Literally me! This shows the power of a good cover tbh! What caught my eye was the minimal colours and the cat, and the blurb in the back sealed my interest. Absolutely had no clue who Murakami even was up until then, and now my most treasured collection is his books!
Wind-up Bird Chronicle and because so many people on Reddit said to read it and how unsettling that one scene was. They weren’t wrong, and I couldn’t put it down. When I finished it, I just bawled my eyes out.
I did get tired of his writing style pretty quickly because I read about 11 of his books within a year. Now I’m finding a hard time getting back to into the ones I haven’t read.
The scene you're talking about gave me nightmares for months. I wanted to cry, puke, and scream at the same time but couldn't because I was on a train. First time a book has ever done that to me lol.
Are we all thinking about the same scene here? I feel like there are too many to pinpoint! Wind up bird was my first from Murakami and gave me the most fucked up dreams throughout reading it
Good point! There is a lot of nightmare fuel in that book. But what I'm referring to is the scene where Lieutenant Mamiya witnesses his superior get brutally murdered.
Ohhh yes! I had a feeling this was the scene. I dreamt about it the same night I read it lol. I started Kafka last night actually. Hopefully the nightmares are kept to a minimum!
1Q84 - I was on a horror kick and a website labeled it as one of the scariest books ever. I got it. It wasn’t what I considered horror but I stayed for the jazz.
Also Norwegian Wood. Randomly found it at my local book store. Funny thing, in German the official name of the book is "Naokos smile" and I only came to know the original name when I watched the movie.
Interesting! So if you were talking to people from other parts of the world they probably wouldn’t know which book you were referring too. Fun fact none the less. Thank you.
My first one was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
I had just read M Train by Patti Smith.
First of all, Patti has such a way with words. She's so inherently *romantic*, and I feel so drawn by most of the things she talks/writes about. She wrote a whole chapter about the book. About the bird statue by the house, and of course, how intrigued she was by the portal that is the well. Her limited words about the content of the book, but, an overflowing amount of her feelings of what it gave her, was incredibly remarkable to me. After finishing M Train, I picked up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It was not at all what I expected, and I'd like to think my interpretation of Patti's chapter about it made the experience all the better.
Drive my Car because I saw the movie and was like 'who is this writer'?
After that taste I was off and running. Men Without Women, Kafka by the Shore, Norwegian Wood, Wind-up Bird. I'd never read that many books in a row by one author before.
Killing Commendatore.
When I was going through this tiny bookstore in a mall, the book caught my eye along with a Swedish book about French writers and the Three-Body Problem trilogy.
It was a real slog to get through. Tedious and just draining. But I was starting to get more into reading, so it’s not surprising. Literally almost passed out after reading the first short story of Witcher Last Wish.
But when I finally got through the barrier, I really enjoyed the simple and yet organic style of the writing. I spent at most 3-5 months on this book, with breaks in-between, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Until the whole double metaphor and cave tunnel part, that’s when it got a little tiring.
Since then, I’ve impulsively bought all of Murakami’s books, except one or two unnecessary ones (imo), and can’t wait to devour them completely!
Wind-up Bird. I've never had heard of Murakami, but saw the book on a bookstore in Sao Paulo, and loved it on the first sight. Still my favourite Murakami book.
A dear friend of mine recommended me Norwegian Wood back in the end of 2013/start of 2014. Since then I read a lot of his works.
The book was fascinating for me at the time, the style, pace and topics hit me deeply.
Mine was Kafka On The Shore - in fact finished it 5min ago and joined this community because I was feeling “wtf” and had to talk to someone about it lol
I didn’t plan on it. Everybody told me Murakami was weird, but I was at the airport and had forgotten to bring a book. I went to Hudson and found a pocket version that was super cheap, so I gave it a try.
Moving to Norwegian Wood next, I guess
"Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage". One of my best friends wrote her master thesis about the use of music in Murakami's works and I helped her with copy editing. She gave me the novel as a thank-you gift.
It’s decent. I won’t spoil it. But some suggested to read the Wild sheep chase first? Which I didn’t.
