Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

February 5, 2011 at 12:14 pm (Uncategorized)
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The author Haruki Murakami was recommended to me by fellow blogger, Bellezza. I’d heard of Murakami before but not read anything by him until today. This morning, for my 2011 “deal me in” short story reading project, I drew the King of Diamonds (what’s with all these diamonds? I will have a flush soon!), and that card is marked for the story Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (see my page titled “deal me in selections” for a complete list of potential reads this year). Of course, I didn’t already own this one, and it is too recent to be had for free anywhere on the Internet (at least anywhere I could find), so I downloaded a collection of his stories from my Barnes & Noble account.

The collection also includes an author’s introduction, which I found very interesting. It seems he likes to alternate between working on novels and short stories, but cannot work on both at the same time, hypothesizing that a different part of the brain must be in use for each. He also includes the wonderful paragraph:

“My short stories are like soft shadows I’ve set out in the world, faint footprints I’ve left behind. I remember exactly when I set down each and everyone of them, and how I felt when I did.”

This particular story takes its name from a dream/ story that the girlfriend of the narrator’s friend told them about when they had come to visit her in a hospital after a minor operation. It’s hard to say what this story is actually about (maybe it’s about “nothing” – like that famous sitcom). What it may be about, though, is that fragile escape into memories that we all are sometimes able to effect. In this story, the narrator’s task at hand is accompanying his young cousin to an appointment at a hospital to have his hearing in one ear checked yet again. As he waits for the appointment to be over, the narrator lapses back into memory of the other hospital visit years ago.

Though reading in translation, it seems pretty clear to me at Murakami writes beautifully. Speaking of his reminiscences as “returning to the realm of memory,” and – late in the story – when his cousin grabs him by the arm, asking “Are you alright?” when it appears the narrator is “lost in thought” he (the narrator) muses immediately after being ‘brought back to reality’ that “for a few seconds I stood there in a strange, dim place. Where the things I could see didn’t exist. Where the invisible did.” I found that to be one of my favorite passages I’ve read in ANYTHING lately.

This story left me with more of a “feeling” than a “literary take” or impression, and I can’t remember anything else I’ve read recently that I can say that about.

Haruki Murakami

What about you? Have you read any Murakami? What were your impressions?

-Jay

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2014 Deal Me In posts index by Author

January 12, 2015 at 4:28 pm ()

