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| Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge 2011 |
While I actually haven't reviewed any of his books on this site, my favorite author is Haruki Murakami. How much do I like this author? I've read all of his books which are currently available in English. Some of them are easily among my all-time favorite books. Murakami has won the Franz Kafka Award and seems to always be in the rumor mill for the Nobel Prize for Literature (so much that he probably will not be awarded it.)
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| Haruki Murakami |
I'm going to be participating in this challange as much as I can. When part one of Murakami's newest novel, 1Q84, is released later this year, I'll be definitely participating. I'm hoping to reread some of my favorites as well, especially the short stories.
If you're thinking of participating and want some recommendations, please feel free to contact me. Some of my favorites:
Norwegian Wood
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
After Dark
Underground
On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning (short story included in The Elephant Vanishes)
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6 comments:
Yeahm, Murakami's double-hosed on the Nobel front because he's 1) way too popular and 2) not European. Seriously, only three non-Europeans have won the lit Nobel since 1995 (and one of those is a Chinese exile currently living in France).
Agreed, Lauren. Especially in light of the comments of a few years ago where one of the voters said that the center of literature is still in Europe.
Instead of picking authors who are popular and good they pick authors who no one has EVER heard of and who are European. I like how they do give boosts to some authors who otherwise I may never have heard of, but it would be nice if they picked authors I may have heard of once in a while!!!
Of the list of Laureates on wikipedia, I've read 22. I'm not familiar with many of the rest. I'm sure that's due in large part to being from the USA; our lit classes are slanted towards our own literature and that of Britain and Canada, with some French, German, and occasional Latin American thrown in. I'm not sure how much American lit gets read on that side of the Atlantic.
At the same time, though, the world doesn't revolve around Europe! It seems sort of silly to set the Prizes up as some big international competition when European writers win the lion's share of the awards.
Not having had many literature courses, I've read two of the winners (Solzhenitsyn and Golding) and have tried reading another (Sienkiewicz). I've probably heard of 15 authors (give or take a few), but a lot of them (even current ones) I'm completely unfamiliar with even their names.
You know I love Murakami. I will definitely be reading one book by him this year. I have Sputnik Sweetheart in my shelf right now so that one will probably be it.
@Tamara: Let me know how you like that one. I read it a long while ago.
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