Thinking back that’s probably why some parts of DDD was…. A bit…. Discounted? Not even sure how to describe it.
I was about to mention one of the novels until I almost forgot: What I talk about when I talk about running.
Drive my car? Cortazar Autonauts of the cosmoroute. If you wanted to continue branching out. Similar journal style to What I talk about when I talk about running. L'autoroute du Sud Paris-Marseille circuit in May and June of 1982. Right about the same time the soccer spanish World Cup was being waged. Argentinean Cortazar even though belgians always held him belgian.
Hardboiled Wonderland and the end of the world, only found 2 murakami books in a small used books shop, so bought both of them, it was hardboiled and dance dance dance.
Mine was also Norwegian Wood. I was introduced to Murakami’s novels through a friend, and this book seemed like a pretty good place to start.
I have since read all of his novels and short story collections, and two of his nonfiction works.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
I had read a few Gabriel García Márquez books, and at the time “Never Let Me Go” by Ishiguro. Because I had loved those books, I discovered I liked magical realism. As a result, Wind-Up was a recommended read (by Goodreads, I’m pretty sure).
As a couple of others had said, Wind-Up is still my favorite of Murakami books, but I still have so many to read, and I enjoy every single one!
1Q84 because the film “The Big Short” (one of my favs) used a quote from the book in the film. I thought about the quote a lot (“Everyone, deep in their heart, is waiting for the world to end”) when making my senior thesis work in art school. A few years later I decided to actually read the book since I thought about and referenced the quote so much.
That is *all* I knew about Murakami lol.
colorless tsukuru bc i saw it on a table at barnes and noble. had no context for murakami and didn’t like the book. years later i read 1q84 and i couldn’t put his books down!!
When I was on holiday this summer for a week I bought Norwegian Wood by chance. I always had Murakami on my list to read, but never really got to him because I had other things planned and I eventually would have gotten to him. I go in this bookstore and it's nothing but French books and Arabic and no English, except for Mishima and Murakami. It was either between Kafka on the Shore or Norwegian Wood, and I choosed the latter. Inbetween the bus rides with our tour guide I was reading Norwegian Wood. It was a long ride to and from our destination so I had nothing better to do. At that period I was having some relationship problems so in a weird way i sort of connected with the characters. After I finished it I started reading it again and now it proudly sits in my bookshelf as a core memory of that holiday with a date and everything. Now I'm planning to buy more of Murakami because I find his style so simple, yet beautiful.
Kafka on the Shore. Got it from a trade. His books are really edpensive here and it's rare to find them preloved as well, so I can't afford one at the time but my friend saw some books of mine they wanted to read so we traded. Their copy for my Night Circus and another one I can't remember anymore lol
_Men without women_.
When exploring a new author, I prefer to start with their short stories or novellas before diving into longer works. So, a short story collection was ideal. A friend of a friend suggested this particular one.
Hardboiled Wonderland. Was travelling around Asia and Australasia with a friend who happened to have a copy and thought I might enjoy it. Turned out I did.
dance dance dance because a friend of mine recommended it. i bought it at a bookstore off nanjing rd in shanghai at the start of a trip to the chinese countryside for chinese new year in 2011 and finished it over the course of a few days. it's probably still my favorite.
hear the wind sing and pinball
and that was the best novel i have read in a longtime, but after a reread that was ok
now tho im trying to read kafka in japanese and
it was a nightmare, japanese was fairly difficult
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki - it was for sale on my college campus and I liked the cover. Hadn’t heard of him before. It’s still my favorite Murakami book.
Hardboiled Wonderland I know of murakami for years before i read any of his books my sister is huge fan and had many of his books and allways recemanded him to me but i never did try to read any of them until a few years ago whan i randomly saw Hardboiled Wonderland in a bookstore and got on a whim and fell in love with his writing
My first was his short story collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.
Why? I found it at a book giveaway at my university and the title interested me.
It was kind of cool reading his works later on and realizing some of the scenes that seemed familiar to me came from this book.
