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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
I’m…not really sure what I just read. Allegory, maybe? I don’t get it.
A strange (obviously) but enjoyable book. The presentation is amazing and the story is a bit different for Murakami. It's basically a very brief, very baffling fairytale with elements of humour and horror that was fun whilst it lasted but is pretty disposable and far from essential reading.
A strange, little fable that takes us to the depths of a library’s inner workings and reveals something far more dark and sinister than a few dusty books. There’s only so much story you can fit in a ~ 70 page book with 24-point font (hence the 3-Star review), but it makes for a good gift and is designed and fully illustrated by the masterful Chip Kidd, so you know it’s beautiful.
Haruki Murakami’s mind never ceases to fascinate me.
Review at https://wordsmithantics.wordpress.com/2015/09/07/the-strange-libary-by-haruki-murakami/
This was my first novel that I read from Haruki Murakami and it was an excellent introduction to his beautiful writing style, to his unique mind and the life he gave to the character's within this novel. The book's illustrations were something I've never encountered in a book before, but it definitely gave the story personality. I managed to finish this book in around thirty minutes, unable to peel my eyes away as every page had me turning the next, wondering – how will the narrator escape? A sense of urgency and curiosity devoured me, but as soon as my eyes read the last page, a feeling of existential dread filled me. An unexplainable dread that Murakami had successfully aimed for and been able to evoke on his readers. It was a strange little novel; the synopsis had already warned the readers of it, but the purposelessness yet purposeful aspect of this novel is what made it so intriguing from start to finish.
I was expecting a little more from my favourite writer ever. I mean, the story is so like his but it seems to only go a bit far, when it had a lot of potential. I loved the weirdness, I just wanted a bit more out of it.
but what really struck me was the use of images. I love how they seem random when you first go through the pages of the book. but each one as meaning, even if just a little. they're beautifully chosen and they totally sucked me into that weird library.
full review here: https://catshelf.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/book-review-73-the-strange-library-by-haruki-murakami/
but what really struck me was the use of images. I love how they seem random when you first go through the pages of the book. but each one as meaning, even if just a little. they're beautifully chosen and they totally sucked me into that weird library.
full review here: https://catshelf.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/book-review-73-the-strange-library-by-haruki-murakami/
Murakami is another author whose work I’ve yet to experience. I’m told he’s brilliant. I’m told he pulls his readers into fantastic realms believable enough for them to consider it their versions of reality. This one is an oddity of a book. One whose purpose and intention remain a mystery to me. I read this book a couple of weeks ago. And at 96 pages – half of which, are illustrations – I am at least afforded the luxury of a multiple re-reads. But man, I’m still scratching my head on this one.
The Strange Library is a short novel about a boy whose thirst for knowledge landed him in a prison-like stint in the basement of his local library. As he returns the books he borrowed previously, the voracious reader decides to read up on tax collection in the Ottoman Empire. His mother always taught him that “If you don’t know something, go to the library and look it up.” The librarian directs him to Room 107, where an old man guards the door like Hades guards the gates of hell. He then gives him three books upon which he’ll learn that he’d need to memorize in order to leave the premises.
In the jail cell, the boy will meet the sheep-clad man in charge of feeding him, and a pretty shape-shifting girl in charge of bringing him the food. Throughout the course of his imprisonment, he is saddened with thoughts about his mother and his pet starling. He befriends the sheep man and the girl and convinces them to help him break out.
This book is wildly imaginative. I’ll give it that. It reads more for the younger audience. It reminds me Neil Gaiman’s Ocean at the End of the Lane; a short tome meant to put the readers’ mind in a series of light calisthenics. In the end, I walked away with the knowledge that my imagination does not have the capacity to handle certain authors, and I have a feeling Murakami and I will not get along. I’ll give him another go, though.
The Strange Library is a short novel about a boy whose thirst for knowledge landed him in a prison-like stint in the basement of his local library. As he returns the books he borrowed previously, the voracious reader decides to read up on tax collection in the Ottoman Empire. His mother always taught him that “If you don’t know something, go to the library and look it up.” The librarian directs him to Room 107, where an old man guards the door like Hades guards the gates of hell. He then gives him three books upon which he’ll learn that he’d need to memorize in order to leave the premises.
