Bookity

With Christmas coming up (hey, it's officially December, it's ok to talk about it now) I thought I'd start giving you some gift ideas for your bibliophile friend.

I was given this bracelet for my birthday by my smallest sister- but this is the first time I'm showing it off on the blog.
 

It is available on etsy  and The Literary Gift Company. It designed by Bookity, who makes handmade jewellery from damaged books.

My particular bracelet is made from Kafka of The Shore by Haruki  Murakami. I'm a big fan of his work, read my reviews of The Underground  and  Tsukuri Tasaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. There are plenty of other authors to choose from including Tolkien, Austen and Agatha Christie.  

The bracelet feels tactile, the inside is smooth. The only downside is, that the clasp is non-adjustable.  

P.s Happy Birthday to my big sister!

Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuri Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

I haven't read all of Murkami's books, but he is one of my favourite authors, Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are my top picks of his novels.

Colorless Tsukuri Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is Murkarmi's latest offering, when it was published in Japan it sold a million copies in it's first week, and it has been similarly successful over here. There is always a lot of expectation when Murkarmi publishes a new book, and it can be difficult to life up to the hype.

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The Plot: At high school Tsukuru Tazaki was part of a close friendship group of 3 boys and 2 girls. Apart from Tazaki, the other friends, coincidently, all had colours in their names, Akamatsu 'red pine', Oumi 'blue sea', Shirane 'white root' and Kurono 'black field'. Together they formed a harmonious group, with each member having a special interest or talent that complemented and balanced the others. One day, without any explanation or prior warning, the four colourful friends annoudnced they no longer wanted to speak to Tazaki ever again. Since that time Tazaki has struggled to form meaningful connections with other people, until he meets Sara, who encourages him to contact his former friends and discover why they abruptly dumped him.

Rating: (3.5/5)
Full review under the cut:-

Haruki Murakami, Underground

Carrying on my recent Murakami kick, I've recently finished reading Underground. Different from the majority of his other work, Underground is a non-fiction book of investigative journalism into the 1995 Tokyo subway attack.  

Although I have heard of the attack before, I'm a little to young to remember any of the details, so the subject of this book was new to me. For those of you who don't know, the 1995 attack occurred when members of the Aum Shrinikyo cult released sarin gas on five subway trains. Thirteen people dies, fifty were severely injured and thousands more suffered ill-effects.

Rating: «««¶¶ (3/5)

For my full review, see after the jump:-

why I love Haruki Murakami

Whilst having a peruse around Amazon, (even though I'm on a self-imposed book buying ban) I found out that one of my favourite authors Haruki Murakami will be publishing a new book this summer, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Which got me thinking about why I like Murakami so much. 

Fun fact for you- aside from some giant electronics manual, the most stolen books when I worked at Waterstones was Haruki Murakami's. Regularly I would go to put out the delivery and there would be a gap on the bookshelf where Murakami's books should be.

source

 Most of Murakami's novels, apart from Norwegian Wood, are really surreal; talking cats, astral projection, shifts in time and rainstorms of fish are not out of place in Murakami's work as he blends together the ordinary with the fantastical. You'll either love it, or hate it (or attempt to steal it from Waterstones).

Murakami's style is instantly recognisable, he is experimental without being indecipherable. The alternate realities and characters he creates are unique and unsettling. Murakami is the master of the uncanny and incredibly quotable.

If you're new to Haruki Murakami I suggest you start of gently with Norwegian Wood, as it is the most normal of his novels. It is a story about love, mental health and music. Give it a go first to see if you like if writing style. Then increase the weird and move on to 1Q84, which includes cults, mystic beings and a female assassin.

My favourite Murakami is possibly The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, a truly strange book about a missing cat.

reading

"If you only read the book that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking"

- Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood 

Pretty Book Covers

I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover and all that jazz. However, one of the advantages of still buying paperbacks and hardbacks, apposed to ebooks, is that they look pretty and make you appear smarter.

Plus it is a lot easier to pass judgement on someones reading tastes if you can see their bookshelf- I'm looking at you, owners of proudly displayed 50 Shades. Hide your shame.  

After the cut is a picture heavy post of some of my favourite book covers.

If you like these, or if you're interested in wasting a couple of hours staring at books, you should check out the book cover archive. They have a huge selection of well organised book covers for you to appreciate.