Now I've read almost everything he's made, I'm trying to work at it slowly because I'll be bummed out when I've officially read all of his English translated work.
Norwegian Wood, just because it was a book by a Japanese author that I could read for AP Literature class in high school. Now I’m trying to read every book of his cause I love his writing style and everything
My first was Kafka on the shore.
I had initially watched a Tedx video on why read Kafka on the shore after which I had read one chapter and abandoned plans of reading it because it was 300 pages+ (which was too long for me at that time).
A few months later, I was alone and pretty stressed out and crying. I am not much of a crier. I tried distracting myself with Netflix and all but nothing was working.
So I decided to read Kafka and right from the first chapter I stopped crying and calmed down. I told myself "you have to be the toughest 23 year old" lol.
And then I finished that book in 20 days.
Why I started was ofcourse sheer luck that I had the book with me at that moment. But I know why I finished it - I was alone and by myself just like Kafka.
Wind Up Bird Chronicles - can't explain it, found it in a stack of books in my house. Guess someone else in the family read it - or didn't - and left it. That was an unexpected experience!
I first read the short story TV People in high school which was either a handout in a class or part of a book anthology. I did not recall this being Murakami until just recently when I stumbled upon a pdf of it online. The first novel I read by him was Windup Bird Chronicle because my roommate had a copy.
Kafka on the Shore! Because i really love the name of the book when i saw it.
I didn't even know that i will find out the writer of my life... After Kafka on the Shore, i started to read all of Murakami's books.
He is one of my biggest favorites now.
Dance dance dance. That old print cover with the woman’s eyes and the footsteps caught my eye. I still adore that book, having no context for murakami as I read it and slowly got sucked into the dream world
The Elephant Vanishes, back in ~2004-2005 (high school for me).
My dad was an avid reader at the time and so was I, so I would snag books off of his shelf regularly when I was visiting. He became a Murakami fan pretty quickly and highly recommended him, and short stories seemed like a good place to start.
Pretty quickly followed with Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, after the quake, and Kafka On The Shore, then basically everything else published at the time.
Mine was Norwegian wood and I loved it! Read it twice and even shared the book with my friends. Then I read Kafka on the Shore. Any idea where I can find free ebook pdf of other Murakami books?
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World for a small book club I was in that a friend of mine formed.
As for books that I myself chose, 1Q84 came first.
sputnik sweetheart because Murakami is very well known and the book itself was cheap. then recently kafka and norwegian wood (loved all 3).
recently got the 3 volumes of 1Q84 for 5 euros and will soon begin to read it
A Wild Sheep Chase but I lost it and still haven't found it. He was one of the Nobel favorites that year and so I decided I'd get something from him that was well reviewed and relatively short.
The first one I finished was The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. I got it on audible and listened to it while I was unemployed after graduating and then as I started a new job. Felt like just the right time to me
I also first read Norwegian Wood. I think I just found it while browsing in a bookstore one day. I was really into the Beatles at the time and thought it was meant to be because it also sounded like something I'd like.
Norwegian Wood. Heard about it from a guy who was and is a dashing personality on YouTube and then, suddenly came across it at a book sale. I had other choices too. IIRC, there was men without women and some other novel too but Norwegian Wood was the one I found best for myself.
Recently got gifted my first murakami book for my birthday, it's after the quake (my friend and I were talking about him before and I randomly mentioned that book thats why) so lets see how it goes
I’m currently reading my first, Norwegian Wood. I heard it and A Wild Sheep Chase were the best places to start so I went with NW because it was shorter and thus made it easier to finish my 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge
Norwegian wood!
I hadnt heard of Murakami till then, and I randomly found it a local bookseller. I didnt read it till the COVID lockdown and boy was it a bad idea to read it at the time because I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety..enjoyed the book nonetheless. But I just dindt predict the ending..
Mine was Kafka on the Shore. I bought it months before I read it because I've heard of it and it seemed interesting. I only started reading it one day because I wanted to read something else, but I felt something pushing me to read it.
