Klaus wrote:

Ah! Well, let me know what you think about. It might be a little difficult to get into unless you're familiar with his style, but you really should read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle too regardless. It's a stunning book.

Back into reading after a bit of a hiatus.

Sorry to reply to an 8 year old post, but after wrapping up, and loving, The Savage Detectives a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would explore some Murakami, and chose The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Almost half way through and loving every minute of it so far. Can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is 10/10 for me. Incredible book.

Slowly getting through 1984. A good read but my word is the excerpt from ‘the book’ and drag or what? It’s mostly drivel too.

goon wrote:

Slowly getting through 1984. A good read but my word is the excerpt from ‘the book’ and drag or what? It’s mostly drivel too.

Nice, I found it so rich, and so playful, bold in its depiction of its dreaded dystopia. Orwell is quite amazing.

I haven't read it for a number years but wonder how many words in that book are no longer part of contemporary english vernacular/or writing bank. I would love to read again, and I got my dad a copy of Snowden's Permanent Record for Fathers Day. Two different things but could be enjoyable to read in sequence.

The language actually feels pretty contemporary for the most part, which surprised me. I had more trouble coming to terms with The Road despite it being written in 2006!

Huxley's Brave New World is a good companion piece to 1984 if you haven't already read it, goon. They're similar on surface level but have two very different viewpoints when you get down to it. I always preferred Huxley's book personally, it just seemed to have more in common with the world we live in now. Orwell was concerned that the truth would become suppressed and censored, whereas Huxley was worried that the truth would become irrelevant. Orwell worried about books and records being banned while Huxley worried that there would be no need to ban them since no one would want to pick up and read them anyway. 1984 is about how the things we fear and hate will destroy us. Brave New World is about how our lusts will be the end of us.

Different shades, but there are some nuances in the latter book that feel surprisingly relevant, especially how people are born into predetermined roles where the whole purpose of their existence is to maintain a functional society. Society is not something that exists to better people's lives; on the contrary, the purpose of people's lives is to optimise the economy, and no one's really sure why, so in-between they take lots of drugs and have plenty of emotionally detached sex and reduce every human experience to a pleasing chemical reaction in the brain.

Bosscielny wrote:

Klaus wrote:

Ah! Well, let me know what you think about. It might be a little difficult to get into unless you're familiar with his style, but you really should read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle too regardless. It's a stunning book.

Back into reading after a bit of a hiatus.

Sorry to reply to an 8 year old post, but after wrapping up, and loving, The Savage Detectives a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would explore some Murakami, and chose The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Almost half way through and loving every minute of it so far. Can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

Did you like the rest of the book? I reread it last month and it was as good as I remembered it. Definitely feels like Murakami's masterpiece.

I'm about 200 pages through Les Miserables right now. It's depressing as fuck, but utterly captivating.

This is a messed up forum. Why would you guys read such downer books in these times?!

I read OBLOMOV by Ivan Goncharov while I was off hiking. It was pretty cynical, hilarious and charming, I'd recommend it. Not quite Gogol but probably the closest thing I've read to DEAD SOULS, but with a gentler touch. For a while I found the protagonist relatable, but even I don't hit those heights of laziness.

Les Miserables is a great book. I actually love the almost 100 page detour he takes to describe the battle of Waterloo. I love those epic novels of the 9th century. Bleak House and The Count of Monte Cristo are also favourites of mine.

I haven't read Wind Up Bird Chronicle - must give it a go. I loved Kafka on the Shore, but wasn't a big fan of Norwegian Wood or IQ84.

I'm reading Magician by Raymond E Feist at the moment. About halfway through. It's entertaining. The Tsurani are obviously based on a Samurai Japanese type of society, so it will be curious to see if he gives them much depth.

WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE is my favourite of the Murakamis I've read, followed by HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND. Really like both but as I read more of his books I found them a bit repetitious and self-indulgent.

From memory MAGICIAN, which I loved as a kid, was based on a Dungeons and Dragons game Feist ran with his mates, so the Tsurani (who also appear in a separate trilogy co-written with Janny Wurts) were probably influenced by the sort of philo-Orientalist cultural caricatures of things like the ORIENTAL ADVENTURES D&D sourcebook (which I also had as a kid :p).

Burnwinter wrote:

WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE is my favourite of the Murakamis I've read, followed by HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND. Really like both but as I read more of his books I found them a bit repetitious and self-indulgent.

Probably a lot of truth in that. I love Hard-Boiled Wonderland too. The encyclopedia engraved on a toothpick is a pretty genius thought experiment. I like Murakami when he's in that mood.

Totally.

It's worth reading HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND and then watching HAIBANE RENMEI, the very differently flavoured anime that's nevertheless somewhat inspired by its surreal world-building, and also very cool in its unique way.

Asterix wrote:

I'm reading Magician by Raymond E Feist at the moment. About halfway through. It's entertaining. The Tsurani are obviously based on a Samurai Japanese type of society, so it will be curious to see if he gives them much depth.

Loved that book when I read it as a teenager. 

I'm currently reading a book called Out of the Forest, which is a biography about an Australian academic who experienced all kinds of trauma as a young bloke and ended up escaping to live alone in a forest for 10 years or so. It's a pretty engaging read.

Oh yeah I've heard about that - I'll add it to my list.

It's an interesting story more than it is a great book if that makes sense. There was also an episode of Australian Story about the guy (which was how I came across it) which is also worth a look if you can still find it. I've just started doing some work for the uni that he teaches at, which was part of why I was interested in reading his book.

Finished reading Bad Blood.

Genuinely reads like a thriller novel but also an insight to the workings of Silicon Valley that often doesn't get the same scrutiny as Wall Street.

Mirth wrote:

Finished reading Bad Blood.

Genuinely reads like a thriller novel but also an insight to the workings of Silicon Valley that often doesn't get the same scrutiny as Wall Street.

It's a scary book. 
But it's actually the same beast as Wall Street. The two are intertwined. When we talk about billionaires and inequality, the new Silicon Valley machine of the last 25 years is an integral part of this. In line with American culture, individuals are given inordinate value in business formation. Businesses are then given much more cash than at any time in history to accelerate their growth to maturity. And various VCs load in due to FOMO and wink-wink dealing to inflate valuations. So you have these overvalued business with highly concentrated ownership by a few founders and early investors - who bank billions. 

Look at the US rich list. So much of that list is coming out Silicon Valley. I think she's fascinating because she stole so much money but also because she's a woman in a man's world. 

Chernobyl by Serhii Plokhy, I'm only a 1/3 of the way through but it gives a excellent context to the political sitation and it's drivers leading up to the event.