author first name story week blog
Aboulela Leile Missing Out 10 Returning Reader
Adiche Chimamanda Ngozi The Arrangers of Marriage 24 Returning Reader
Adiche Chimamanda Ngozi The Arrangers of Marriage 36 Jamesreadsbooks
Adiche Chimamanda Ngozi The Thing Around Your Neck 18 Jamesreadsbooks
Aiken Conrad Silent Snow, Secret Snow 34 Mirror With Clouds
Akpan Uwem An Ex-Mas Feast 3 Returning Reader
Akutagawa Ryunosuke In a Grove 31 Dolce Bellezza
Akutagawa Ryunosuke Rashomn 34 Dolce Bellezza
Al Aswany Alaa Mme Zita Mendes, A Last Image 9 Returning Reader
Alexie Sherman Saint Junior 7 Read the Gamut
Anderson Kevin J Just Like Normal People 52 The Writerly Reader
Anderson Kevin J Technomagic 26 The Writerly Reader
Andreyev Leonid Lazarus 11 Bibliophilopolis
Andreyev Leonid Lazarus 28 The Writerly Reader
Anshaw Carol The Last Speaker of the Language 50 Bibliophilopolis
Atherton Gertrude The Bell in the Fog 31 Bibliophilopolis
Atwood Margaret Happy Ending 45 Read the Gamut
Atwood Margaret Stone Mattress 12 Reading on Cloud 9
Babel Isaac Guy de Maupassant 3 Reading on Cloud 9
Baingana Doreen Passion 44 Returning Reader
Baker Laurie Mother of Hope 5 Reading on Cloud 9
Baldwin James Sonny’s Blues 46 Mirror With Clouds
Barth John Toga Party 29 Time Enough at Last
Barthelme Donald The School 8 Read the Gamut
Barthelme Donald The School 8 Returning Reader
Barzak Christopher We Do Not Come in Peace 16 Jamesreadsbooks
Battie Anne Solid Wood 30 Time Enough at Last
Beagle Peter S. The Magician of Karakosk 3 The Writerly Reader
Bear Greg The Fall of the House of Escher 42 The Writerly Reader
Belano Roberto Gomez Palacio 10 Reading on Cloud 9
Bergstrom Heather Brittain Celio Falls 4 Reading on Cloud 9
Berliner Janet Humpty-Dumpty Was a Runner 21 The Writerly Reader
Berliner Janet Indigo Moon 37 The Writerly Reader
Bierce Ambrose An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge 4 Read the Gamut
Bierce Ambrose An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge 49 The Writerly Reader
Bierce Ambrose Beyond the Wall 45 Bibliophilopolis
Bill Frank Amphetamine Twitch 2 Bibliophilopolis
Bixby Jerome It’s a Good Life 51 Bibliophilopolis
Bloch Robert The Hungry House 8 Bibliophilopolis
Bloom Amy Silver Water 24 Read the Gamut
Bond Larry Expert Advice 2 The Writerly Reader
Borges Jorge Luis The Library of Babel 12 Read the Gamut
Bradbury Ray All on a Summer’s Night 29 Time Enough at Last
Bradbury Ray All Summer in a Day 19 Bibliophilopolis
Bradbury Ray February 1999: Ylla 40 Time Enough at Last
Bradbury Ray Hopscotch 50 Time Enough at Last
Bradbury Ray Junior 39 Time Enough at Last
Bradbury Ray Kaleidoscope 15 Mirror With Clouds
Bradbury Ray Let’s Play Poison 45 Time Enough at Last
Bradbury Ray Long After Midnight 12 Mirror With Clouds
Bradbury Ray Quicker than the Eye 4 The Writerly Reader
Bradbury Ray Some Live Like Lazarus 45 Mirror With Clouds
Bradbury Ray The Illustrated Man 49 Time Enough at Last
Bradbury Ray The Smile 43 Time Enough at Last
Bradbury Ray The Veldt 46 Returning Reader
Bradbury Ray Yes, We’ll Gather at the River 44 Mirror With Clouds
Braunbeck Gary Fat Man and Little Boy 13 The Writerly Reader
Broaddus Maurice A Stone Cast Into Stillness 52 Bibliophilopolis
Bryant Edward Disillusion 15 The Writerly Reader
Butler Octavia Speech Sounds 2 Read the Gamut
Cacek P.D. Just a Little Bug 38 The Writerly Reader
Capote Truman A Diamond Guitar 26 Mirror With Clouds
Capote Truman Mojave 32 Mirror With Clouds
Carr Robyn Natasha’s Bedroom 45 The Writerly Reader
Carter Angela The Fall River Axe Murders 23 Read the Gamut
Carver Raymond Cathedral 10 Read the Gamut
Chandler Raymond No Crime in the Mountains 31 Jamesreadsbooks
Chandler Raymond Red Wind 13 Jamesreadsbooks
Chandler Raymond Trouble is My Business 33 Jamesreadsbooks
Cheever John Goodbye, My Brother 51 Read the Gamut
Chekhov Anton Gooseberries 40 Read the Gamut
Chekhov Anton Gooseberries 45 Returning Reader
Chekhov Anton The Bet 20 Mirror With Clouds
Chekhov Anton The Bet 30 Bibliophilopolis
Chekhov Anton The Black Monk 19 Bibliophilopolis
Chesterton G. K. The Song of the Flying Fish 23 Mirror With Clouds
Chesterton G.K. The Ghost of Gideon Wise 47 Mirror With Clouds
Chesterton G.K. The Red Moon of Meru 38 Mirror With Clouds
Chiang Ted The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Fiction 22 Read the Gamut
Chikwava Brian Dancing to the Jazz Goblin and his Rhythm 5 Returning Reader
Chopin Kate Desiree’s Baby 47 Returning Reader
Chopin Kate Story of an Hour 40 Bibliophilopolis
Copperfield David Eagle 41 The Writerly Reader
Copperfield David Snow 44 The Writerly Reader
Costello Matthew The Final Varnish 46 The Writerly Reader
Curtis Rebecca Twenty Grand 10 Reading on Cloud 9
Curtiss George William Titbottom’s Spectacles 37 Time Enough at Last
Dahl Roald The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar 18 Read the Gamut
de Lint Charles A Tangle of Green Men 26 Jamesreadsbooks
de Lint Charles The Invisibles 51 The Writerly Reader
de Maupassant Guy The Necklace 32 Read the Gamut
Diaz Junot Edison, New Jersey 36 Mirror With Clouds
Didion Joan Where the Kissing Never Stops 52 Jamesreadsbooks
Dinesen Isak Peter and Rosa 13 Jamesreadsbooks
Dinesen Isak The Dreaming Child 4 Jamesreadsbooks
Dinesen Isak The Fish 12 Jamesreadsbooks
Doci Edina Bear Dance 44 Bibliophilopolis
Dostoevsky Fyodor The Christmas Tree and the Wedding 3 Bibliophilopolis
Dubus Andre A Father’s Story 11 Reading on Cloud 9
Duffy Katherine An Snamhai 13 Returning Reader
Dunn Katherine Allies 6 The Writerly Reader
el-Charni Rachida Street of the House of Wonders 47 Returning Reader
Eldrich Louise Love Snares 15 Reading on Cloud 9
Emin Rebecca Class of 1990 33 Bibliophilopolis
Ez-Eldin Mansoura Faeries of the Nile 48 Returning Reader
Faulkner William The Odor of Verbeena 44 Time Enough at Last
Feitz Raymond Geroldo’s Incredible Trick 36 The Writerly Reader
Fornah Aminatta Hayward’s Heath 22 Returning Reader
Fowler Karen Joy The Queen of Hearts and Swords 10 The Writerly Reader
Gaiman Neil The Goldfish and other Stories 35 The Writerly Reader
Gaitskill Mary The Other Place 23 Bibliophilopolis
Galchen Rivka The Lost Order 13 Reading on Cloud 9
Gay Roxane North Country 21 Bibliophilopolis
Gay William Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You 31 Time Enough at Last
Gide Andre Return of the Prodigal Son 34 Bibliophilopolis
Gilchrist Ellen The President of the Louisiana Live Oak Society 48 Time Enough at Last
Gogol Nikolai St. John’s Eve 19 Bibliophilopolis
Gogol Nikolai The Cloak 36 Bibliophilopolis
Gogol Nikolai The Nose 48 Bibliophilopolis
Gorky Maxim Her Lover 24 Bibliophilopolis
Gorky Maxim Twenty-six and One 4 Bibliophilopolis
Greene Graham A Branch of the Service 4 Mirror With Clouds
Greene Graham Alas, Poor Maling 21 Mirror With Clouds
Greene Graham Dream of a Strange Land 37 Mirror With Clouds
Greene Graham The End of the Party 16 Mirror With Clouds
Grey Zane The Manager of Madden’s Hill 50 Mirror With Clouds
Grey Zane The Redheaded Outfield 14 Mirror With Clouds
Gurnah Abdulrazak Cages 22 Returning Reader
Guthridge George Chin Oil 20 The Writerly Reader
Halbert Marianne Dark Cloud Rising 13 Bibliophilopolis
Hale Edward Everett My Double and how He Undid Me 29 Time Enough at Last
Hawthorne Nathaniel Ethan Brad 8 Mirror With Clouds
Hawthorne Nathaniel Mrs. Bullfrog 16 Bibliophilopolis
Hawthorne Nathaniel The Celestial Railroad 11 Mirror With Clouds
Hawthorne Nathaniel Young Goodman Brown 39 Mirror With Clouds
Helprin Mark Perfection 9 Mirror With Clouds
Helprin Mark Perfection 37 Bibliophilopolis
Hemingway Ernest A Canary for One 26 Jamesreadsbooks
Hemingway Ernest Now I Lay Me 41 Mirror With Clouds
Hemingway Ernest Soldier’s Home 19 Mirror With Clouds
Hemingway Ernest Ten Little Indians 27 Mirror With Clouds
Hemingway Ernest The Snows of Kilimanjaro 45 Returning Reader
Hempel Amy In the Cememtery Where Al Jolson is Buried 17 Read the Gamut
Hersey James To the End of the American Dream 38 Jamesreadsbooks
Hersey John A Game of Anagrams 28 Jamesreadsbooks
Hersey John The Wedding Dress 6 Jamesreadsbooks
Hirshberg Glen The Two Sams 7 Bibliophilopolis
Hoffman William Amazing Grace 41 Time Enough at Last
Holmes Oliver Wendell A Visit to the Asylum for Aged and Decayed Punsters 38 Time Enough at Last
Jafta Milly The Homecoming 23 Returning Reader
James Henry John Delavoy 6 Jamesreadsbooks
James Henry The Figure in the Carpet 46 Jamesreadsbooks
James Henry The Next Time 9 Jamesreadsbooks
James Henry The Private Life 20 Jamesreadsbooks
James M.R. Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad 1 The Writerly Reader
Johnson Ayala Dawn A Prince of Thirteen Days 40 Jamesreadsbooks
Johnson Denis Emergency 14 Read the Gamut
Joyce James Araby 20 Returning Reader
Khosa Ungulani Ba Ka An Unexpected Death 45 Returning Reader
King Stephen Harvey’s Dream 17 Read the Gamut
