Book #45 for my 2015 Reading Challenge is a collection of short stories from my favorite author, Haruki Murakami…
This book is a collection of short stories set in different venues and features different themes/subjects like cats, monkeys, a firefly, jazz, friendship, chance, death, loss, etc. Out of these stories, some of my favorites or some that leave a deeper impression to me are The Mirror, The Year of Spaghetti, The Ice Man, Chance Traveller, Toni Takitani and Firefly.
Murakami’s short stories (and novels) make you dream differently. He’s able to bring out the magic of everyday life, he makes you see the extraordinary even in the most mundane situation. To cut the story short, there are no ordinary stories when told by Murakami.
Favorite quotes : “There are ways of dying that don’t end in funerals. Types of death you can’t smell.”
“Thinking about spaghetti that boils eternally but is never done is a sad, sad thing.”
“I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is imagine by what comes floating to the surface every once in a while.”
“I may be the type who manages to grab all the pointless things in life but lets the really important things slip away.”
“What I saw wasn’t a ghost. It was simply — myself. I can never forget how terrified I was that night, and whenever I remember it, this thought always springs to mind: that the most frightening thing in the world is our own self.”
Rating : 4/5 stars
HappymessHappiness 