Bill Cheng's Blog, page 108
April 15, 2013
vintageanchor:
Japanese Race to Read New Murakami Novel
...
Japanese Race to Read New Murakami Novel
JAPANESE salarymen interrupted their commutes to buy Haruki Murakami’s new novel, as papers and broadcasters raced to give the first review of one of the most eagerly anticipated books of the year. Stores opened early in Tokyo, boasting special stands stacked high with the hardback books, as businessmen, housewives and students rushed to get a copy. But the new novel, Shikisai wo Motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to Kare no Junrei no Toshi (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage), was unveiled first to a dedicated band of followers at midnight.
Readers flocked to Tokyo’s Daikanyama T-Site bookstore, which flung open its doors at exactly 12 am, bringing Murakami into that select band of authors — including Harry Potter writer JK Rowling — who can command late night loyalty. Sanseido bookstore temporarily became “Murakami Haruki-do (store)”, installing a new name board to mark the release of the eagerly awaited novel.
Fans were told virtually nothing about the book ahead of the release, adding to the mystique of an author who delights in setting riddles for characters and readers alike. A skim reading of the work reveals it is the story of a young man struggling with an ordeal in his past, who uses the support offered by a romance to get back on his feet. The mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun managed a short article on the 370-page book in its morning editions.
Breakfast television programmes showed journalists who had been at their desks all night reading. “It’s gripping,” said one NHK reporter, adding he was mid-way through. The Asahi Shimbun posted what it called a “super-quick” review on its website at 7:46 am. “This is a story about a man who tries to get back into his life again,” the review said. “You see the strength of a person who tries to overcome the feelings of loss and loneliness that he had amassed deep inside of himself,” the Asahi said.
By Friday evening, online book reviewer Kazunari Yonemitsu revealed more about the story’s plot including the secret of “colourless Tsukuru Tazaki” and an astonishing development involving a murder. “I don’t think I would be criticised if I say this is the first mystery novel by Murakami,” Yonemitsu wrote. The book’s cover — featuring American artist Morris Louis’s “Pillar of Fire” — was also the subject of debate on the micro-blog Twitter.
Ryosuke Kawai, 26, who was one of the first to get his copy at the midnight event said he had been caught off guard by its colourful stripes. “The title says ‘colourless’. What does this illustration mean? I cannot wait to read it,” he said excitedly. Some observers had speculated the title may be a deliberate echo of a collection of piano pieces called “Years of Pilgrimage” by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. Twitter users praised the author for the excitement he had been able to engender with the book in a nation of people hooked to smartphones.
Source.
Can we please have this, America?
"Most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does..."
““Most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.””
- David Foster Wallace (via wordpainting)
- David Foster Wallace (via wordpainting)
colchrishadfield:
I recently found that I have a number of...
I recently found that I have a number of blind followers, and I want to do right by them: I will record and tweet more sounds of the Station.
This is a Space Station Caution tone – not as bad as Warning or Emergency tones, but still never good news.
April 14, 2013
April 13, 2013
See you tomorrow! Click through for itinerary
See you tomorrow! Click through for itinerary
emchughes:
Great line from Tom Barbash’s STAY UP WITH ME....
Great line from Tom Barbash’s STAY UP WITH ME. #fridayreads
Been hearing about this a lot. Can’t wait to get my hands on it.
strandbooks:
Do you get this stuff, too? This strangely poetic...
Do you get this stuff, too? This strangely poetic brand of lit mash-up spam? This last line is from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Not sure about the rest of it. Another time, I got a stolen fragment of Jane Austen.
April 12, 2013
"This novel is beautifully hypnotic in its movements, from the grand (between two continents, across..."
“This novel is beautifully hypnotic in its movements, from the grand (between two continents, across three centuries) to the most subtle. Silkily threading together public events and private feelings, TransAtlantic says no to death with every line. Those who can’t see the point of historical novels will find their answer here: in all intelligent fiction, the past has not passed”
- Emma Donoghue on TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
(via bitingthebook)
- Emma Donoghue on TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
(via bitingthebook)I was lucky enough to be able to read an early MS. But this cover is PERFECT
rachelfershleiser:
“I did an Internet search for quotes about life, and what it’s like, and I...
“I did an Internet search for quotes about life, and what it’s like, and I found life is indeed like a box of sardines (according to Alan Bennett), but it’s also apparently like: chocolates (Forrest Gump), artichokes (Thomas Aloysius Dorgan), pasta (Fellini), pudding (W.S. Gilbert), soup (Flaubert), an onion (Carl Sandburg), and a bowl of cherries (Erma Bombeck). There is a pattern here.”
—
Scott Cheshire, ”Buoyant and Blue: On Jessica Soffer’s Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots“ (via millionsmillions)
Jessica will be here on Sunday for the Slaughterhouse 90210 event at Downtown Literary Festival! Join us it will be the best.
(via housingworksbookstore)
LOVE
