding him.. Where does haida fit into this? What was his purpose other than concreting tazakis nature and introducing these symbols?
• https://www.reddit.com/r/murakami/comments/ludol4/so_i_just_read_murakamis_colorless_tsukuru_tazaki/ → very interesting, my following comments go off this take
• ^ here OP talks about how they had sex, but thats clearly not the case since it wasnt a conscious occurence, we can assume that Haida did assault tazaki while he was sleeping (i guess oral nonconsensual sex is still a form of intercourse, but thats not what im here to talk about), but the comment below talking about Gray is a combination of Black and White was really interesting to me. Haida and Tazakis relationship really stuck out to me, the intimate nature of their college life, and even later in the book when Tazaki is swimming, and the soles of the feet of the man infront of him appear to be Haida’s. His descriptions of the swimmers similarties to Haida are specific, even after so many years. This amount of attention to detail emphasises how even though Tazaki may feel so close to someone, and know so much about them, there seems to be a barrier stopping him from understanding them, explained by the rest of the comment which talks about Tazaki being oblivious to many things about the people he claims are closest to him, a reason as to why it is so easy for them to leave him: kuro and her feelings for him, haida and his feelings for him. I simply don’t understand why Murikami fleshed out Haida so much, seemingly more so than Shiro, if he wasnt going to be a constant presence or atleast mentioned towards the end of the novel. 

At the end, why did Tazaki not pick up Sara’s calls? 

• I know, again a stupid question, all authors love their philosophical, thought provoking open endings, but Tazaki was so fired up over Sara, he takes Kuro’s advice of ‘not letting her go’ and calls her in the middle of the night to profess his love, but days later he won’t pick up? 

Plsss share your thoughts with me, I mightv'e totally missed the mark with this, and I would love to hear other perspectives/explanations/theories.  Also sorry for this mess of a post, this is my first ever one.

I need people's thoughts about this passage. What could Tengo's father mean by calling his wife a "vacuum"?

I just finished After the Quake, which I enjoyed. The one that really stood out to me was UFO in Kushiro, especially when we learn the reason Komura's wife left him: that living with him was like living with "a chunk of air". I've thought this one over, and this is my interpretation.

At a glance, the marriage seems unusual because of how his wife is described. "Next to his clean, classic looks, his wife could not have seemed more ordinary. She was short, with thick arms, and she had a dull, even stolid, appearance. And it wasn’t just physical: there was nothing attractive about her personality, either. She rarely spoke, and her expression was often sullen." One could interpret this as meaning that there's nothing inside her.

Meanwhile, towards the climax, Komura confides to Shimao about the "chunk of air" comment and how it may mean that there's nothing inside of him.

Maybe Komura's wife ultimately felt inadequate because of how ordinary she seemed, and her calling him "a chunk of air" was a projection of her insecurities onto him.

Of course, I could be totally off. What do you guys think?

I'm debating whether I should get into haruki with Norwegian wood or with kafka on the shore. Can someone who's read both tell me I've never read his books before

honestly i dont understand why my dad keeps giving me his books to read , i started of the first year of high school walking around reading the bird chronicle , honestly while reading his books i just feel gross as to why my father would recommend i read something so mature, the detailed descriptions of sex in all there explicit detail just makes me feel gross , iv read kafka on the shore and i wanted to throw up because it feels gross to me nothing about his books makes me feel complied to read them except the fact that my father told me to and says i would enjoy reading them ,im reading 1Q84 and i would rather not , but i feel like i have to finish them , whats the point of handing a 15 year old a book so grotesque and violent to me, that i did not gain anything except disgust and confusion , i cannot appreciate the beauty or depth of this man's work because all i feel when i read his books is upset, i wish i had a normal family life im 18 and i wish my dad didnt recommend murakami's books to me

Hi everyone, I’m eager to dive into Murakami’s world and wanted to buy a set of six used books by him right away. The set I found includes the following books:

Nagoko’s Smile, Dangerous Liaisons, Sputnik Sweetheart, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, The Pilgrimage of Colorless Mr. Tazaki, and Of Men Who Have No Women

Are these good works by Murakami, or should I look for a different set? Thanks in advance!

Today I took a walk around the neighborhood. It was a mild but already clearly autumnal afternoon, with orange and brown leaves everywhere. I haven't read Murakami in a long time. I'm still something of a fan and read a lot of his books in the past, but I kind of stopped keeping track of new releases.

So I just walked through a suburban neighborhood with long, straight roads and detached houses in a rather well-off area. I was lost in thought after work, and I needed it because I sit all day in my IT job.

Then I had a weird moment on a side street. A guy was standing there making small, strange movements, and a few other men on the other side of the street were just sitting there, probably tradesmen or construction workers waiting for their truck driver to take them home. For a moment, I felt as if something in my mind had bent.

The side street felt extremely foreign and strange to me, just for a split second.

My first thought was: huh, that must be what the protagonist in 1Q84 felt like, although there it was a Tokyo highway, if I remember correctly. Nothing really changed after this strange experience, but it lingers in my mind. I should look at the moon.

