[Naren]

Originally Posted by giannifive

I'm not sure which one that is. Do you know the English title? I loved "Hard-Boiled Wonderland". That book is so odd you have to read it twice!

Well, it translates to something like "The screw-winding bird chronicle." I don't think there'd be a good English name for it, because it refers to this mysterious bird in the story that the main character never sees, but its song/chirping sounds like it's winding the screws of the world (to make the world work properly), so he nicknamed the bird "neji-maki-dori" (neji = screw, maki = winding, tori = bird).

And yeah, I read "Sekai No Owari To Haado Boirudo Wandaarando" ("The End Of The World And A Hard-Boiled Wonderland"). That was a good one.

I'm not sure whether I like "Nejimakidori kuronikuru" or "hard-boiled wonderland" better. They are bother very good books. Although both are bizarre. And I was a little disappointed by the ending of "nejimakidori kuronikuru"... Now to mention it, I was a little disappointed by the end of "sekai no owari to haado boirudo wandaarando" too.

[giannifive]

Originally Posted by Naren

Well, it translates to something like "The screw-winding bird chronicle."

It's called "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" on my copy. I just got it for a gift and I can't wait to read it. People claim it's his masterpiece.

[Naren]

Originally Posted by giannifive

It's called "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" on my copy. I just got it for a gift and I can't wait to read it. People claim it's his masterpiece.

That's a very inappropriate title. Sounds like a bird-shaped machine that is getting wound up. The bird is supposed to be a "real bird" that winds the screws of the world. I know "Nejimakidori kuronikuru" is kind of a hard title to translate, but "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" is just plain wrong.

I've also heard that it's his "masterpiece." It was good, but not a masterpiece by far. It seems like Murakami himself doesn't know where he's going with the story at many times. There was one time, near the end of the first book, where the main character goes off into this long story about when this old guy went to Mongolia during World War II and I was thinking "what the hell does this have to do with anything?" He manages to tie everything together, but a lot of it seemed forced to me. Like he thought up an idea to tie it together AFTER writing something. Also, he'd have an interesting thing going on, then the chapter ends and the next two chapters are long 40-60 pages of completely unrelated stuff. And at the end of the book, he leaves you wondering what the hell he meant by a lot of the stuff in the novel. I doubt he knows half of the unanswered questions himself. Like, why... I shouldn't go into it since you haven't read it. I hope it's a good translation because a bad translation can ruin a great book. One reason why I never read Japanese novels in English. I have read good translations and bad translations before. I read "Kitchen" by Yoshimoto Banana 2 years ago and someone asked me to compare it to the English translation and it made me so glad I DIDN'T read the English and had read the original Japanese instead.

Back to the subject at hand, I liked the book, but I wouldn't call it his "masterpiece" by far. A friend of mine who is a Murakami Haruki fan said that "Sputnik no koibito" is his best work. But that might just be his opinion.

[thepunisher]

the brothers karamazov

definaty a good read so far, of course im only 300 pages into it out of over 700

[teelguitars]

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

[nyck]

Don't really read much, but I'm gonna check out Dances with Wolves pretty soon. I loved the movie.

[garcia3441]

A History of Europe by Roberts.
I just got Jimmy Buffett's A Salty Piece of Land. I'll probably start that on Sunday or Monday.

[distressed_romeo]

Originally Posted by teelguitars

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Fantastic book! Love everything Neil Gaiman does...
Don't have much time to read for pleasure, as I'm an English student, and most of my time is devoted to reading for my degree (yuk). Last book I read for fun was 'Loving Sabotage' by Amelie Nothomb. She's Belgian, and pretty unique...

[The Dark Wolf]

Originally Posted by distressed_romeo

Fantastic book! Love everything Neil Gaiman does...

The Sandman series OWNS. Drew would love this comic series, I'm certain. It's right up his alley.

[distressed_romeo]

Originally Posted by The Dark Wolf

The Sandman series OWNS. Drew would this this comic series, I'm certain. It's right up his alley.

'The Dream Hunters', the Japanese-themed one, was really beautiful.