Kirby Jack The Conversion of Tegujai Batir 8 The Writerly Reader
Korlenko Vladimir The Shades: A Phantasy 42 Bibliophilopolis
Kuprin Alexander The Outrage – A True Story 22 Bibliophilopolis
Lalami Laila Homecoming 30 Returning Reader
Lardner Ring Alibi Ike 51 Mirror With Clouds
Lardner Ring Haircut 5 Mirror With Clouds
Laye Camara The Eyes of the Statue 12 Returning Reader
Le Guin Ursula K. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas 1 Returning Reader
Leacock Stephen What Do You Think Did It? 34 Time Enough at Last
LeGuin Ursula K. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas 40 Read the Gamut
Li Yiyun Extra 5 Read the Gamut
Liu Ken The Gods Will Not be Chained 47 Jamesreadsbooks
London Jack An Odyssey of the North 17 Mirror With Clouds
London Jack Negore the Coward 25 Mirror With Clouds
Lustbader Eric 16 Minutes 14 The Writerly Reader
Mabanchou Alain The Fugistive 44 Returning Reader
MacDonald George The Gifts of the Child Christ 22 Mirror With Clouds
Machen Arthur The Great God Pan 42 Read the Gamut
Malamud Bernard A Summer’s Reading 49 Mirror With Clouds
Mansfield Katherine Bliss 13 Read the Gamut
Mansfield Katherine The Stranger 44 Returning Reader
Marechera Dambuzdo Oxford Black Oxford 15 Returning Reader
Marquez Gabriel Garcia Eva is Inside Her Cat 45 Returning Reader
Marryat Fredrick The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains 15 Bibliophilopolis
Mason Lisa Every Mystery Explained 29 The Writerly Reader
McCallister Bruce The Boy in Zaquitos 46 Time Enough at Last
McCullers Carson Sucker 33 Time Enough at Last
McKenna Juliet The Wizard’s Coming 19 Breadcrumb Reads
Melville Herman Bartleby the Scrivener 28 Mirror With Clouds
Melville Herman Benito Cereno 35 Mirror With Clouds
Melville Herman The Encantadas 31 Mirror With Clouds
Mengiste Maaza A Good Soldier 20 Returning Reader
Merimee Prosper Mateo Falcone 47 Bibliophilopolis
Milhauser Steven Cathay 22 Read the Gamut
Millhauser Steven Alice, Falling 33 The Writerly Reader
Millhauser Steven Behind the Blue Curtain 5 The Writerly Reader
Millhauser Steven Eisenheim the Illusionist 17 The Writerly Reader
Millhauser Steven Klassik Komix #1 9 The Writerly Reader
Millhauser Steven Miracle Polish 1 Bibliophilopolis
Millhauser Steven Rain 30 The Writerly Reader
Millhauser Steven The Barnum Museum 18 The Writerly Reader
Millhauser Steven The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad 27 The Writerly Reader
Millhauser Steven The Invention of Robert Herendeen 47 The Writerly Reader
Millhauser Steven The Sepia Postcard 25 The Writerly Reader
Millhauser Steven Thirteen Wives 1 Reading on Cloud 9
Mitford Jessica Don’t Call it Syphilis 52 Jamesreadsbooks
Moore Lorrie Dance in America 22 Read the Gamut
Moore Lorrie How to Talk to Your Mother 16 Reading on Cloud 9
Moore Lorrie Referential 7 Reading on Cloud 9
Munro Alice Axis 29 Bibliophilopolis
Munro Alice Dimension 32 Time Enough at Last
Munro Alice Menesetung 27 Bibliophilopolis
Munro Alice The Bear Came Over the Mountain 2 Returning Reader
Munro Alice The Bear Came Over the Mountain 14 Reading on Cloud 9
Murakami Haruki A Perfect Day for Kangaroos 15 Jamesreadsbooks
Murakami Haruki Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman 16 Jamesreadsbooks
Murakami Haruki Firefly 28 Jamesreadsbooks
Murakami Haruki Man-Eating Cats 38 Jamesreadsbooks
Murakami Haruki Samsa in Love 7 Read the Gamut
Murakami Haruki The Rise and Fall of the Sharpie Cakes 46 Jamesreadsbooks
Murakami Haruki The Year of Spaghetti 36 Jamesreadsbooks
Nabokov Valdimir Signs and Symbols 22 Returning Reader
Nabokov Vladimir Signs and Symbols 4 Read the Gamut
Nabokov Vladimir That In Aleppo Once… 28 Bibliophilopolis
O. Henry A Double-Dyed Deceiver 47 Time Enough at Last
O. Henry The Coming Out of Maggie 13 Returning Reader
O. Henry The Ransom of Red Chief 22 Read the Gamut
Oates Joyce Carol The Hand Puppet 39 The Writerly Reader
O’Connor Flannery A Good Man is Hard to Find 23 Returning Reader
O’Connor Flannery Everything that Rises Must Converge 29 Mirror With Clouds
O’Connor Flannery Everything that Rises Must Converge 52 Time Enough at Last
O’Flaherty Liam The Sniper 7 Returning Reader
Ogot Grace Tekayo 48 Jamesreadsbooks
Orwell George England, Your England 11 Jamesreadsbooks
Orwell George Inside the Whale 4 Jamesreadsbooks
Orwell George Marrakech 33 Jamesreadsbooks
Orwell George Raffles and Miss Blandish 9 Jamesreadsbooks
O’Sullivan Vincent The Business of Madame Jahn 38 Bibliophilopolis
Otsuka Julie Diem Perdidi 5 Bibliophilopolis
Packer Z Z Brownies 11 Read the Gamut
Paley Grace An Interest in Life 11 Jamesreadsbooks
Paley Grace Come on, Ye Sons of Art 31 Jamesreadsbooks
Paley Grace Enormous Changes at the Last Minute 18 Jamesreadsbooks
Paley Grace In This Country, But in Another Language… 22 Jamesreadsbooks
Paley Grace In Time Which Made a Monkey of us All 40 Jamesreadsbooks
Paley Grace The Long Distance Runner 12 Jamesreadsbooks
Paley Grace The Pale Pink Roast 24 Jamesreadsbooks
Paley Grace Zagrowsky Tells 15 Jamesreadsbooks
Parker Dorothy The Waltz 40 Mirror With Clouds
Parypinski Joanna The Garden 25 Bibliophilopolis
Poe Edgar Allan The Angel of the Odd 36 Time Enough at Last
Poe Edgar Allan The Black Cat 39 Dolce Bellezza
Poe Edgar Allan The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar 50 The Writerly Reader
Poe Edgar Allen Maelzel’s Chess Player 12 The Writerly Reader
Poe Edgar Allen The Mystery of Marie Roget 23 The Writerly Reader
Poe Edgar Allen The Purloined Letter 24 The Writerly Reader
Pollack Eileen The Bris 51 Time Enough at Last
Porter Katherine Anne The Jilting of Granny Weatherall 52 Mirror With Clouds
Pratt Tim Our Stars, Ourselves 24 Jamesreadsbooks
Proulx Annie Heart Songs 2 Reading on Cloud 9
Proulx Annie The Half-Skinned Steer 35 Bibliophilopolis
Puchner Eric Beautiful Monsters 26 Bibliophilopolis
Pushkin Alexander The Queen of Spades 41 Bibliophilopolis
Rasnic Tem Steve A Cascade of Lies 40 The Writerly Reader
Rose-Innes Henriette Promenade 21 Returning Reader
Roughead William The Ardlamont Mystery (essay) 47 Jamesreadsbooks
Rushdie Salman Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate their Relationship 42 Mirror With Clouds
Rushdie Salman Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate their Relationship 43 Bibliophilopolis
Saki The Mouse 46 Returning Reader
Saki The Recessional 1 Mirror With Clouds
Saunders George Sea Oak 9 Read the Gamut
Saunders George Sea Oak 46 Returning Reader
Saunders George Tenth of December 21 Bibliophilopolis
Sedia Ekaterina Hydraulic 10 Bibliophilopolis
Shea Michael The Autopsy 9 Bibliophilopolis
Shetterley Wilt The Sages of Elsewhere 3 Jamesreadsbooks
Sienkiewicz Henrik The Lighthouse Keeper of Aspinwall 30 Mirror With Clouds
Silverberg Robert Crossing Into the Empire 16 The Writerly Reader
Smed James The Eight of December 11 The Writerly Reader
Somtow S.P. Diamonds Aren’t Forever 32 The Writerly Reader
Steinbeck John Junius Maltby 13 Mirror With Clouds
Stevenson Robert Louis The Merry Men 43 Mirror With Clouds
Stevenson Robert Louis The Will O’ the Mill 48 Mirror With Clouds
Taylor Lucy Switch 48 The Writerly Reader
Terry Olefemi Stickfighting Days 46 Returning Reader
Thomas Dylan A Christmas in Wales 45 Returning Reader
Thurber James University Days 33 Mirror With Clouds
Trevor William On the Streets 12 Reading on Cloud 9
Twain Mark The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg 3 Mirror With Clouds
van Lustbader Eric The Singing Tree 7 The Writerly Reader
Vaz Katherine Fado 46 Bibliophilopolis
Vaz Katherine Undressing the Vanity Dolls 14 Bibliophilopolis
Vladislavic Ivan Propaganda by Monuments 4 Returning Reader
Vonnegut Kurt Find Me a Dream 10 Mirror With Clouds
Vonnegut Kurt Mnemonics 18 Mirror With Clouds
Vonnegut Kurt The Powder-Blue Dragon 2 Mirror With Clouds
Wainaina Banyavanga Ships in High Transit 5 Returning Reader
Walker Alice Everyday Use 35 Time Enough at Last
Watts Peter The Things 6 Bibliophilopolis
Weinberg Robert Dealing With the Devil 19 The Writerly Reader
Welty Eudora Why I Live at the P.O. 4 Read the Gamut
Westeren Monica From Brussels to Ottignies 12 Bibliophilopolis
Wharton Edith The Bolted Door 6 Mirror With Clouds
Wharton Edith The Eyes 49 Bibliophilopolis
Wharton Edith The House of the Dead Hand 7 Mirror With Clouds
Wilde Oscar The Nightingale and the Rose 17 Read the Gamut
Williams Tad The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of 31 The Writerly Reader
Wilson F. Paul [Answer] 43 The Writerly Reader
Wolf Christa Exchanging Glances 48 Jamesreadsbooks
Wolff Tobias Bullet in the Brain 20 Jamesreadsbooks
Wolff Tobias Bullet in the Brain 31 Read the Gamut
Wolff Tobias The Night in Question 3 Jamesreadsbooks
Wolff Tobias The Other Miller 22 Jamesreadsbooks
Wolverton Dave In the Teeth of Glory 22 The Writerly Reader
Wright Richard The Man Who Was Almost a Man 42 Time Enough at Last