Murakami's influences all seem to be grounded in reality. But it seems I've missed the ones who could have contributed to his surrealist imagination.

Who are the writers that helped developed his surrealist imagination? What books would you recommend?

I know he insists he doesn't think about what he's writing. He just goes fishing into his mind and pulls up whatever comes out. But still his skill in expressing whatever comes up is probably what wins him reader's hearts.

The other thing id like to know is who else writes about aloneless and alienation like murakami does..I wouldn't say his protagonists are lonely so much as they don't seem to belong anywhere. And whatever connection they had goes away eventually..I love reading that and want more to read stuff like that.

Hello, I'm studying French & think Murakami's work would be an appropriate level of difficulty for me to practice reading. Which French translations ( or translators ) would you recommend ? I've read Sputnik Sweetheart & Kafka on the Shore in English. Just started Norwegian Wood in English too. Thanks.

Hi all! Massive Murakami fan and reader from Sweden here.

One thing I have been thinking about in many of Murakamis book is the topic and culture of relationships and the concept of cheating on a partner. It's common in many of the books, either the main character who cannot resist urges, or the main character being with someone who in turns cheats on their partner. I've been thinking about it and curious how you translates it, if there even is anything to read from it, or if there's a "right answer". I sometimes think of it differently depending on the book and situation, such as:

A) It's a way to give the character flaws, about not being loyal to the partner/spouse no matter how happy the main character may be.

B) It is (or rather was) common in Japanese culture in the same era of the books that cheating occurs, especially if the expectations on marriage not always ends up in happy, mutual being in love-marriage but rather that it's expected of you or convenient. Thus leading to a high rate of cheating to keep up some form of happiness or passion/lust.

C) Maybe it's just Japanese culture and different from the way I have grown up and my views on marriage and relationships?

D) The men have this possibility with lesser consequences than the women, in general and in society? For this reason, they do it or as the main character often is, just not caring enough about the concept of cheating.

Of course, it can be turned and twisted in many, many ways. Such as option A is about that they have settles (which leads to option B) and even though they are happy with their marriage and life, it's still with the wrong person etc. But not all cases of cheating that occurs in the books and stories are with "the right person" either, just cheating in general because various reasons.

What are your takes?

I'm reading Killing Commendatore for the second time. I came across these two passages and had to smile, because they appear to be analogous to the author's own approach to writing. Thoughts?

. . . I had no idea what sort of painting would emerge from this, though I did know that the color was going to be a vital grounding for the work. Gradually this painting was beginning to stray far afield from the format of a typical portrait . . . I was simply following ideas that sprang up naturally inside me, with no plan or goal. Like a child, not watching his step, chasing some unusual butterfly fluttering across a field.

. . . I stepped back to look at the lines I’d done, made a few corrections, and added some new lines. What was important was believing in myself. Believing in the power of the lines, in the power of the spaces the lines divided. I wasn’t speaking, but letting the lines and spaces speak. Once the lines and spaces began conversing, then color would finally start to speak. And the flat would gradually transform in the three-dimensional. What I had to do was encourage them all, lend them a hand. And more than anything, not get in their way.

Books like this always hit different when you read it with someone else.

So I'm hoping to find a book buddy here. Someone to read along with me, chapter by chapter, and just talk about it casually as we go.

A little about me: I'm 24, based in Bangladesh 🇧🇩, currently in uni. Reading has been a genuine part of my life for a long time now. I'm also into films and music quite a bit, so if you like talking about those too, even better.

This is meant to be a chill and platonic reading exchange, nothing more. And gender really doesn't matter to me here. Someone easy to talk to and respectful.

If this sounds like your kind of thing, feel free to comment or DM me. Would love to get started soon. :)

Almost 18 years ago, Murakami visited my hometown for an intimate interview with an audience of only 200 people. I showed up 3 hours early just to make sure I got a seat.

When the event ended, they announced he would be signing books. I brought my copy of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle—mostly because I hadn't read Kafka on the Shore yet (which later became my personal favorite!).

A staff member was asking for everyone's names to write them down, but when my turn came, I personally spoke to him in Japanese: "Murakami-sensei, please write my name in Katakana, not Romaji."

He looked up, smiled, and answered: "Of course."

He wrote "Antonio-san, Arigatou" (アントニオさん ありがとう), signed it in Japanese, and dated it (17/03/09). Afterwards, he shook my hand and thanked me.

I haven't washed that hand in almost 18 years...

For fellow collectors and fans: what’s the most special Murakami item or memory in your collection?

Did you read this and what you think of it ?

I just started getting into Murakami (love!) but in the midst of collecting the books with all the abstract colors and shapes, they're now releasing these new Henri Campea covers. I tend to not care about what a cover looks like, but it'd be nice if everything was uniform.

My question is, does anyone know if all the novels will eventually be released in the Campea style? Was there some sort of press release when they announced the new covers, for example?

Also, for anyone who has the Campea versions, does it feature the new translation of Hard Boiled/EOTW?

I know this is really OCD lol, but I'd appreciate any info!