If YOu haven't read it ghosty, you in particular should. Because mary shelley is the OG goth girl icon
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She was hanging out in graveyards before it was cool
I am looking to read station eleven finally - had the book for like 5 years and forgot about it 
Also planning guards guards! Soon but currently finishing the spin series by Charles Williams
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My to read or finish
The loser
Nausea
Sputnik sweetheart
Zen in the art of writing
I have so many 5 year owned forgotten and unread books. I just try to make sure Iāll like it later and otherwise donāt worry too much. Itās better than never getting it, and is only just a subperfect financial or special investment
The one at the top of my list is my favorite. The rest are pretty recently acquired and have their own appeals, but the top of the list one has been on my shelf for a literal decade and is sorta special. I had completely forgotten why I bought it in the first place or what it was about. It made for a better surprise, ironically
Rare good acquisition choice by old me
Fun fact: Murakami wrote the Japanese translation for The Polar Express and it is amazing. I read it to kids here every December.
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I aint a fan of his novels but I like his short stories. This one is my favorite.
Summary
Concerning the Sound of a Train Whistle in the Night, or On the
Efficiency of Fiction
By Haruki Murakami
The girl has a question for the boy: āHow much do you love me?ā
He thinks for a moment, then quietly replies, āAs much as a train whistle in the night.ā
She waits in silence for him to go on. Obviously there has to be a story there.
āSometimes, just like that, in the dead of night, I wake up,ā he begins. āI donāt know what time it is exactly. Maybe two or three, around then, Iād say. The time doesnāt actually matter. The point is that itās the dead of night, and Iām totally alone, not a soul around. I want you to imagine that for me, ok? Itās completely dark, you canāt see anything. And thereās not a sound to be heard. You donāt even hear the hands of the clock, ticking out the time ā for all I know, the clock could well have stopped. And then all of a sudden, it hits me that Iāve become isolated, that Iām separated some unbelievable distance from everyone I know, from every familiar place. I realize that no one in this wide world loves me anymore, that no one will talk to me, that Iāve become the kind of person no one even wants to remember. I could just disappear and no one would even notice. I feel like Iāve been pushed into a box with thick iron sides and sunk way down to the very bottom of the ocean. The pressure is so intense it makes my heart ache, I feel like Iām going to explode, to be torn in two ā you know that feeling?ā
The girl nods. She thinks she knows what he means.
The boy continues. āI think thatās one of the most painful experiences a person can have in life. I feel so sad and it hurts so much that I wish I could just go ahead and die, seriously. Actually, I take that back, itās not that I wish I could die: I can tell that if things go on in this way, the air in the box is going to get so thin that I really will die. Itās not just a metaphor. Itās reality. Thatās what it means to wake up all alone in the dead of night. You still following me?ā
The girl nods again, saying nothing. The boy lets a moment go by.
āAnd then, way off in the distance, I hear a train whistle. Itās really incredibly far off, this whistle. I donāt even know where the train tracks could be. Thatās how far away the sound is. And itās so faint that itās right on the edge of being inaudible. Only Iām certain itās a train whistle. Thereās no doubt about that. So I lie perfectly still, in the darkness, listening as hard as I can. And then I hear it again. My heart stops aching. The hands on the clock start moving. The iron box begins to rise up, nice and slow, toward the surface of the sea. And itās all thanks to that little whistle, you see. A whistle so faint I could barely hear it. And the point is, I love you as deeply as that whistle.ā
With that, the boyās brief story is over. And the girl begins telling her own.
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Holy fuck
Thatās crazy, what else has he done?
I guess I could find a list somewhere
I dont know a ton about his work but I had to learn about him in literature class in Tokyo a bit. He is the most accessible Japanese author internationally.
I just didnāt know he did translations
I recommend Keiichiro Hirano for a lesser known Japanese author that has enough success to get some English translations. I like his book A Man, and it has an English version.
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I am not sure if he does them much, I have only seen his name on that one.
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Iāll have to get a copy, it sounds funny
i went on a bit of a bender and did after dark, norwegian wood and sputnik sweetheart back to backā¦ i would like to read iq84 soon but i needed to pause on him and mix some other authors in there because i felt like a literary weaboo
very beautiful murakami thank you for not writing about the shape of the girlās breasts for three pages 