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Deal Me In – Week 16 Wrap Up

April 20, 2014 at 5:58 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Happy Easter to all! I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend and maybe some nice spring weather like we had here in Indiana today. Below are links to the new posts I’ve found since the last update. Please take a moment if you can to visit your fellow Deal Me In-ers blogs and explore what stories they read this week – maybe you’ll find one you’ll want to add to your list. 🙂

Dale’s ten of spades was Graham Greene’s “The End of the Party” http://mirrorwithclouds.wordpress.com/2014/04/18/graham-greene-the-end-of-the-party/

James paired Haruki Murakami’s “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” with Christopher Barzak’s “We Do Not Come in Peace”
http://jamesreadsbooks.com/2014/04/15/haruki-murakami-visits-bordertown/

I read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Mrs. Bullfrog” as prescribed by my six of spades https://bibliophilica.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/mrs-bullfrog-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/

It’s the jack of hearts and Robert Silverberg’s story “Crossing Into the Empire” for Katherine this week: http://katenread.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/deal-me-in-week-16-crossing-into-the-empire/

And, from Hanne, the queen of spades yielded Lorrie Moore’s “How to Talk to Your Mother” http://readingoncloud9.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/how-to-talk-to-your-mother-by-lorrie-moore/#more-1283

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The Old Switcheroo

April 23, 2013 at 8:30 am (Uncategorized)
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(above: Haruki Murakami)

There’s really just no way to write this post without spoilers, so be forewarned.

