I've never failed to enjoy any of his novels, so I don't expect any different with 1Q84.

I love Murakami's books, but I'm not sure if it's Murakami's writing or Jay Rubin's translations that I like so much.

[quote="Aplaca"]I love Murakami's books, but I'm not sure if it's Murakami's writing or Jay Rubin's translations that I like so much.[/quote]Maybe a combination of those?

[quote="Jomei"]I've never failed to enjoy any of his novels, so I don't expect any different with 1Q84.[/quote]
Well, I'd be surprised if you will [i]not[/i] be let down by 1Q84 [u]part 3[/u] I'm three-quartersway through and I didn't enjoy it.
I'm not even that critically about books in general and I also liked/loved most of the books of Murakami, but, this book in relation to Murakami's career is to me, what to you is























































[size=150]OOPARTS[/size]
for the pillows' career

No offense, but I'll judge for myself once I've read it.

Damn I need to get back into reading.

I'm a Murakami fan as well. I finished 'A Wild Sheep Chase' the other day and just picked up 'Sputnik Sweetheart.' My favorite of his so far has been 'After Dark', but it seems that a lot of people didn't like that one too well. I've read 'The Wind-up Bird Chronicle', 'Norwegian Wood', 'Kafka on the Shore' and 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' as well. Can't wait for 1Q84.

Reading some collected Chomsky essays and the Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett.

[quote="Jomei"]Reading some collected Chomsky essays[/quote] Sounds interesting. Chomsky recently (last month) visited Holland. I didn't know about that. Shame I missed it.

[b]The Coldest Winter in Peking[/b] - Hsia Chih-yen

Highly interesting read. It's about the events that were happening within (and at the borders of) China around the death of Mao Zedong. It is also written in the perspective of the tripolar Cold War. The events are showed from different kind of angles.

I'm reading "A Personal Matter" by Kenzaburo Oe. A little more than half way through. I really like it so far.

[quote="squirrelfiend"]I'm reading "A Personal Matter" by Kenzaburo Oe. A little more than half way through. I really like it so far.[/quote]

I love that book. I won't spoil it, but I'll say that the one letdown of the novel is that the ending isn't exactly consistent with the character development.

[quote="Jomei"][quote="squirrelfiend"]I'm reading "A Personal Matter" by Kenzaburo Oe. A little more than half way through. I really like it so far.[/quote]

I love that book. I won't spoil it, but I'll say that the one letdown of the novel is that the ending isn't exactly consistent with the character development.[/quote]

This.

[quote="Jomei"][quote="squirrelfiend"]I'm reading "A Personal Matter" by Kenzaburo Oe. A little more than half way through. I really like it so far.[/quote]

I love that book. I won't spoil it, but I'll say that the one letdown of the novel is that the ending isn't exactly consistent with the character development.[/quote]
I finished it, and I really liked it. I can see where you're coming from, but you have to have known that's where the story was going to end. There's some subtle suggestions that it's going to go the way it does, though I do agree the majority of the book leads in the other direction (typing vaguely as to not spoil anything makes my statement seem very weird)

It's Deus Ex Machina. There's no way a situation like that would end that way in real life.

[quote="squirrelfiend"][quote="Jomei"][quote="squirrelfiend"]I'm reading "A Personal Matter" by Kenzaburo Oe. A little more than half way through. I really like it so far.[/quote]

I love that book. I won't spoil it, but I'll say that the one letdown of the novel is that the ending isn't exactly consistent with the character development.[/quote]
I finished it, and I really liked it. I can see where you're coming from, but you have to have known that's where the story was going to end. There's some subtle suggestions that it's going to go the way it does, though I do agree the majority of the book leads in the other direction (typing vaguely as to not spoil anything makes my statement seem very weird)[/quote]

It ends that way basically because that's what Oe did about his own son. But unlike his own life, I assume, he makes his character such an anti-hero that it's a bit tough to buy that the [i]character[/i] would have gone that way.

But still a fine novel.

The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Not done with it yet, but so far definitely not as good as the first book. Waaay too slow for most of the book, without being intriguing.