Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
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Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
#2This is an interesting read. Thanks for sharing it.
Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
#3This is an interesting read. Thanks for sharing it.
It reads like Chekhov's short stories: kind of dreamy and full of epiphanies.
Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
#4If you've not read any of Murakami's fiction and are interested, check out "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World". I think most HN readers would enjoy it.
Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
#5If you've not read any of Murakami's fiction and are interested, check out "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World". I think most HN readers would enjoy it.
I haven't read that particular one, but probably have it in a bookshelf somewhere. My wife is a big Murakami fan and I've read almost all of them. I will make that the next one on my fiction reading list, thanks!
I particularly enjoyed A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance, whereas my wife loves Kafka on the Shore (which I didn't like). Funny that...
Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
#6This epiphany he writes about sounds almost religious in nature. Did he really not consider writing before that? Does his memory fail him, is this a memory construct that makes for a good story but doesn’t hint at what really happened? I’ve never experienced anything like this myself.
I often tell people, when asked about why I do what I do, that I knew I wanted to be a software developer at the age of 10. But it wasn’t a sudden realisation. It came to me after getting an Amiga 500, playing games and then realising I could make my own games. I vividly remember a summer trip to my aunt’s place in Norway where I brought a book on BASIC and devoured a tutorial on how to make a hotel booking system. I was utterly enthralled and thought “maybe one day I can make hotel booking systems for a living”. From then on there was little doubt I would do this.
Except of course when I turned 13 and got into playing rock music on my guitar. I spent the next 7 years feeling lost, because I really wanted to be a musician but the career opportunities seemed unfeasible. It wasn’t until after a brief stint as a data entry clerk in the UK that I came to the conclusion that I needed to get my shit together and go to uni. So I studied Computer Science and here I am at the ripe age of 35 with 10 years of software development experience, thinking I always knew I wanted to do this. But I didn’t, and writing this made me realise that.
Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
#7If you've not read any of Murakami's fiction and are interested, check out "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World". I think most HN readers would enjoy it.
I haven't read that particular one, but probably have it in a bookshelf somewhere. My wife is a big Murakami fan and I've read almost all of them. I will make that the next one on my fiction reading list, thanks! I particularly enjoyed A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance, whereas my wife loves Kafka on the Shore (which I didn't like). Funny that...
Also, I finished 1Q84 recently. It took me 3 years, mainly because it was pretty dull and I read other stuff at the same time.
Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
#8If you've not read any of Murakami's fiction and are interested, check out "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World". I think most HN readers would enjoy it.
That's my favorite for sure, Wild Sheep Chase and short stories would be my next reccomendation.
Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
#9Among my group of friends, I've found that everyone's favorite Murakami book is always the first or second they read. After you read a couple, they all start sounding the same. Another angsty young man searches for a girl with serious emotional issues, and there's some metaphor heavy dream sequences and talking animals along the way. I haven't read his recent books but I've read five books of his and it was really tiresome, repetitive reading after book 2-3.
Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
#10Among my group of friends, I've found that everyone's favorite Murakami book is always the first or second they read. After you read a couple, they all start sounding the same. Another angsty young man searches for a girl with serious emotional issues, and there's some metaphor heavy dream sequences and talking animals along the way. I haven't read his recent books but I've read five books of his and it was really ti…
That's a very astute observation. I read Norwegian Wood first, but that is so different from most his other works and I didn't love it. I don't remember which one I read after that, but I got hooked around the 2nd or the 3rd.
Common themes: a guy, living on his own (or with an often absent girlfriend), cooking simple dishes while drinking beer after working out. He has an ear fetish. There is a cat somewhere. Some magic realism and lots metaphors.