Sometimes, when I’m having trouble deciding what book to start next, I’ll re-read a short story. I was in this situation Sunday and found myself once again turning to Haruki Murakmki’s collection “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.” Murakami is an author of whom I was wholly ignorant just a few years ago and only discovered after joining the book blogging community (thanks, if I’m remembering correctly, to the blog, Dolce Bellezza). The story I chose, somewhat randomly, was the oddly-titled “New York Mining Disaster.”

I remember the first time I read this being reminded of the old song by the Bee Gees “New York Mining Disaster 1941.” I think we had this single in the house when I was a kid – maybe it was a b-side of something else, I don’t remember. I thought at the time it was a tribute to a real tragedy but, checking today, it seems it was totally fictional. I always thought that was such a weird title for a pop song. It was. It is also a title of a “weird” short story. Weird, but great.

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The story (as it appears in the collection I own) features an unnamed narrator, who starts by describing a strange friend who likes to go to the zoo during “typhoons” and sit in front of the animals and drink beer. We learn this friend is important to the narrator because the friend owns a suit that the narrator (who doesn’t own a suit) has had to borrow in order to attend a funeral. What is odd is that the narrator, being only in his late twenties, has had an unlikely number of similarly-aged friends die recently. It’s an incredible run of misfortune, especially considering their ages. What can it all mean? The narrator apologizes for not owning a suit himself, but rationalizes that he’s afraid “…if I buy funeral clothes, it’s like saying it’s OK if someone dies.” One of the deaths is a suicide, but the others are accidents

“Unlike my first friend, who killed himself, these friends never had the time to realize they were dying. For them it was like climbing up a staircase they’d climbed a million times before and suddenly finding a step missing.”

Another oddity of the narrator’s friend is that he “trades in” his girlfriend for a new one every six months. To the narrator, the new ones are indistinguishable from the old ones. They’re all essentially the same girl. At this point, the reader is surely trying to decide what ties all these things together. I know I was. Another episode involves the narrator and his friend discussing television, and the friend says, “One good thing about television, you can shut it off, and nobody complains.” He does so, and when they switch it back on later, as a man talks on the screen he says, “See? He didn’t even notice we switched him off for five minutes. When you switch it off, one side ceases to exist.”

The final episode involves the narrator at a New Year’s Eve party, where he meets a mysterious young woman who claims that she knows someone who looks “exactly” like him. He says he’d like to meet such a person, but she replies that it would be impossible. The man is dead. She claims she killed him, but is evasive as to how, joking at one point that she threw him into a beehive. She does say, however, that “It took less than five seconds. To kill him.” As their conversation ends, midnight is falling. This is almost the end of the story.

The scene fades out and is replaced by some trapped miners awaiting rescue. They snuff out their lamps to conserve air and struggle to listen for sounds of approaching rescuers over the creaking of supporting beams. Murakami writes:

“They waited for hours. Reality began to melt into darkness. Everything began to feel like it was happening a long time ago, in a world far away. Or was it happening in the future, in a different, far-off world? Outside people were digging a hole, trying to reach them. It was like a scene from a movie.”

I loved this ending. Somehow the trapped miners and the world of the narrator are related, but we don’t know how, exactly. It’s that kind of mystical air I’ve come to expect – and enjoy – in Murakami’s writing. I also enjoy endings that are open to interpretation on the reader’s part, as this one certainly is.

The real shock for me, though, was after reading the story this time, I looked it up on-line and discovered that, when originally published in The New Yorker, the passage with the trapped miners was placed at the beginning of the story. This seems a far less effective method than was presented when he included the story in the “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” collection, where it came to rest at “its proper place” at the end of the story. I’m glad I only read this story after “The Old Switcheroo” had been completed.

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Have YOU read this story? What do you think of Haruki Murakami?

(below: the first couple pages of the story as it appeared in the New Yorker (snapped on my iPad from the digital edition); you can see the part with the miners is placed at the beginning)

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2012 Year End Survey

January 2, 2013 at 9:30 am (Uncategorized)
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A Year End Survey (long but fun to fill out). I found this at A Little Blog of Books and Other Stuff.

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THE BEST IN BOOKS 2012
1. Best Book You Read In 2012? (You can break it down by genre if you want)

Hmm… I read a lot of good ones. For fiction I’d have to say The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Non-Fiction is an even bigger toss-up, but I’ll mention “Final Jeopardy” by Stephen Baker, which is the story of IBM’s “Watson,” a computer that defeated two of Jeopardy’s greatest human champions in 2011. Currently doing my second stint in the Jeopardy! contestant pool, I found this book very interesting.

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers. This is the story of a girl from the slums of Kampala who, through learning and growing proficient at chess, rises above her circumstances. As a former tournament chess player, I found the author’s frequent and obvious misunderstanding of some common chess knowledge disappointing.

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2012?

Pandora by Joanna Parypinski. I took a chance on this one. In late 2012 I began to try to be more aware of independent and especially local authors. I found Parypinski’s debut novel to be both engaging and well-constructed. I plan to continue my efforts to read first time or local “undiscovered” authors in 2013.

4. Book you recommended to people most in 2012?

Non-fiction: probably Susan Cain’s “Quiet: ThePower of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking.” Fiction: Hmm… I’ve recommended Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 to several people, but only one thus far has been brave enough to undertake reading its 1,000 pages. I still recommend Peter Brett’s “Demon Cycle” books often, and “The Gargoyle” by Andrew Davidson.

5. Best series you discovered in 2012?

I don’t usually read series, but a first book that showed potential was Leigh Bardugo’s “Shadow & Bone,” discovered by me via Laini Taylor’s NY Times review. Both are YA authors – not my normal reading genre.