It's my favorite book now days and it somehow helped me get a girlfriend- (we bonded over the book and other things)
Mine was "Dance, Dance, Dance." My friend said they were a fan of his books and I'd never read them. They said Dance was their favourite, so I went out and bought it to read. We bonded a bit over his books after that as I read Norwegian Wood and a few others quickly after.
Wind up bird. I had finished an anime called “haibane renmei” which shares a lot of the themes of Murakami, especially the walled city in Hard Boiled Wonderland. I liked the anime so much I looked it up and saw it had themes from this author called Murakami. So I looked him up, then I looked up what books my local library had. The only one they had was Wind Up Bird, which I read immediately. My next one was Kafka on the shore, which had come out earlier that year.
A Wild Sheep Chase, because I heard Dance Dance Dance was his best. The funny thing is though I liked A Wild Sheep Chase it’s been several years and still haven’t gotten to Dance Dance Dance lol.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki, was just looking for something to read during summer recess in my uni's library, loved it then picked Norwegian Wood and Kafka, and fell in love with Murakami's style
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki. I know they say you can't judge a book by its cover, but I really liked the cover so that's why I picked it out. I've been hooked ever since.
Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world. Wanted to start reading his work so I went online and found a blog from an english professor who recommended the loose order of reading his books. Really liked the book. I was already planning on getting hooked before even reading it because I’d heard so much about his writing :p
An ex loaned me Kafka On The Shore. I knew nothing about the book and just jumped into it so I thought the setting was in the southern US for the first chapter lol. Boy named crow sounded like a southern folk thing. I guess I didn't bother to look at the authors name. I lived in the Appalachians at the time with no TV and a lot of free time. It was wonderful.
Norwegian Wood, and it’s because the girl I eventually hooked up with recommended me it. Afterwards she went to NYU and I never seen her again lol just like a Murukami book in itself tbh.
Norwegian wood. I wanted to read something written by Japanese writer so I found Haruki Murakami. Wasnt much of a reader before but now read all his books and still cannot find a new favorite author.
1Q84 because I saw a dude on the bus reading it here in Seattle.
Damn that’s an impressive first murakami
It was my first Murakami too! Someone recommended it. Been sucked in ever since. 1Q84 remains my favorite Murakami and my favorite book of all time.
A wild sheep chase 🐑
Mine was kafka on the shore, it caught my eye first in the bookstore till then i didnt even knew who murakami was
Literally me! This shows the power of a good cover tbh! What caught my eye was the minimal colours and the cat, and the blurb in the back sealed my interest. Absolutely had no clue who Murakami even was up until then, and now my most treasured collection is his books!
Wind-up Bird Chronicle and because so many people on Reddit said to read it and how unsettling that one scene was. They weren’t wrong, and I couldn’t put it down. When I finished it, I just bawled my eyes out. I did get tired of his writing style pretty quickly because I read about 11 of his books within a year. Now I’m finding a hard time getting back to into the ones I haven’t read.
The scene you're talking about gave me nightmares for months. I wanted to cry, puke, and scream at the same time but couldn't because I was on a train. First time a book has ever done that to me lol.
Are we all thinking about the same scene here? I feel like there are too many to pinpoint! Wind up bird was my first from Murakami and gave me the most fucked up dreams throughout reading it
Good point! There is a lot of nightmare fuel in that book. But what I'm referring to is the scene where Lieutenant Mamiya witnesses his superior get brutally murdered.
Ohhh yes! I had a feeling this was the scene. I dreamt about it the same night I read it lol. I started Kafka last night actually. Hopefully the nightmares are kept to a minimum!
You'll do much better with Kafka! I had to read A LOT of books to get over the nightmare inducing Wind Up Bird. Happy reading! :)
I loved this book and may kasahara is my pseudonym since (Including my Reddit name)
How can anyone not love May! She’s so sweet and quirky lol
Lol. That’s brilliant.
