What are you reading?

Originally Posted by Bernard Black

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami - It was enjoyable to read, the third book moreso than the others, but I felt it came together too quickly and too neat at the end, and it took a while to get where it needed to be.

I hated 1Q84. Too long, too much attempts at exposure and character development that led to nothing and an unsatisfying and predictable ending (which is the worst thing you can expect from a Murakami book) are to me proof that he overstepped all the things that made his book unique. It was just too much, it could have done with a lot less pages, the second book is almost all filler, and it just felt too boring. I have his new book, but am hesitating to start it. I am grateful though that it is only one volume this time around, with the exception of Kafka on the Shore I find that his stories work best in shorter form.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

The third book was written only after the first two had been out for some time already, imagine that it had ended at the end of book two. Just like with the Mockingbird Chronicles, you can sense the difference in style and storytelling, and it is for the better. It always felt like he had started writing a story but could not quite figure out how to end it.

Kafka on the Shore was brilliant in my opinion. It was the first Murakami novel that I read, so that may have had some influence but the pacing, the characters, the amount of actual events made this a thrilling read. A lot of people generally complain about the lack of a real resolution or an answer to all questions, but I simply loved it and thought that there was little need for a satisfying resolution. I do have high hopes for Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, but it will have to wait as I just started Tale of the Genji. I read excerpts before in class but could never muster up the time to work my way through the entire works.

I have just finished The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell. It took me weeks to get through the first 150-200 pages where it seemed like nothing was really happening or going on, but it was a great read later on when the focus became broader to include other characters.

There's nowhere I can't reach.