6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2012?

I’ll take this as “new to me” authors. Too many to name them all, but Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, and Willa Cather spring to mind immediately.

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?

How about Gilead by Marilynne Robinson? I don’t usually enjoy books steeped in religion or spiritual themes, but Robinson wrote so well I couldn’t help myself.

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2012?

I can’t think of any that truly fit this category, but I will mention that I enjoyed the first two books of Mike Mullin’s “Ashfall” series. Plus he’s an Indiana author. 🙂

9. Book You Read In 2012 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year:

I rarely re-read something so soon, but I’m sure I’ll revisit the short story collections “Bagombo Snuff Box” (Kurt Vonnegut), “I Am No One You Know” (Joyce CarolOates), and “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” (Haruki Murakami) often…

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2012?

Tough one, but I’ll go with Somerset Maugham’s “The Painted Veil”

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11. Most memorable character in 2012?

I’ll go with twelve-year-old Paloma from Muriel Barbery’s wonderful – and polarizing – The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Maybe Renee from the same book as a co-winner…

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2012?

Either Gilead by Marilynne Robinson or Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2012?

I don’t think I can answer that one. I’ll switch it to the author that had the most impact and say Kurt Vonnegut.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2012 to finally read?

Oh, Jeez. Well, people have been recommending The Handmaid’s Tale and The Elegance of the Hedgehog to me for years. I shouldn’t have waited until 2012 for either of them.

15. Favourite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2012?

“…this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe.”
– From Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (E Pluribus Unum)

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2012?

Shortest: “The Scarlet Plague” by Jack London and “Free Will” by Sam Harris (also two of my LEAST favorite books of 2012). Longest: “Memory Babe,” an exhausting biography of Jack Kerouac.

17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling

Hmm… I’m still reading it, but the honeycomb scene in James Alexander Thom’s “Panther in the Sky.”

18. Favourite Relationship From A Book You Read In 2012 (be it romantic, friendship, etc).

How about Alex and Darla from “Ashfall” and “Ashen Winter?”

19. Favourite Book You Read in 2012 From An Author You Read Previously

“Bagombo Snuff Box” by Kurt Vonnegut

20. Best Book You Read That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else:

Probably “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” which I first heard about at The Sleepless Reader.

Book Blogging/Reading Life in 2012 (optional)
1. New favourite book blog you discovered in 2012?

Several good ones. The Book Wanderer and Multo (Ghost) come to mind immediately. I can’t remember which from my blogroll I “only” discovered in 2012, so you should probably just visit them all. 🙂

2. Favourite review that you wrote in 2012?

I don’t do “traditional” reviews but maybe this one on Fahrenheit 451:

3. Best discussion you had on your blog?

My favorite was this one on “The Value of the Indefinite”

4. Most thought-provoking review or discussion you read on somebody else’s blog?

I’be been following a yearlong string of comments on author Susan Cain’ blog about the book, “Quiet.”

5. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

Easily author James Alexander Thom’s visit to the KurtVonnegut Memorial Library last spring.

6. Best moment of book blogging in 2012?

No single moment. Just discovering great new books and great new book bloggers.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

“The Lie” by Kurt Vonnegut. I suspect this story must be assigned reading in a lot of classes in a lot of schools. I didn’t even write this post in 2012, but it got the most hits.

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

Meh, I don’t care so much about that.

9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

See blogroll and sites mentioned above.

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Just my own “Project: Deal Me In” short story reading project where I Pick 52 stories to read. This is the second year I’be done DMI,and I’m doing it again in 2013. Check my page for my 2013 selections for details. You should try this project! 🙂

Looking Ahead…
1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2012 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2013?

Too many to mention, sadly.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2013?

Maybe the third book in Peter Brett’s “Demon Cycle?” I think it’s due for release in 2013.

3. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2013?

Shoot for quality over quantity in reading – maybe read fewer books,but get “into” them more. Post and comment a little more frequently and regularly. Try to better integrate with my new Twitter account (@bibliophilopoly ). Maybe shoot for 75,000 visitors this year. Most importantly, I intend to focus more on local and “independent” authors. I’m looking for suggestions for the latter, if you want to help.

Well, that’s it for me. What were your 2012 highlights?

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Days of The Ice Man

December 31, 2012 at 9:30 am (Uncategorized)
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Haruki Murakami’s short story, “The Ice Man”

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I live in central Indiana. We endured a “blizzard” (well, a blizzard warning at least) that dumped from 6-12 inches of snow around these parts the day after Christmas. Then, Friday evening – three days after Christmas – some spots got another six inches of snow. With the temperature in the teens this morning, there is still a lot of H2O in its solid forms around here.

I worked the day after Christmas but luckily was able to drive to work before the worst of the storm hit. Since I work on the opposite side of town from where I live, I often drive up early to beat the traffic and then enjoy a cup of coffee and maybe some reading before I report for duty at the office. This is the plan I followed last Wednesday, reaching my favorite coffee shop with about an hour of leisure time to spend before getting chained to my oar.

But what to read? With nerves a little frazzled from driving twenty miles in inclement weather, I thought it might be fun to just re-read something instead of starting something new. Sometimes I’ll scan a former read for the comments or highlights I added (naturally, these morning reading sessions are done on my nook app on my iPad), but Wednesday I was looking for a short story. Scrolling through the dozens and dozens of books on my iPad, I saw Haruki Murakami’s collection “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” which I had enjoyed so much. As the blowing snow streamed past the window by my table, I scanned the table of contents and saw the title “The Ice Man.” How appropriate. Clearly THAT was the story that should be read on a morning such as that one…

Oddly, this story also showed up in an anthology (The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories) I purchased last year. [Thanks to Nina at Multo(Ghost) for making me aware of this one, too.] In the intro to the story in that book Murakami is quoted as saying “I write weird stories. I don’t know why I like weirdness so much. Myself, I’m a very realistic person.” I guess any story that begins “My husband’s an Ice Man,” holds every promise of being a bit weird.