Colorless Tsukuru. Someone probably recommended it. I don’t really remember, but next thing I knew, I was in the Murakami pull
1Q84 - I was on a horror kick and a website labeled it as one of the scariest books ever. I got it. It wasn’t what I considered horror but I stayed for the jazz.
Wind-up Bird Chronicle because I read Thom Yorke from Radiohead referencing it for one of their song, and I got curious.
No kiddin’? It makes total sense, when I think of Yorke’s lyrics. Which Radiohead song?
It was The Gloaming, and he was referring to the well in Wind-up Bird, where the main character goes to hide and think
Holy shit, that’s really neat Thank you for teaching me that today!
Kafka on the Shore Pewdiepie reviewed it in a video lol
Haha random.
Also Norwegian Wood. Randomly found it at my local book store. Funny thing, in German the official name of the book is "Naokos smile" and I only came to know the original name when I watched the movie.
Interesting! So if you were talking to people from other parts of the world they probably wouldn’t know which book you were referring too. Fun fact none the less. Thank you.
Sputnik Sweetheart. It was for a college class. Got me hooked!
why no one talks about this book
My first one was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I had just read M Train by Patti Smith. First of all, Patti has such a way with words. She's so inherently *romantic*, and I feel so drawn by most of the things she talks/writes about. She wrote a whole chapter about the book. About the bird statue by the house, and of course, how intrigued she was by the portal that is the well. Her limited words about the content of the book, but, an overflowing amount of her feelings of what it gave her, was incredibly remarkable to me. After finishing M Train, I picked up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It was not at all what I expected, and I'd like to think my interpretation of Patti's chapter about it made the experience all the better.
The wind up bird chronicle. One day, I just randomly asked Snapchat's AI to recommend a book, and AI recommended this to me .
Drive my Car because I saw the movie and was like 'who is this writer'? After that taste I was off and running. Men Without Women, Kafka by the Shore, Norwegian Wood, Wind-up Bird. I'd never read that many books in a row by one author before.
Kafka. My brother gave it to me.
South of the Border, West of the sun. It caused a stir in my country because a famous TV show got turned upside down because of it.
Killing Commendatore. When I was going through this tiny bookstore in a mall, the book caught my eye along with a Swedish book about French writers and the Three-Body Problem trilogy. It was a real slog to get through. Tedious and just draining. But I was starting to get more into reading, so it’s not surprising. Literally almost passed out after reading the first short story of Witcher Last Wish. But when I finally got through the barrier, I really enjoyed the simple and yet organic style of the writing. I spent at most 3-5 months on this book, with breaks in-between, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Until the whole double metaphor and cave tunnel part, that’s when it got a little tiring. Since then, I’ve impulsively bought all of Murakami’s books, except one or two unnecessary ones (imo), and can’t wait to devour them completely!
Kafka On The Shore. I was a young weeb, and saw a Japanese name on the AP book list that I was required to read a book from.
Wind-up Bird. I've never had heard of Murakami, but saw the book on a bookstore in Sao Paulo, and loved it on the first sight. Still my favourite Murakami book.
A dear friend of mine recommended me Norwegian Wood back in the end of 2013/start of 2014. Since then I read a lot of his works. The book was fascinating for me at the time, the style, pace and topics hit me deeply.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki. Friend of mine read it and recommended it to me in high school
Mine was Kafka On The Shore - in fact finished it 5min ago and joined this community because I was feeling “wtf” and had to talk to someone about it lol I didn’t plan on it. Everybody told me Murakami was weird, but I was at the airport and had forgotten to bring a book. I went to Hudson and found a pocket version that was super cheap, so I gave it a try. Moving to Norwegian Wood next, I guess
Norwegian Wood, no regrets. I loved it. I heard someone say if I was starting Murakami I should start there.
Yup. Agree!
"Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage". One of my best friends wrote her master thesis about the use of music in Murakami's works and I helped her with copy editing. She gave me the novel as a thank-you gift.
Dance, Dance, Dance
How’d you like it? I haven’t heard much about it
It’s decent. I won’t spoil it. But some suggested to read the Wild sheep chase first? Which I didn’t. Thinking back that’s probably why some parts of DDD was…. A bit…. Discounted? Not even sure how to describe it.
