Where do I even begin to describe a book like 1Q84? This was my first Murakami novel, and though I felt, at times, that certain minutiae for which he is apparently infamous (food preparation, repetitive dialogue and re-iteration of expository detail) contributed unnecessary padding to the 1157 pages, overall I found myself quite swept away in the lyricism of the writing and the surreal but precise detail in observing the world of 1Q84. The central characters are Tengo, a cram school (assuming this is an […]
Live or Die, It’s Your Choice
First, I have to say how EXCITED I was to realize that this was a choose-your-own adventure story! They didn’t have these when I was a kid, but I remember reading them with my son in the 90s when he was small. I really liked the premise of choosing how the story would go, rather than just what the author thought, down a linear path. I normally am not a humongous fan of zombie movies, but I can handle “zombie lite”–reading without too much gore. […]
The Dig is a brutal book – both physically and emotionally. It’s also a constantly gripping and involving story that will stay with you long after you put the pages down. At its heart, the story centres around two very different people, and how they react to the land and animals around them. One is a farmer named Daniel, recently mourning the loss of his wife and struggling to maintain the farm by himself, and the other is a vicious badger-baiter and all-round vacuum of […]
The Tiring of Popcultureboy
It occurred to me while I was reading this book that I have been trying (and failing) to read the whole Booker Prize long list for a really long time now. The first time I attempted it was back in 2004, and I think the reason I have never succeeded in reading the full Booker’s Dozen of 13 books is that some of them I found to be incredibly boring. For every absolute gem (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, I’ll Go To Bed At Noon, […]
A Splendid Time Travel Tale (Or, Connie Willis Deserves All of Her Awards)
Kivrin, a historian and student at Oxford in 2054, plans a trip to the Middle Ages using the well-established technology of “the net.” She must do extensive research in order to blend in with the locals. The history department’s technicians must perform complex calculations to get her to the right location. Her instructors carefully set up a rendezvous to bring her back. No one has ever traveled to the fourteenth century before. Kivrin’s favorite professor, Mr. Dunworthy, is deeply worried for her. However, Kivrin has […]
Go ahead, judge a book by its cover.
When my fiance started reading for pleasure again, but before he focused on hard sci-fi, he picked books on how attractive he found the cover art. And here’s the link to my review.
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