Readathon 2016: Books 6-10

6. Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami

Readathon category: A book with more than 600 pages

Murakami, finally 🙂 Kafka makes it to my top 3 of Murakami’s books, together with 1Q84 and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. However it goes in the 3rd place, because I did not like some parts of the story (the sexual ones, not the actual sex-scenes, but the background story, I found it unnecessary).

The book is as usual full of magical moments and at many times I thought again “what a nice idea, how does he come up with stuff like that?”. The characters are interesting, the setup too. What more to say, just read it! (well, if you like Murakami)

And one last thing. I really liked one realistic part of the book: that all the characters of the book did not have a plan for their lives, a job, a career, they were living the NOW. The main character is a 15-year old boy that runs away from home with no plan. Another character leaves his job to follow a weird old man into an adventure. He is probably fired, but he doesn’t care. This is something rare in this stressful western society I live in, where everything we do has the ultimate goal of making our future better. Would you get tomorrow on a plane to Thailand, for an indefinite amount of time, leaving work and studies behind?

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

7. Bird Box, by Josh Malerman

Readathon category: A book with an animal on the title or the cover

Much better than I expected (since it is not a very famous book I think, thanks Jo for suggesting it!). People all over the world suddenly become violent and kill themselves. It must have been something they saw. The only solution is to cover all windows and never look outside.

This book makes you realize how important vision is and how for granted we take it. The story unraveled in a very good way, keeps you interested (I didn’t get bored at any point, maybe a little in the beginning). I totally recommend it!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

8. The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker

Readathon category: A book by an author that has written less than 3 books

I wanted to put this book in the “post-apocalyptic” category of the readathon. The story is that the earth starts revolving slower and slower. The days and nights grow bigger, more than 24 hours are needed between sunrises.

But after reading it, it felt much more like a Young Adult book (if you can call it YA when the main character is 11 – that is why I chose this dress) than post-apocalyptic, especially after reading Bird Box. The book focuses on how rich Californians dealt with this change, on a family and school-friendship level. So if you want to read a story about a young girl, it is a very good book, I really enjoyed it. If you want something post-apocalyptic, better read something else (look above 🙂 ).

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

 

9. Utsubora-The Story of a Novelist, by Asumiko Nakamura

Readathon category: A book where the main character is an author

This is a manga book. The main story is not very original (an author that has stolen the story of someone else) and there are many sex scenes. It was good, although I would prefer it to be more “clear” and not leave things for you to decide. Also there were many characters and given that the space is small (many pages, but small story, since there are drawings), I would prefer if she focused on the main characters and removed the niece and the editor story. I read it while I had a headache, so I did not enjoyed it much, I should have read something less abstract that day 🙂

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

10. In The Miso Soup, by Ryu Murakami

Readathon category: A horror book

I tried to dress like a japanese teenager here 🙂

The main character of the book is a tour guide that shows the sex scene of Tokyo to foreigners. I learned a lot about the many different kind of sex clubs, nothing too extreme, the opposite I would say. There are for example some kind of karaoke places, where women can drink and do karaoke for free while men pay to enter and can ask the women for a drink. Which I believe is more disturbing than actual strip clubs…

Anyway, the book! Apart from offering a very good insight in the real life of Tokyo, there is also the horror! In the biggest part of the book there is a kind of underlying horror that appears once in a while, as the tour guide suspects that his american client is a murderer. And then towards the end, it becomes more.

I also like Ryu Murakami’s opinions about life and murder and what is right and wrong. If someone is a killer, does that mean you have to turn him to the police? Can you be friends with a psychopath?

I really liked it, but I am a japan-addict, so of course I would have liked it!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