Cannonball Read 13

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Such a Murakami novel

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

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I seem to always say this, but I don’t really know how to review Haruki Murakami’s books. They’re so inexplicable and enjoyable and uneventful. A Wild Sheep Chase, according to the man himself (in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running), was his “real starting point” as a writer – and that makes sense. Hear the Wind Sing, his first novel, has all the hallmarks of a Murakami novel, but doesn’t quite work as well. He hasn’t really found himself yet, and it […]

On day Turl the constructor put together a machine that could create anything starting with n.

The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem

Guys and Dolls by Damon Runyan

Wind/Pinball 1973 by Haruki Murakami

The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin

My Search for Warren Harding by Robert Plunket

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

The Blood of Elves by Andrej Sapkowski

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters

Flatland by Edwin Abbott

The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin

The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George Higgins

Laughing in the Hills by Bill Barich

Bright Lights Big City by Jay McInerney

The Prince by Niccola Machiavelli

Dear America by Jose Antonio Vargas

The Three Paradoxes by Paul Hornschmeier

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

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The Cyberiad – 3/5 Stars This is a collection of short stories by the Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem. Although it’s a collection, it’s more a series of linked stories almost in the form of a novel. If you’ve read a Stanislaw Lem novel, and I think this is my third, you’ll recognize a cognizant effort to question reality, but also the conventions of science fiction in general. Some of his novels like Solaris are highly metaphysical in nature, while authors, like Pirx the Pilot are […]

I’m on Kauai, in Hawaii, today, Friday, August 5, 2005.

What I talk about when I talk about Running by Haruki Murakami

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A short collection of memoir essays by Haruki Murakami about running. What’s most interesting about this collection is how banal he approaches the subject. To be fair, a lot of Murakami novel dwell in the banal by design, so this is not a surprise really, but it really works here. One of the reasons that works is because he actually is a serious runner, but still an amateur. So this is not a memoir by a professional or competitive runner, but of a writer who […]

Short story review dump (Part V)

The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick

The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick

Human Is? by Philip K. Dick

A Kiss With Teeth by Max Gladstone

Let Those Who Would by Genevieve Valentine

Mirror by Haruki Murakami

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet by Richard Matheson

Blood Son by Richard Matheson

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This is something new I’m trying this year, where I review short stories as stand alone stories, not part of anthologies or collections. Here are parts I, II, III, and IV. The Eyes Have It by Philip K Dick (3 stars) This is, so I’ve read, the shortest story in Philip K. Dick’s bibliography. And the copyright doesn’t appear to have ever been renewed, so it can easily be found online. Here it is at Project Guttenberg. It tells the story of a man reading […]

Perspiration Inspiration

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

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For the last five years, I’ve been grappling with the question: ‘Am I a Runner?’. Sure, I run, but does that make me a Runner? What’s the threshold for that? How is this identity obtained and defined? And I think maybe the litmus test, for me at least, is: Do you run? Did you enjoy reading and identify with ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’? My answer to both questions is a resounding Yes, so I think I can finally settle into […]



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