[quote="rockman240"]I bought a Kindle and subsequently went on a book-pirating spree. I got Murakami's complete works among other things. Just finished Sputnik Sweetheart. Which one should I read next?[/quote]

Well, what of his have you already read? My personal favorites are Kafka on the Shore and After Dark, although his entire catalogue is pretty much amazing.

I've got like 40 books on my Kindle- and I haven't paid for any of them, save for one. They're all works of classic literature, long in the public domain. Of course, I've only read like ten so far...
The Kindle is great, though. It saves a lot of space and money for those of us who read a lot. And the battery life is great too.

I've only read Sputnik Sweetheart. It really took me for a ride like no literature has before. I'll probably check out After Dark next.

Which Kindle model did you get?

Finished Catcher in the Eye.
SUGGESTIONS PLZ

[quote="rockman240"]I've only read Sputnik Sweetheart. It really took me for a ride like no literature has before. I'll probably check out After Dark next.

What Kindle model did you get?[/quote]

I bought the 6" wi-fi model with special offers. It was only 115 bucks- an awesome deal.

After Dark was the first of his I read. It got me hooked.

[quote="[Mr. Lostman]"]Finished Catcher in the Eye.
SUGGESTIONS PLZ[/quote]

What sort of book do you want to read? Any style or genre you want suggestions for in particular, or just any old good book?

[quote="[Mr. Lostman]"]Finished Catcher in the Eye.[/quote]
What'd you think about it?

[quote]SUGGESTIONS PLZ[/quote]

What kind of book do you want to read?

More Salinger? I'd go with Franny and Zooey--pretty much anything he wrote in first-person. The stuff in third person is kinda meh imo. If you want to read more classic literature, I highly recommend Catch-22. It was a very entertaining read throughout (you just have to manage to get your mind around the fragmented nature of the book though)

My two favorite Murakami books are Hard-Boiled Wonderland (which I think is one of the most genius things I've ever read) and South Of The Border, West Of The Sun (my favorite of his straightforward love stories.)

I loved it. One of the only I've read with a satisfying ending.
I'm just looking for any old book. I've been meaning to check out Catch 22.

[quote="[Mr. Lostman]"]I loved it. One of the only I've read with a satisfying ending.
I'm just looking for any old book. I've been meaning to check out Catch 22.[/quote]

Check out something by Haruki Murakami like others in this thread are doing. He's pretty cool. Also, has anybody read anything by Ryu Murakami? I finished 'Almost Transparent Blue' the other day. It was good.

[quote="rockman240"]I've only read Sputnik Sweetheart. It really took me for a ride like no literature has before. I'll probably check out After Dark next.[/quote]

Oh man. Just wait til you get to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore, or even Norwegian Wood. The former two really took a huge chunk out of my life; I've probably spent a full year's worth of time reading and re-reading Wind-Up.

Speaking of which, I'm pretty hype for 1Q84, which is due out in English on 10/25. Tried reading it in Japanese, but it took me a week to get through the first chapter, not to mention several holes burnt in both my dictionaries.

[quote="Lesser_Hamster"]Also, has anybody read anything by Ryu Murakami? I finished 'Almost Transparent Blue' the other day. It was good [/quote]

That's the only one I read all the way through, and I wasn't particularly moved by it though I also don't remember much about it. I got about two paragraphs into Coin Locker Babies and immediately put it down. IIRC, the opening page describes a woman sucking off a fetus or something. nope.jpg

[quote="discovolante"]
That's the only one I read all the way through, and I wasn't particularly moved by it though I also don't remember much about it. I got about two paragraphs into Coin Locker Babies and immediately put it down. IIRC, the opening page describes a woman sucking off a fetus or something. nope.jpg[/quote]

Yeah, the opening's infamous. Honestly though, I found Coin Locker Babies to be freaking genius. I couldn't put it down. Probably my favorite of his, although his short novel "69" is also up there. Almost Transparent Blue was a bit hard to read at times, since Murakami was experimental with his prose. It was pretty intense, though. Kind of scary too, when you realize it was at least partially autobiographical.

[quote="discovolante"]Speaking of which, I'm pretty hype for 1Q84, which is due out in English on 10/25. Tried reading it in Japanese, but it took me a week to get through the first chapter, not to mention several holes burnt in both my dictionaries.[/quote]

I'm really excited, too. I think there was a chapter published in the New Yorker, but I'm going to wait until I have the whole novel in my hands.

Sunny Side Down by Lev Yilmaz.



It's little more than a collection of comics and drawings, so it was light reading with slightly heavy subject matter.



I really dig the lack of "It gets better" horseshit. Your life blows, so does everyone else's, you're destined to live in futility and die in vain and there's nothing you could have done to correct that. It's also a good view of isolation without the author feeling the need to play the victim.

I feel unhappy and content simultaneously.

Life only gets better with a combination of luck and figuring out what actually makes you happy, then pursuing it.

I've been reading Kazuo Ichiguro's [i]Never Let Me Go[/i] for about a week. I saw the film first, and then decided to read the novel. It's a dystopian novel set in England during the late 20th century. Really brooding stuff, without being overbearing or excessive by the "dystopian" aspect. The characters and settings take tons of relevance over the "fucked up" part of society's state in the novel. I've been completely engrossed, but there's a slight tragic feeling that comes forth every once in a while. Maybe it's because I've already seen the film, but it's a really warm, personal feel to it all. I love the way Ichiguro narrates the story.