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(Above art by Leah Thomas from Weird Fiction Review)

***Spoilers Follow***
The narrator of the story is a young woman who first meets “The Ice Man” while on a skiing trip with friends. Noticing him sitting alone in the hotel’s lobby, she is told by one of her friends, “That’s an Ice Man. They must call him that because he’s made out of ice.” He’s not really made out of ice, but he is clearly of a different race or maybe species. “The Ice Man looked young, though that was offset by the white strands, like patches of leftover snow, mixed among his stiff, wiry head of hair. He was tall, his cheeks were sharply chiseled, like frozen crags, his fingers covered with frost that looked like it would never, ever melt. Other than this, he looked completely normal.”

Naturally, the narrator gets to know the Ice Man and begins to fall for him. She is surprised that he seems to know everything about her, but when she asks if he knows her future too, he replies cryptically, “I’m not interested in the future. I have no concept of the future. Ice contains no future, just the past, sealed away.”

In spite of the objections of her parents (“listen… he’s an ice man. What happens if he melts?”), the narrator marries the Ice Man. She has discovered by now that he’s not made out of ice, he’s only as cold as ice. Somehow they live a relatively normal existence until one day she decides they should go on vacation to somewhere that he would enjoy, like …. The South Pole (not even Antarctica, but THE SOUTH POLE). At first he tries to dissuade her, but eventually he gets excited about the idea and it is she who – if you’ll pardon the expression – gets “cold feet” about going. It is too late to change plans now, though, and off they go.

Predictably, he loves it and she begins to hate it there, especially when she comes to the realization that she will never leave there. It is a sad ending, and at one point she says “Sometimes I even forget that warmth ever existed. I’m still able to cry, though.” You see, “the outrageous weight of the eternal past” had grabbed them and “wasn’t about to let go.”

I have no idea what this story truly means, even if it was the perfect story for me to read that day. It was written in 1991 and supposedly based upon a dream Murakami’s wife had(!!) (poor thing). When thinking about the story after reading it for this second time I had a flash of insight, wondering if there was a double meaning since the sentence, “My husband’s a nice man,” is almost exactly the same as the story’s actual title. Then I realized a fundamental error in my thinking… I was reading a translation. That could not have been the author’s intent.

(Other famous “Ice Men”: from top to bottom ABA/NBA star George Gervin, Val Kilmer in “Top Gun,” and Chuck Lidell of MMA fame, and, well, you probably know the last one.)

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“Sputnik Sweetheart” by Haruki Murakami

December 10, 2012 at 9:30 am (Uncategorized)
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“A profound meditation on human longing.”

This was what the last sentence of the book’s summary on Goodreads.com says. Although I have a default setting of distrust when it comes to Goodreads (or any similar site’s) summaries, when I revisited this one after I had read the novel, I thought this sentence perfectly described the book. The rest of the summary, though, was a little misleading.

When searching for something to read, having just recommended Murakami’s “1Q84” to a fellow reader, I suddenly found myself possessed with the urge to read something else by him. (I read, but never blogged about, the wonderful and poignant “Norwegian Wood” earlier this year and loved it. I’ve also read the aforementioned 1Q84 and his collection of short stories, “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.) So a quick search led me to this intriguing title, “Sputnik Sweetheart.”

“What on earth could that be about?” I wondered. Included in the Goodreads.com summary was the statement that the novel: “plunges us into an urbane Japan of jazz bars, coffee shops, Jack Kerouac, and the Beatles.” Well, that sounded great, as I am a fan of nearly all those things. Unfortunately, they don’t figure that prominently in the story. The reader does learn quickly, though, the source of the odd title: one of the characters is the 22-year old woman Sumire, a fledgling but prolific writer who is “absolutely nuts” about Jack Kerouac, and later, when she meets the “older woman” who becomes her first true love, she is asked about Kerouac by the woman who says, “wasn’t he a ‘Sputnik?'” confusing that foreign word with the term “beatnik.” Sadly, we leave Kerouac behind at that point of the book.

(below: 1957’s Sputnik satellite)

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The book becomes the story of an odd love triangle, or more properly stated, an unrequited love triangle. The narrator, a man whose name is only given to the reader as “K,” is a couple years older than Sumire and in love with her, despite the fact that he knows she does not feel the same about him. They are, however, kind of intellectual soul mates, and though tormented by his unrequited love, K cannot leave her orbit.

Things change a little when Sumire meets the older – and wealthy – Miu, who is impressed with this odd girl and hires her to help in her business. Her working relationship with Miu leads Sumire to become a little more sophisticated in dress and manner. She is unable, though, to let Miu know of her feelings toward her.

This is where we are when Murakami adds his standard dollop of the supernatural to the story. On a European trip, Miu and Sumire spend a few days on a small Greek island when strange things begin to happen… Events lead Miu to call K and ask that he come to the island.

Sumire has disappeared. “Like smoke” it seems. Of course K goes there immediately, but – though he learns more about Miu and Sumire’s relationship – he is unable to help in locating her and also gets enveloped by the numinous nature of the island, or maybe the world itself. When the search is eventually given up, he muses about things:

“Why do people have to be this lonely? What’s the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?”

He then looks up to the stars and continues: “I gazed among them for the light of a satellite,but it was still too bright out to spot one with the naked eye. I closed my eyes and listened carefully for the descendants of Sputnik, even now circling the earth, gravity their only tie to the planet. Lonely metal souls in the unimpeded darkness of space, they meet, pass each other, and part, never to meet again. No words passing between them. No promises to keep.”

How’s that for heartbreaking? In my opinion, the book may have effectively ended here, but K returns to Japan and his life’s routines. We – well, maybe kinda sort of – find out what became of Sumire, but I wondered if this was something better left to the reader’s imagination.

After re-reading this post, it sounds like I’m labeling the book as a real downer, but it’s not. I really, really liked it. Even more so than the suicide-strewn “Norwegian Wood” which somehow wasn’t exactly a downer (for this reader, anyway) either.

P.S. I would also like to thank the blogger Dolce Belezza for first suggesting Murakami to me when I was looking for short stories to fill my 2011 reading project.

What do you think of Murakami. What should I read next by this author?

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(above: Author Haruki Murakami <picture from The Guardian>)

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Strange Coincidences

April 30, 2012 at 8:00 am (Uncategorized)
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Okay, I’ll admit that I’m a fan of coincidences, even though during the week between 8am and 5pm I officially “don’t believe in them” (I’m an Accountant/Banker by trade). But in my personal life I enjoy noting their appearance and speculating about their “cause.” Why does a certain person call you just after you’ve been thinking about them? Why does a certain song come on the radio at “just the right moment” to fit your mood? Yes, I know the answer is because they are in fact just that – coincidences. Simply the law of averages dictates that we’re bound to encounter them from time to time.

