Hello and here is a bit of a Journal of sorts for the 24 hour readathon I decided to do this week! I am actually thrilled with how this went, I read a ton more than I thought I would. In the past few months I have not really been reading, not quite sure why, but that is how my reading has been going. But, this week I feel like something is actually changing and I am hoping my reading mood has actually returned.
Holding knitting project and an open book.
10:00 PM: Started reading The Employees by Olga Ravn
11:12 PM: Competed The Employees by Olga Ravn, 136 pages ,4 stars!
11:14 PM: Started reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
11:57 PM: Read a total of 68 pages of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Time for some sleep!
9:16 AM: Continued reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
12:32PM: Stopped on page 262 of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 194 pages read.
Lunch Break and Responsibilities
4:38 PM: Continued reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
5:21 PM: Stopped on page 326, of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 64 pages read.
Dinner Break
6:13 PM: Continued reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
9:46 PM: Finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 281 pages, 4 stars!
Hello and welcome to a very spontaneous post from me. I finally have some free time this week and I decided that I want to tackle some reading with my free time to get back on track with my reading goals for this year. Hence, a 24 hour readathon where I dedicate my spare time to reading!
My plan is to start at 10:00 PM tonight and go until 10:00 PM tomorrow. Let’s see what happens!
Stack of TBR books
I don’t plan on reading all of the books here on my TBR, but I really wanted to give myself some options.
You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
The Employees by Olga Ravn
All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami
The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
I am planning to write a little journal post to share at the end of this little readathon, I can’t wait to see how I end up doing and seeing how much I actually read.
Hello and welcome to the July edition of Someone Picks My Books! This month I reached out to my cousin to pick a book for me. She ended up picking Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami, but you probably figured that out from the title. I have read a few of Murakami’s books so I was thrilled when she brought this one up so I get to read it. I was able to get it right from the library on my ereader so I got right to reading!
Description
A dazzling new collection of short stories—the first major new work of fiction from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami since his #1 best-selling Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.
Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.
Marked by the same wry humor that has defined his entire body of work, in this collection Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic. –goodreads.com
What I Liked
I really enjoyed the bite sized looks into the lives of those within the stories. I felt like the stories were well paced and the length of each one was perfect. I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything, but I also never felt like a story went on too long. A very difficult balance to maintain as a writer. I felt that while we got a snippet of each of these men, each was unique and I didn’t feel like a plot was recycled in any way.
Another thing I really enjoyed was the fact that these short stories has the same feel that I have previously loved in works I have read by the author. This is personally a worry for me when I am used to reading novels by an author, changing the type of fiction an author writes can at times ruin an author for me because they can loose a sense of what I enjoy about them. Happily that was not the case at all here.
What I Didn’t Like
As with short story collections there are some winners and some not great ones. I normally have this experience with collections, but I have to say I felt overall very positive about the collection and I didn’t outright hate or fully dislike one in particular.
Overall
This is a great collection of short stories and I am very glad that my cousin picked this for me to read. I was lucky enough to bring this with my on vacation and it was honestly perfect for that setting. It was bite sized chunks of great works by a very talented writer. The stories didn’t go to fast or drag on in any way. If you love Murakami or have been wanting to give his works a try, but 1Q84 is overwhelming I think you should look into this collection.
Up Next
Next month I am reading a book picked by the lovely Minna, where you can find them on twitter as @bookishminna and on their blog bookishminna. I really love their combination of book content and life where their personality shines through as well as their passions.
Have you read this book before or is it on your TBR?
Classic Bhaer 