Happy New Year! Are you ready for another adventure through the past, present, or future? To take a pilgrimage, or journey around the world, or travel to the farthest reaches of space, or the depths of the sea? To read about dragons or other fantastic beasts, or delve into the intriguing world of science fiction? How about dipping your toes into true crime, memoirs, narrative non fiction and other true life stories? Yes! Great!
We typically start our journey in East Asia in the country of Japan and traditionally start the year with Haruki Murakami who focuses on magical realism, although some of his books defy description. His books cover a wide range of genres from Bildungsroman to fantasy fiction to literary fiction to psychological and suspense fiction as well as short fiction and memoirs. I've been reading his autobiography What I Talk About When I Talk About Running which I'm enjoying and you don't have to be a runner to enjoy it as he reflects on his thoughts while running about writing and life. Also on my nightstand is his most current book - The City and It's Uncertain Walls - which I'm looking forward to reading this month. It also fulfills either the Bildungsroman or Surreal categories for our 52 Books Bingo. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink!
Although Penguin suggests starting with some of Murakami's slimmer novels, my first introduction to Murakami was his chunky fantasy novel 1Q84, filled with magical realism, music, cats, weird characters, choices, and the meaning of life. Which lead to reading most of his bibliography.
If you want to discover more about Murakami, check out his memoir, Novelist as a Vocation in which he shares stories, his writing process, and so much more. It's fascinating.
Japan is also on my bucket list and is one of my ten categories this year and I have collected a wide variety of mysteries, travel, historical, and literary books Japanese authors Banana Yoshimoto, Akimitsu Takagi, Durian Sukegawa, Hisashi Kashiwai, Kasuo Ishiguro, Kenzaburo Oe, and Pico Iyer which I'll be reading throughout the year.
If you up for a spelling challenge, this year is devoted to fictional dragons with our Dragon Bookology and we are starting with Andarna from Rebecca's Yarros's Empyrean series. This challenge may be fulfilled by reading one book for each letter in the name, or reading the book in which the dragon can be found.
Also, we'll be doing another round of A to Z and Back Again, highlighting one letter each week.
And if you are new to the challenge, check out the menu bar above to peruse our perpetual challenges such as Well Educated Mind or Agatha Christie, or explore some of our past challenges.
Alright, let's go! Put on your hat and walking shoes, strap on your backpack, grab your walking stick, and let's get started.
Please share your thoughts and reviews and link to your website, blog, Goodreads, Google+, Tumblers, or Instagram page. If you do not have a social media account, please leave a comment to let us know what you are reading. The link widget closes at the end of each book week.
In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field paste a link to your post, then check the privacy box and click enter.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your kind comments.