I was happy, though, when reading through Haruki Murakami’s wonderful book of short stories, “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,” to come across a story that fit in nicely with my fondness for coincidences.

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(**minor spoiler alert**) The story is titled “Chance Traveler” and begins with the author “intruding” into the story with a couple “tales of coincidence” from his own real life. These are the lead-in to a story of a friend of his that he re-tells. This story involves a more complex chain of coincidental components, beginning when his friend is reading in a coffee shop.

His book of choice for that day is Charles Dickens’s “Bleak House.” After he gets up to take a break And use the restroom, he returns to find a woman sitting (and also reading) in the chair next to his. After a moment, the woman apologizes for interrupting him and asks if he is reading Dickens too, and it turns out they are reading the same book. Quite a coincidence, wouldn’t you say, especially since the book is not a current best-seller, and not even one of the more popular novels of Dickens.

Not surprisingly the two strike up a bit of a friendship, which later grows a bit awkward when it becomes evident she is looking for more out of their “relationship” than he is able to give. A certain physical characteristic of hers reminds him, however, of his estranged sister, and he ends up calling her (for the first time in ten years) at “just the right time” when she needs him.

At the end of the book, Murakami speculates that  “…perhaps chance is a pretty common thing after all. Those kind of coincidences are happening all around us, all the time, but most of them don’t catch our attention and we just let them go by. It’s like fireworks in the daytime. You might hear a faint sound, but even if you look up in the sky you can’t see a thing. But if we’re really hoping something might come true, it may become visible, like a message rising to the surface.”

There. I think I’ve summarized the story without giving too much away if you’d like to read it for yourself. The volume of short stories that contains this tale is full of other gems that are worth your time too, and I hope I’m not too out of line suggesting that you buy a copy as soon as possible. 🙂

(Below: Haruki Murakami – perhaps contemplating a new short story idea?)

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Back on Schedule with my Short Story Reading

February 6, 2012 at 1:00 pm (Uncategorized)
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I completed three short stories this weekend. Two for my “one story per week” project (which I’m now caught up on again) and one for a “Great Books” discussion group meeting this evening. I’ll just mention them briefly here, maybe writing more about one or two of them later.

First, I read the sci-fi tale, “Instinct” by one of the household names of that genre, Lester del Rey. This is a tale of the future, where humankind has died out and the “alpha race” of the planet is now robots (robots!). Apparently, there is an ongoing project to re-create man as the robots have learned that the. One thing they are “missing” in their existence is a kind of instinct. Some interesting moments, but not one of my favorites from all the short stories I’ve read recently. You may know I have a random method of choosing the order in which I read my 52 selected stories. Sometimes this leads to strange coincidences. Last week was also the much-anticipated release of the debut CD of future(?) alternative music star, Lana del Rey (no relation).

Secondly, I read Haruki Murakami’s “The Mirror” from his collection of short stories, “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.” This one was quite short, but Murakami packs quite a punch in just a few pages. This is the story of a man who worked as a night watchman, and after being in a gathering of people who shared each of their ghost stories, is compelled to tell his own. The ghost he encounters on his rounds one night turns out to be just his own reflection in a mirror (or is it?). Some great moments here, my favorite of which is when he seems to realize that, instead of what he does being reflected in the mirror, he senses he is being compelled to mimic the actions of his counterpart… Spooky, good stuff.

The third tale is the classic Edgar Allan Poe story, The Black Cat. Like the more famous “The Tell-Tale Heart,” it involves a man trying to hide the evidence of his crime, only to unwittingly reveal it due to guilt or overconfidence or supernatural reasons. The narrator is a condemned man of questionable sanity and a clear victim of alcoholism, which ostensibly leads him to his crimes. There is also some mechanical similarity to “A Cask of Amontillado” (wink, wink). Good reading.

Have YOU read any good short stories lately?

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2012 “Books I Started but Haven’t Finished” Challenge

January 5, 2012 at 12:35 pm (Uncategorized)
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Jillian, at A Room of One’s Own, is sponsoring a reading challenge for 2012. I don’t usually take part in these, but since I’m a fan of Jillian’s blog, and since she invited me to join and it fits in with my plans anyway, here goes. Ten books that I have at some point started but have stopped for whatever reasons. A couple of these I consider myself “currently reading” anyway, just very, very slowly…

1. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman -Haruki Murakami (short stories)
I’ve loved the stories from this that I’ve already read, and will certainly read the rest at some point this year.

2. Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead – (a short story anthology)
An anthology of GOOD ghost stories. I didn’t pause my reading because I didn’t like them, I’ve just been reading them sparingly, a little at a time.

3. Atlantic – Simon Winchester
(there’s a long ‘sub-title’ to this book that I can’t remember at the moment) This is a great, Non-fiction book that I discovered via the NY Times book section. Kind of a biography of the Atlantic Ocean and humanity’s relationship with it. Tough going, but fascinating.

4. The End of Growth – Richard Heinberg
I may have paused this one to stave off depression. Not sure I believe 100% of the author’s take on the economics of the present day, but sobering, informative reading thus far.

5. How to be a Really Good Pain in the Ass – Christopher DiCarlo
Got this one and met the author at the Indianapolis Chapter of The Center For Inquiry. I’ve been slowly progressing through this guide to critical thinking for several months now.

6. I Am No One You Know – Joyce Carol Oates (short story collection)
I maybe have read half of these so far. I have grown to appreciate her writing more and more in the past couple years. Her novel, The Tattooed Girl, was one of my. Favorite reads in 2011.

7. The Plague – Albert Camus
I’ve false-started this one a couple times now; not sure why I haven’t kept going. There’s “nothing wrong with it” that I remember…

8. Main Street – Sinclair Lewis
Started, but failed to read, this book for a discussion group this year. It’s a classic. I should read it.

9. The Antiquary – Sir Walter Scott
I almost totally neglected one of my favorite writers this year. This book is one of Scott’s Waverley novels.

10. The Firebrand – Marion Zimmerman Bradley
I read about sixty pages into this one at one point but got distracted by other books and responsibilities. I’ll have to restart it from the beginning I’m sure, since it’s been quite a while.

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