In the jail cell, the boy will meet the sheep-clad man in charge of feeding him, and a pretty shape-shifting girl in charge of bringing him the food. Throughout the course of his imprisonment, he is saddened with thoughts about his mother and his pet starling. He befriends the sheep man and the girl and convinces them to help him break out.
This book is wildly imaginative. I’ll give it that. It reads more for the younger audience. It reminds me Neil Gaiman’s Ocean at the End of the Lane; a short tome meant to put the readers’ mind in a series of light calisthenics. In the end, I walked away with the knowledge that my imagination does not have the capacity to handle certain authors, and I have a feeling Murakami and I will not get along. I’ll give him another go, though.
Este libro fue como un sueño muy perturbador y sumado con las ilustraciones hubo momentos que me dió hasta un poco de miedo.
me gustó mucho pero fue muy cortito si no le pondría más calificación.
me gustó mucho pero fue muy cortito si no le pondría más calificación.
I expected this one to be weirder. You see it on lists of unusual books, books with atypical structures like House of Leaves or something, and it probably doesn't live up to that sort of expectation.
It IS a fun, short version of Murakami's version of weirdness. I still prefer The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle because, even though it's long AF, maybe even long AQ (Q being further into the alphabet than F), the length brings you into the weirdness more slowly, more piecemeal, and that works a little better for me.
As someone who has worked as a librarian, I will admit that I have, in the past, thought of scenarios along the lines of slicing off the top of someone's head and sucking their brains out. But never a patron who came in with an odd question regarding an obscure piece of knowledge.
That's kind of what librarians dream about, that patron who's like, "Can you tell me about books bound in human skin?" And I'm like, "Bro, I've got resources for you."
So it was a little backwards because I mostly fantasized about trapping in a weird dungeon those patrons who were very annoying, who were often there to do something like ask me to order the files on their computer for them, not so much the patrons who had interesting queries.
AND, further, those patrons who I may have hired a sheep man to feed them donuts in their cell, usually they had less knowledge than I did, at least about whatever we were discussing, which is why they were in the library, SO I'm not sure if I can drink their brains and get their knowledge.
It's kind of like...you know how you'd hear shit like, "warriors would eat the hearts of their enemies to gain their courage"? What if their enemies were cowards? Would that be a way of defeating them, you send in your most cowardly villager, they get captured, their heart gets eaten, and now all the warriors are pushovers?
Not that I'm so smart. If a spooky librarian ate my brains to gain my knowledge, it'd be a curse. They'd be like, "Why do I now know the number for the Denver Post Classifieds from the early 90's is 825-2525?" "Why do I know the jingle for a toy called a Skip-It, and that the very best thing of all is that there's a counter on this ball?"
It IS a fun, short version of Murakami's version of weirdness. I still prefer The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle because, even though it's long AF, maybe even long AQ (Q being further into the alphabet than F), the length brings you into the weirdness more slowly, more piecemeal, and that works a little better for me.
As someone who has worked as a librarian, I will admit that I have, in the past, thought of scenarios along the lines of slicing off the top of someone's head and sucking their brains out. But never a patron who came in with an odd question regarding an obscure piece of knowledge.
That's kind of what librarians dream about, that patron who's like, "Can you tell me about books bound in human skin?" And I'm like, "Bro, I've got resources for you."
So it was a little backwards because I mostly fantasized about trapping in a weird dungeon those patrons who were very annoying, who were often there to do something like ask me to order the files on their computer for them, not so much the patrons who had interesting queries.
AND, further, those patrons who I may have hired a sheep man to feed them donuts in their cell, usually they had less knowledge than I did, at least about whatever we were discussing, which is why they were in the library, SO I'm not sure if I can drink their brains and get their knowledge.
It's kind of like...you know how you'd hear shit like, "warriors would eat the hearts of their enemies to gain their courage"? What if their enemies were cowards? Would that be a way of defeating them, you send in your most cowardly villager, they get captured, their heart gets eaten, and now all the warriors are pushovers?
Not that I'm so smart. If a spooky librarian ate my brains to gain my knowledge, it'd be a curse. They'd be like, "Why do I now know the number for the Denver Post Classifieds from the early 90's is 825-2525?" "Why do I know the jingle for a toy called a Skip-It, and that the very best thing of all is that there's a counter on this ball?"