Larisa Is Slightly Conf-ewe-sed

First of all, let me just say that I am really liking referring to myself in the 3rd person. Second, I just finished A Wild Sheep Chase and I’m a little lost. Granted, I can get lost in the plot of a Vin Diesel movie, so maybe this isn’t surprising.

I loved, loved, loved the book, so maybe I actually like getting confused. It does keep things interesting. But first, here is my favorite line (because I always have one): “There’s nothing worse than waking up in total darkness. It’s like having to go back and live life all over from the beginning. When I first opened my eyes, it was as if I were living someone else’s life. After an extremely long time, this began to match up with my own life.” Ok, so that was more of a paragraph than a line. Anyhoo…

Ok, so as much as I enjoyed reading the book, I’m at a total loss for what actually happened. I mean, I know there is a sheep that is trying to take over the world and that it enters people’s bodies and in the end it is destroyed. But what does the girl who dies in the beginning have to do with anything? How did the Rat know to send the photograph to the narrator even way before the sheep even entered him? Why does nobody have a name except the cat and the rat? What’s the Moby Dick connection? Maybe this is the type of book that could bear rereading.

What I liked most was his use of description and the quirky existential conversations that random people seemed to have…the kind that real people would never have (unless Japanese people are waaaayyyy different than us gaijins – which is possible.) I am definitely interested in reading more Murakami.

Well, moving on… I think I may read “How to be good” by Nick Hornby, which I just got off bookmooch. Or perhaps I’ll go all feminist on ya (sisterhood is power!!) and read “When god was a woman” by Merlin Stone. We’ll see what mood strikes me in the morning. I am “working from home” tomorrow so that may lend itself to reading/naps on the couch (at lunchtime of course).

Oh, I almost forgot to say fuck and to talk about cute boys. I hereby nominate Ryan Gosling for an unprecedented Hot Guy of the MONTH. Or at least week… we’ll see if anyone else strikes my fancy before then.  Ok, over and out and a shout out to Samara in sunny San Diego! Whoo hoo… Say hi to the seals for me.

Sheep Thrills

So I’m a huge fan of Murakami.  I’ve never read anything by him that I didn’t really like.  That being said, this was not my favorite book of his.  I mean, it was a good read, it was diverting, but it doesn’t rank among my all time favorites, like The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark or Kafka on the Shore.  For some reason, the different elements of the story just didn’t come together for me at the end.  I won’t give away the plot, since this is on Larisa’s list (not that that means she’ll read it, with her list-busting shenanigans and all….)

Still a lesser favorite Murakami is still better than most  books out there on a good day, so I’m still glad I read it.

So now I anxiously await L’s take on it….

Samara’s Weekly Reading Update: Good things come in threes?

Generally I like to read 2 or 3 books at once.  Well, not all at once, but you know, switch between several as I read.  So I’ve started 3 on my list and below is a summary of my impressions thus far:

1.  In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan:  when I first started reading this and he started going off about the ‘lipid hypothesis’, I was like, Oh, boy – major snooze-fest.  But since it’s on my list, I didn’t immediately post it on Swaptree – I plowed on.  And it’s gotten much more interesting.   The section I’m reading now is about the so-called ‘Western diet’ – its origins and why it’s not good for people, even Westerners.  I believe the last section of the book which I’m close to approaching, has his recommendations about what one should eat, and I think that should be interesting too.  I’m about halfway done.

2.  Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard:  again when I first started this, I was a tad skeptical.  My first thought was, This is just like the movie – I’m not going to get anything out of this at all. But again, I soldiered on, and it’s actually gotten better too.  The movie always struck me as painting a little too rosy picture of life in Japanese-occupied China during World War II.  I mean, Rape of Nanking, anyone?  But the book seems quite a bit darker.  Which suits me just fine.

3.  So after the slow starts to these 2 above-mentioned books, I just had to go for something that I had no doubt would be good.  So I reached for A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami, an author whose imagination and wit never let me down.  (If only I knew Japanese and didn’t have to read in translation – I can only imagine how much more amazing his works could be.)  So he hasn’t disappointed.  I haven’t gotten too far in this, but I know it’ll be pretty awesome.  This is on Larisa’s list too, so I won’t go into the plot or anything, so I don’t ruin it for her.

So I’m planning to be done with one of these in the coming week.  At that time, I’ll post again.

Samara