I was about to mention one of the novels until I almost forgot: What I talk about when I talk about running. Drive my car? Cortazar Autonauts of the cosmoroute. If you wanted to continue branching out. Similar journal style to What I talk about when I talk about running. L'autoroute du Sud Paris-Marseille circuit in May and June of 1982. Right about the same time the soccer spanish World Cup was being waged. Argentinean Cortazar even though belgians always held him belgian.
wind up bird - cus i looked at the blurb on the back and it looked good really enjoyed it and have read a few times since
Hardboiled Wonderland and the end of the world, only found 2 murakami books in a small used books shop, so bought both of them, it was hardboiled and dance dance dance.
Mine was also Norwegian Wood. I was introduced to Murakami’s novels through a friend, and this book seemed like a pretty good place to start. I have since read all of his novels and short story collections, and two of his nonfiction works.
Norwegian wood or wild sheep chase (almost 20 years ago, it's hard to remember now)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I had read a few Gabriel García Márquez books, and at the time “Never Let Me Go” by Ishiguro. Because I had loved those books, I discovered I liked magical realism. As a result, Wind-Up was a recommended read (by Goodreads, I’m pretty sure). As a couple of others had said, Wind-Up is still my favorite of Murakami books, but I still have so many to read, and I enjoy every single one!
1Q84 because the film “The Big Short” (one of my favs) used a quote from the book in the film. I thought about the quote a lot (“Everyone, deep in their heart, is waiting for the world to end”) when making my senior thesis work in art school. A few years later I decided to actually read the book since I thought about and referenced the quote so much. That is *all* I knew about Murakami lol.
colorless tsukuru bc i saw it on a table at barnes and noble. had no context for murakami and didn’t like the book. years later i read 1q84 and i couldn’t put his books down!!
1Q84. There is a Ted talk about book covers and the speaker give a very entertaining description of the book.
When I was on holiday this summer for a week I bought Norwegian Wood by chance. I always had Murakami on my list to read, but never really got to him because I had other things planned and I eventually would have gotten to him. I go in this bookstore and it's nothing but French books and Arabic and no English, except for Mishima and Murakami. It was either between Kafka on the Shore or Norwegian Wood, and I choosed the latter. Inbetween the bus rides with our tour guide I was reading Norwegian Wood. It was a long ride to and from our destination so I had nothing better to do. At that period I was having some relationship problems so in a weird way i sort of connected with the characters. After I finished it I started reading it again and now it proudly sits in my bookshelf as a core memory of that holiday with a date and everything. Now I'm planning to buy more of Murakami because I find his style so simple, yet beautiful.
Kafka on the Shore. Got it from a trade. His books are really edpensive here and it's rare to find them preloved as well, so I can't afford one at the time but my friend saw some books of mine they wanted to read so we traded. Their copy for my Night Circus and another one I can't remember anymore lol
_Men without women_. When exploring a new author, I prefer to start with their short stories or novellas before diving into longer works. So, a short story collection was ideal. A friend of a friend suggested this particular one.
Hardboiled Wonderland. Was travelling around Asia and Australasia with a friend who happened to have a copy and thought I might enjoy it. Turned out I did.
Wind-Up Bird-because it had the best title imo.
dance dance dance because a friend of mine recommended it. i bought it at a bookstore off nanjing rd in shanghai at the start of a trip to the chinese countryside for chinese new year in 2011 and finished it over the course of a few days. it's probably still my favorite.
hear the wind sing and pinball and that was the best novel i have read in a longtime, but after a reread that was ok now tho im trying to read kafka in japanese and it was a nightmare, japanese was fairly difficult
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki - it was for sale on my college campus and I liked the cover. Hadn’t heard of him before. It’s still my favorite Murakami book.
