
I‘ve been rearranging rooms in my house and purging stuff. I created a little reading nook and it makes my heart happy when I walk into the family room. I have not read a single book on this bookshelf 😂
I‘ve been rearranging rooms in my house and purging stuff. I created a little reading nook and it makes my heart happy when I walk into the family room. I have not read a single book on this bookshelf 😂
Dystopian feel, with pared down prose and a lot mystery. Eventually we figure out we're in some future with a much smaller population of humanity. And we're within an unnatural system where no one seems to understand the controls. [The Giver] was always on my mind. This is is a bit of a puzzle to put together.
I liked it. I liked the pared down prose and curiosity build-up.
#booker #IB2025 No. 3
I also read a bit of this today, but due to a small but persistent headache, I didn't get much reading done.
So far, I am not the biggest fan of some wording choices and the general feel of the translation.
It pains me to say it but I couldn‘t finish this one. I love Murakami & have read all of his books (& loved most). This was too abstract & vague for me. It seemed directionless (more than usual), I didn‘t care about the characters as they seemed so bland & the fantasy elements of the nameless town left me cold. Often Murakami can make a scene where not much happens really gripping & the supernatural believable, but this was too floaty for me.
I really liked this book; it reminded me of science fiction in the style of Ishiguro‘s books. It‘s a clever and powerful statement on human nature and our undying capacity to work against ourselves in the name of self-interest. A line that feels especially poignant right now: “Oh you…dear humans…won‘t you find some way to help one another?” 💔
Happy Saturday! Really enjoying this first read from the Booker International longlist. Lucky for me to have two works of Japanese fiction on the list this year. 😀
I‘ve been delinquent in updating my finished books here while we were on vacation and then the post-vacation catch up, so apologies in advance for the post dump!
I read this just before I left and it is an odd book of extremely short stories with interconnected characters that become progressively weirder as the book goes on. I don‘t know that I retained much but I definitely enjoyed it while reading.
Omg I loved this book - it‘s beautifully written and the story is real yet unexpected. The AI bird on Fable (I think its name is Scout) recommended it when I searched for translated fiction set in Japan.