Monday, December 30, 2013

Murakami Collection

I've never particularly enjoyed reading as a hobby. Even as a child, I don't remember ever reading that often. Most of the books I've ever read were required readings for school, so I always felt like I was forced to read all these books instead of reading for my own personal enjoyment. I vaguely enjoyed "The Great Gatsby" in high school though, from what I remember. Seeing the movie last May made me want to re-read it because well, I don't know. I don't think I was in the right mindset back then to actually pay attention to what I was reading, or fully grasp it for that matter. As pathetic as it sounds, I just wanted to find the answers for my homework and be done with it. Was anyone else like that or is it just me?
Now that I've gotten older and have a sense of what I do like to read, I want to start reading more. I think it's safe to say that Haruki Murakami is becoming one of my favorite authors. I've only read "Norwegian Wood" and "South of the Border, West of the Sun", but I enjoyed both of them. I felt connected to the main characters in both novels and could also sort of relate to them as well. From what I've heard or read online, most of Murakami's novels deal with surrealism and surrealist themes, so I think "Norwegian Wood" and "South of the Border, West of the Sun" are some of his more realistic works. I plan on reading "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" next. It's definitely going to be a shift from the previous two, but hopefully it'll be a good read! Some of his other novels that I want to read include "Sputnik Sweetheart", "After Dark", and "Dance Dance Dance", so I hope to get those in the near future. 
Besides Murakami, I've heard great things about "Looking for Alaska" and "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, so I've been wanting to read those as well. Actually, scratch what I said previously about not reading much; I just remembered that I read the entire Twilight series (I was one of those die hard Twilight fans at one point). And as embarrassed as I am to admit this, I also read two out of three of the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy...but let's just disregard both of those series because honestly, the writing was terrible in both. I'll try to redeem myself now and say that I've read and enjoyed "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". Did that make up for it? I don't know..hopefully, but whatever! If you get passed the bad writing in 50 Shades, the story is kinda interesting to follow (please someone agree with me on this). Anyways, if you have any other good book recommendations, leave them below and maybe I'll check them out! 

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