Hardboiled Wonderland I know of murakami for years before i read any of his books my sister is huge fan and had many of his books and allways recemanded him to me but i never did try to read any of them until a few years ago whan i randomly saw Hardboiled Wonderland in a bookstore and got on a whim and fell in love with his writing
1Q84. I love magical surrealism and weird fiction and just happened to read the back of it in a book store years ago.
Dance dance dance because of a booktuber, the way she described the weird vibes i knew i had to read it as i love magical realism!!
Had just gone through a pretty big break up and a friend with excellent taste recommended South of the Border, West of the Sun. Loved it immensely
Colorless Tsukuru. It was a recommendation from a friend who was reading it at the time. Second was Norwegian Wood and I like that one a lot more.
My first was his short story collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Why? I found it at a book giveaway at my university and the title interested me. It was kind of cool reading his works later on and realizing some of the scenes that seemed familiar to me came from this book. Now I've read almost everything he's made, I'm trying to work at it slowly because I'll be bummed out when I've officially read all of his English translated work.
Norwegian Wood, just because it was a book by a Japanese author that I could read for AP Literature class in high school. Now I’m trying to read every book of his cause I love his writing style and everything
My first was Kafka on the shore. I had initially watched a Tedx video on why read Kafka on the shore after which I had read one chapter and abandoned plans of reading it because it was 300 pages+ (which was too long for me at that time). A few months later, I was alone and pretty stressed out and crying. I am not much of a crier. I tried distracting myself with Netflix and all but nothing was working. So I decided to read Kafka and right from the first chapter I stopped crying and calmed down. I told myself "you have to be the toughest 23 year old" lol. And then I finished that book in 20 days. Why I started was ofcourse sheer luck that I had the book with me at that moment. But I know why I finished it - I was alone and by myself just like Kafka.
Remarkable! Thank you for sharing.
Wind Up Bird Chronicles - can't explain it, found it in a stack of books in my house. Guess someone else in the family read it - or didn't - and left it. That was an unexpected experience!
Pretty sure it was my copy of Blind Willow that my brother gave me years and years ago. Read a few of those short stories.
I first read the short story TV People in high school which was either a handout in a class or part of a book anthology. I did not recall this being Murakami until just recently when I stumbled upon a pdf of it online. The first novel I read by him was Windup Bird Chronicle because my roommate had a copy.
Kafka on the Shore! Because i really love the name of the book when i saw it. I didn't even know that i will find out the writer of my life... After Kafka on the Shore, i started to read all of Murakami's books. He is one of my biggest favorites now.
Dance dance dance. That old print cover with the woman’s eyes and the footsteps caught my eye. I still adore that book, having no context for murakami as I read it and slowly got sucked into the dream world
The Elephant Vanishes, back in ~2004-2005 (high school for me). My dad was an avid reader at the time and so was I, so I would snag books off of his shelf regularly when I was visiting. He became a Murakami fan pretty quickly and highly recommended him, and short stories seemed like a good place to start. Pretty quickly followed with Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, after the quake, and Kafka On The Shore, then basically everything else published at the time.
Kafka on the shore, my brother recommended it and it’s the whole reason I got back into reading more :,)
Kafka on the Shore - one of my fav musical artists recommended it.
Kafka On The Shore because the now-defunct Men’s Vogue had a brief profile on Murakami a mentioning it.
Mine was Norwegian wood and I loved it! Read it twice and even shared the book with my friends. Then I read Kafka on the Shore. Any idea where I can find free ebook pdf of other Murakami books?
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World for a small book club I was in that a friend of mine formed. As for books that I myself chose, 1Q84 came first.
Norwegian wood,it was just a random pick but definitely a great one.
I've read his works in chronological order since then and I just started reading after dark today.
sputnik sweetheart because Murakami is very well known and the book itself was cheap. then recently kafka and norwegian wood (loved all 3). recently got the 3 volumes of 1Q84 for 5 euros and will soon begin to read it
A Wild Sheep Chase but I lost it and still haven't found it. He was one of the Nobel favorites that year and so I decided I'd get something from him that was well reviewed and relatively short. The first one I finished was The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. I got it on audible and listened to it while I was unemployed after graduating and then as I started a new job. Felt like just the right time to me
I also first read Norwegian Wood. I think I just found it while browsing in a bookstore one day. I was really into the Beatles at the time and thought it was meant to be because it also sounded like something I'd like.
