24-hour Readathon: Starting Post

Reading 24 hours in a row with no stop sounds insane, and it probably is, and even if I wanted to, I can't attempt it today because life gets in the way, but I try my best to read as much as possible from 3 pm today 'til 3 pm tomorrow.

 

As usual there are some questions for the participants, so that we can get to know each other better and socialise and all that jazz. Here goes:

 

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? I am reading from Helsinki, Finland, Europe.

 

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Seriously, I don't have clear preference... Maybe Harry Potter, because I'm sure it'll be a fairly quick read? I'd also really like to finish Shades of Grey (about 1/3 through), but it's the kind of book that requires a lot of attention to catch all the awesome details so I don't know. I'm sure all these lovely books have their benefits.

 

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Oh dear, I haven't really given thought to snacking at all. I'm not a big snacker in general, but maybe I'll seek for something for tomorrow morning/lunchtime, because snacks kinda go in spirit with the readathon, as I have understood.

 

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! *fiddles with fingers* I'm a bookworm and a nerd in general, I have unexplainable obsession to wombats and alpacas. Me and my fiancé have two cats, who are the coolest little buggers in the world. I work in translating/media. My favourite authors are Ray Bradbury, Haruki Murakami, Robin Hobb, Jasper Fforde.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? It's my first readathon and I am looking forward to general reading craziness that's gonna take over Twitter and book blogging world. Oh and also I am looking forward to reading some awesome books.

Review: "1Q84" by Haruki Murakami

Here is a little example of how much I love this man's work:

That is six Murakamis on one of my bookshelves. I've read them all and loved them all. And having typed that, it grieves my heart to admit that I was not thrilled with the latest, "1Q84".

 

I thought the story itself was quite decent. I think majority of people who read Murakami do so mostly for his skill of combining very realistic and very magical worlds, in a very subtle way. Somehow, even his magical worlds feel realistic - strange. Once again there are kind of parallel worlds, one (which takes place in year 1984) where there is one moon in the sky, and the other one (1Q84) where the big moon has a little companion. What a cute thought. Hasn't anyone really ever thought that the moon might get bored all alone.

 

I was happy that the number of characters was kept very modest. The characters were odd, felt troubled and lonely - again, no surprise there whatsoever. Some of them were really spooky (Aomame); Tengo felt like "just another lonely and empty inside Murakami male character". Ushikawa was a piece of more interesting work, a clever man with hideous appearance, but his role in the story remained questionable.

 

All in all, I would have been happy to rate it not the best, but just another good read from Murakami. But I can't. And here is why.

 

First of all, this book is long - nearly 1200 pages. This itself would be fine (afterall I dig chunksters very much), but "1Q84" is definitely and most certainly needlessly long. I don't even remember how many times I said, during reading, to my boyfriend that this one is in desperate need for an editor. I would say, about 1/3 of the novel could have been chopped off, and it would only have got better. What happened there - I don't know. I do hope editors are still valued in book business. I got this book in three parts, not just one big chunk - first one went super fast, but once I was in the second, somewhere in the middle, I really thought of dropping it (the horror! dropping a Murakami!). The third part got better again, but damage was already done by this point.



Secondly, the writing felt sloppy. I would consider putting part of blame on the factors of translation, but then again, Jay Rubin is basically Murakami's body-translator, I have appreciated his work previously and I haven't got a good reason to suspect that he is the problem in this case. The problem is that given Murakami's laconic and simple descriptive style, if it doesn't get a good edit, it gets annoying really fast. So in a way the thing that he does good, can also end up easily very bad. I held my head in agony at times over all the repetitions and swore, that if I have to read the trio of words "NHK fee collector" one more time, something's gonna go bad.

 

There's a new novel to be published in Japan already in April. I really hope that Mr Murakami has hired a good editor for this one.



Oo, this is so accurate. Food, classical music, cats... :)
Lent from here.

Closing the lid of February

A duckie leaping towards the spring sun. Photo from last year.

This was some short month. Nevertheless, it feels like eons have passed since it was February 1st. It was a month of mixed feelings for me. Some ghosts from the past (pretty big ones) came back haunting, and aftermath can be felt for some time to come, but on the other hand, I discovered strengths and reserves in myself I didn't know ever existed. So overall, I am happy content.

