Happy birthday to one of our favorite authors ever, Haruki Murakami!
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
― Haruki Murakami, NORWEGIAN WOOD
Murakami is the child of Japanese literature teachers, but he was more
interested in American literature as a boy. He studied literature and
drama at Waseda University in Tokyo, and after graduation, Murakami
operated a jazz bar called the "Peter Cat" in Tokyo for eight years.
During this time, he became familiar with Western music, and that is why
so many of his novels have musical themes.
Murakami did not
write at all until after age 30. He claims that he was inspired to write
his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing (1979), while watching a baseball
game. He worked on the novel for many months, usually after finishing
his workdays at the jazz club, and the finished book had short chapters
and a fragmented style. Murakami sent the novel to a writing contest and
won first prize.
He published Norwegian Wood (1987), which
sold millions of copies in Japan and made Murakami a literary sensation.
To escape the fame, he and his wife lived abroad for several years, in
Europe and in the United States, where Murakami taught at Princeton
University. They returned to Japan in 1995. In 2002, he published Kafka
on the Shore, a novel John Updike called "a real page-turner, as well as
an insistently metaphysical mind-bender." It's about a teenager named
Kafka Tamura, a "cool, tall, 15-year-old boy lugging a backpack and a
bunch of obsessions."
His latest book is 1Q84 (2011).
Haruki Murakami said: "I write weird stories. Myself, I'm a very
realistic person. [...] I wake up at six in the morning and go to bed at
10, jogging every day and swimming, eating healthy food. [...] But when
I write, I write weird."
Happy birthday to one of our favorite authors ever, Haruki Murakami!
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
― Haruki Murakami, NORWEGIAN WOOD
Murakami is the child of Japanese literature teachers, but he was more interested in American literature as a boy. He studied literature and drama at Waseda University in Tokyo, and after graduation, Murakami operated a jazz bar called the "Peter Cat" in Tokyo for eight years. During this time, he became familiar with Western music, and that is why so many of his novels have musical themes.
Murakami did not write at all until after age 30. He claims that he was inspired to write his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing (1979), while watching a baseball game. He worked on the novel for many months, usually after finishing his workdays at the jazz club, and the finished book had short chapters and a fragmented style. Murakami sent the novel to a writing contest and won first prize.
He published Norwegian Wood (1987), which sold millions of copies in Japan and made Murakami a literary sensation. To escape the fame, he and his wife lived abroad for several years, in Europe and in the United States, where Murakami taught at Princeton University. They returned to Japan in 1995. In 2002, he published Kafka on the Shore, a novel John Updike called "a real page-turner, as well as an insistently metaphysical mind-bender." It's about a teenager named Kafka Tamura, a "cool, tall, 15-year-old boy lugging a backpack and a bunch of obsessions."
His latest book is 1Q84 (2011).
Haruki Murakami said: "I write weird stories. Myself, I'm a very realistic person. [...] I wake up at six in the morning and go to bed at 10, jogging every day and swimming, eating healthy food. [...] But when I write, I write weird."
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
― Haruki Murakami, NORWEGIAN WOOD
Murakami is the child of Japanese literature teachers, but he was more interested in American literature as a boy. He studied literature and drama at Waseda University in Tokyo, and after graduation, Murakami operated a jazz bar called the "Peter Cat" in Tokyo for eight years. During this time, he became familiar with Western music, and that is why so many of his novels have musical themes.
Murakami did not write at all until after age 30. He claims that he was inspired to write his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing (1979), while watching a baseball game. He worked on the novel for many months, usually after finishing his workdays at the jazz club, and the finished book had short chapters and a fragmented style. Murakami sent the novel to a writing contest and won first prize.
He published Norwegian Wood (1987), which sold millions of copies in Japan and made Murakami a literary sensation. To escape the fame, he and his wife lived abroad for several years, in Europe and in the United States, where Murakami taught at Princeton University. They returned to Japan in 1995. In 2002, he published Kafka on the Shore, a novel John Updike called "a real page-turner, as well as an insistently metaphysical mind-bender." It's about a teenager named Kafka Tamura, a "cool, tall, 15-year-old boy lugging a backpack and a bunch of obsessions."
His latest book is 1Q84 (2011).
Haruki Murakami said: "I write weird stories. Myself, I'm a very realistic person. [...] I wake up at six in the morning and go to bed at 10, jogging every day and swimming, eating healthy food. [...] But when I write, I write weird."
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