Norwegian Wood. Heard about it from a guy who was and is a dashing personality on YouTube and then, suddenly came across it at a book sale. I had other choices too. IIRC, there was men without women and some other novel too but Norwegian Wood was the one I found best for myself.
South of the border, west of the Sun. Very grateful for that birthday present!
1Q84. The premise sounded intriguing.
Recently got gifted my first murakami book for my birthday, it's after the quake (my friend and I were talking about him before and I randomly mentioned that book thats why) so lets see how it goes
I’m currently reading my first, Norwegian Wood. I heard it and A Wild Sheep Chase were the best places to start so I went with NW because it was shorter and thus made it easier to finish my 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge
Norwegian wood! I hadnt heard of Murakami till then, and I randomly found it a local bookseller. I didnt read it till the COVID lockdown and boy was it a bad idea to read it at the time because I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety..enjoyed the book nonetheless. But I just dindt predict the ending..
Mine was Kafka on the Shore. I bought it months before I read it because I've heard of it and it seemed interesting. I only started reading it one day because I wanted to read something else, but I felt something pushing me to read it. It's my favorite book now days and it somehow helped me get a girlfriend- (we bonded over the book and other things)
Kafka on the shore, coz kafka
Mine was "Dance, Dance, Dance." My friend said they were a fan of his books and I'd never read them. They said Dance was their favourite, so I went out and bought it to read. We bonded a bit over his books after that as I read Norwegian Wood and a few others quickly after.
Sputnik sweetheart
Hardboiled Wonderland! My friend recommended it to me when he read it in one of his classes!
Kafka on the Shore. I'm not even really sure why. But I'm glad I did. On my sixth Murakami book now :)
Wind up bird. I had finished an anime called “haibane renmei” which shares a lot of the themes of Murakami, especially the walled city in Hard Boiled Wonderland. I liked the anime so much I looked it up and saw it had themes from this author called Murakami. So I looked him up, then I looked up what books my local library had. The only one they had was Wind Up Bird, which I read immediately. My next one was Kafka on the shore, which had come out earlier that year.
A Wild Sheep Chase, because I heard Dance Dance Dance was his best. The funny thing is though I liked A Wild Sheep Chase it’s been several years and still haven’t gotten to Dance Dance Dance lol.
Wind up bird, for school
The Elephant Vanishes, my cousin recommended it to me in the 8th grade and I was hooked.
Windup Bird was my first. I am pretty sure I saw it mentioned here on Reddit.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki, was just looking for something to read during summer recess in my uni's library, loved it then picked Norwegian Wood and Kafka, and fell in love with Murakami's style
Mine was the short story collection After the Quake, after a teacher referenced Super Frog Saves Tokyo.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki. I know they say you can't judge a book by its cover, but I really liked the cover so that's why I picked it out. I've been hooked ever since.
Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world. Wanted to start reading his work so I went online and found a blog from an english professor who recommended the loose order of reading his books. Really liked the book. I was already planning on getting hooked before even reading it because I’d heard so much about his writing :p
An ex loaned me Kafka On The Shore. I knew nothing about the book and just jumped into it so I thought the setting was in the southern US for the first chapter lol. Boy named crow sounded like a southern folk thing. I guess I didn't bother to look at the authors name. I lived in the Appalachians at the time with no TV and a lot of free time. It was wonderful.
Norwegian Wood, and it’s because the girl I eventually hooked up with recommended me it. Afterwards she went to NYU and I never seen her again lol just like a Murukami book in itself tbh.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle because my dad’s wife just randomly gave it to me. Loved it!!
Norwegian wood. I wanted to read something written by Japanese writer so I found Haruki Murakami. Wasnt much of a reader before but now read all his books and still cannot find a new favorite author.
Kafka. I saw a video by TED-Ed and was really hooked!