[READATHON] I am going on a Murakami bender!

Oh, the things that goes into my mind at wee hours of the night! Last week, after a tiring day full of work meetings, I found myself laying restlessly in bed at almost 4 in the morning unable to sleep. And then it occurred to me – I wanted to read a Murakami book. And not just that, I wanted to read it successively. General boredom because of the month-long quarantine, I guess.

I am thinking of going into a Haruki Murakami bender for this month-long quarantine. Oh my God. 🌑🌙🎴🐈💿🎷

— riza @ pagesandcoffeecups (@pagesandcc) March 18, 2020

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I am a self-confessed Murakami fangirl. For me, his books are basically untouchable. You know what one of my life-long bookish dreams is? To read his work untranslated! But even if I love him with all my heart, I must admit that I still have so many books of his that are left unread – especially those that have been in my shelf for a really, really long time.

Why? It’s a simple thing: I genuinely feel like every Murakami book needs to be read in its own time. They’re not the type of books that you read just because you needed to pass time. They demand your apt attention. His books has always had this trippy, almost psychedelic effect on me. It bleeds even through my dreams – which meant I am too engaged, too deep into my drunken stupor with his words. It’s a unique hold he had on me. I don’t usually read Murakami books in succession because I find it overwhelming most times. So for me to have this sudden urge, it’s quite unusual. I wanted to document it and see. It would be interesting, I think. Like an experiments of sorts – on myself.

Honestly speaking, I'm not even sure if I could read more than one book this month if it's Murakami… but just for the fun of it, here's the planned TBR:

🌙 Kafka on the Shore
🌙 Killing Commendatore
🌙 IQ84 (Part 2 and 3) – with a reread of Part I

🤞 https://t.co/YUBLUfKBcq

— riza @ pagesandcoffeecups (@pagesandcc) March 18, 2020

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So… taking an inventory of the books that are already in my shelf, I decided to put the following in my line-up (in no particular order):

• Kafka on the Shore. I got this way back in 2015 – and surprisingly enough, I still haven’t read it. This is my “comfort book”, in a way that I always bring it whenever I am travelling to a far away place. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed that it is the subject of many of my bookstagram/reading posts just because I always bring this book everywhere. So now, I am finally reading the famed Kafka. I’m almost intimidated, to be honest – as well as intrigued. This book has consistently topped Murakami “best lists” along with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and I absolutely loved Wind-Up. I hope I will love it as much.

• Killing Commendatore. Got this last year (2019) and even went ahead and brought it with me to the US but still did not get a chance to read it. I read a short story from The New Yorker called “The Wind Cave” way back in 2018 which I think is an excerpt from the book before it was fully translated to English(?). I can’t remember what the exact details of the short story are but what I remember was that it heavily dealt with grief. I remember being triggered as hell with specific lines in that story just because I have some unprocessed feelings about grief during that time. I can’t say I am fully healed now, so it would really be an interesting journey for me to read this book if that short story is any indication of anything.

• IQ84. I got this around 2016 or 2017, I guess. I did my #Project1Q84 in early 2017 and I managed to finish only Part 1 of this book. And now, this is high time I finally revive that project and get it over with. I remember being a bit disturbed and dumbstruck after I finished Part 1 just because of how trippy it got right at the very end of it. Now, Part 2 and Part 3 are on my TBR again. But I’ll maybe do some quick scanning of Part 1 just to realign my brain on where I was in the story already.

So that’s it. I’ll probably add to this as I know I still have other Murakami books (like, Men Without Women) that I’ll have to dig up, stored in my boxes somewhere (I recently relocated my books from Makati to Cavite to sort of declutter, because I can barely sleep on my bed.)

This is supposed to be a month-long readathon – sort of aligned with the month-long quarantine imposed on us right now because of the COVID-19 outbreak – but who am I kidding? I’m not even sure if I could read more than one book this month if it’s Murakami… but just for the fun of it, we’ll see. I’m so excited to go on this journey and document it here. I’ll keep you posted!