 

Book wise, it was also an o-kay month. Here's what I read:

 

• C. Brontë "Jane Eyre"
• D. H. Lawrence "Lady Chatterley's Lover"
• H. Murakami "1Q84"
• S. King "Bag of Bones"

 

2626 pages in total. Statistically-technically anyway, because "1Q84" I started way back in January, it just took me awful lot of time to get through it. I shall write down my thoughts on both, Murakami and King, in near future. Happy with two Classics Club reads; if the month had had normal length, I would have been able to add "Persuasion" there as well.

 

So what is going to happen in March?

 

At first, it's the month of Classics Club event Modern March. I have picked two books - "Tender is the Night" by Fitzgerald and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Hemingway. I shall start with the latter, as it is not the book I am super eager to read.

 

Secondly, by April 1 I should also be done with "Arrowsmith", my outcome for the Classics Club Spin event. Apparently, Sinclair Lewis is tough cookie and can not be easily found from shops around here, so I had to order the book. It was sent off a few days ago, so I expect it to arrive some time next week.

 

There is another book on the TBR-shelf, which has kept winking at me for a while now - Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities", the book I lent from friend and which some Classics Clubbers have read and praised lately. Alas, be patient my eager heart - the time has not yet come for Dickens.

 

But first of all, I shall finish off "Persuasion" (which I am, surprisingly, even enjoying in some strange kind of level).

 

 

Book Beginnings: 1Q84

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a meme hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader. To participate, share the opening sentence of your current read. Include the title and the author. Share thoughts, impressions, or anything else inspiration-worthy.

 

 

 

 

One of my (several) current reads is "1Q84" by Haruki Murakami.

 

The taxi's radio was tuned to a classical FM broadcast.

 

It starts like your typical Murakami-book. Description of something very simple and everyday, which, over the course of pages, turns into something subtly magikal and quite irresistible. Can't wait to go on with this one.



Brain Food, II

I have been reading! Of course. After finishing "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" last week (review coming up hopefully), I had to make some decisions. 

I cheat on books, with other books. I usually have a small pile of "currently reading" next to bed. As a rule, it contains books from different genres, to match different moods, situations and brain energy levels. For example, right now the pile consists of 

• a collection of Chinese short stories (in Estonian);
• a non-fiction book on psychology;
• a non-fiction book on medical condition that I have;
• a sci-fi novel;
• a fantasy novel;
• a 19th century classic novel;
• a contemporary magical realism novel.

The books I am reading actively are George R.R. Martin's latest "A Dance With Dragons", Wilkie Collins's "The Woman in White" and Murakami's "1Q84". In itself, it is a pretty nifty list, leaving aside the fact that all these three are complete chunksters! 1178, 728 and 1156 pages, respectively. That means I should take another book to go aside... a slim one. Something that I would be able to finish in less than 1+ week. *sigh*

Anyhow, on to some books I hoarded since the last brain-food post. 

Left - 

• Orson Scott Card "Ender's Game", "Speaker for the Dead", "Xenocide", "Children of the Mind" - back when I was small, I read "Ender's Game" in Estonian. Of course, this book was hit by the fate as many others of the genre at the time - they only translated first of the series, and that was it. I still remember how I practically gulped it down, and figured it would be nice to do that again, + some extra.

Right, from top to bottom - 

• Jodi Picoult "My Sister's Keeper" - totally out of my usual comfort zone this, but I want to read more female authors, and the plot of this one picqued my interest. I will attack Picoult with great apprehension and carefulness, however. It might not be my cup of coffee at all.
• Erin Morgenstern "The Night Circus" - hmph. Another one of those books I got based on introduction of the story. + allegedly the writing style is to be admired. We shall see.
• Francis Scott Fitzgerald "Tender is the Night" - I have read "The Great Gatsby" twice and was always drawn to the title of this one (it's even better-sounding in Estonian).
• Robin Hobb "Ship of Magic" - I like Robb's soapish style of fantasy, and the (perfect) ending of the Farseer's trilogy made me forgive her all the naiveties, plot holes and stupid twists she might have taken along the way. And made me give her another chance.