The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle!!!

Title: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Author: Haruki Murakami

DOP: 1997

This book is amazing! I found it at a book store two days ago, after seeing it on display and remembering that a friend of mine read it and highly recommended it. At first I was a bit skeptical, I had read one of this author's earlier books, and although I liked it alright, it wasn't great. However, this is one the best books I have read in a very long time. I've only had it three days and I've already read 128 pages, which may not seem like that much, but is a lot for me. The book follows the story of a 30ish year old man living in Tokyo named Toru Okada. It describes his life including his disenchanted marriage, the quitting of his job, and the search for his lost cat. There is a strong element of mystery involved in the book that causes the reader to question and examine each characters' motives and behaviors. Also present is a sense of the super natural. Several characters have some vague psychic abilities and are able to tell the future in some way or another. There's also a haunted house which seems to hold the answer to many of the books mysteries. The Japanese culture that gets infused into the book also makes it a very interesting read. So far this is shaping up to be an amazing book with a very strong story line and well developed characters.

Well I Got Tired of My Book...

I've stopped reading Stranger In A Strange Land. I made this decision about a week ago and I haven't looked back since. There were many reasons I decided to stop reading it and I will list these reasons in the following blog. The book has an interesting enough idea for a plot and it wasn't particularly poorly written, it just didn't do a very good job of keeping my attention. It wasn't exactly what I would call a "page-turner". I only got about 30 pages into it but at the point I got to the events were moving very slowly, too slowly for my liking. All that had really occurred was this odd man from Mars had been discovered and he was now being held in a scientific lab and was undergoing a series of studies. The language was a little drab and boring; you can only be so interesting when discussing tests to run on a man from another plant. Another thing that contributed to me putting down this book was the fact that I had just read a heavily science fiction book, and although I find it to be a very interesting genre, one can only take so much of the sci-fi formula consisting of aliens, robots, space travel, and scientific jargon. I'm glad I decided to stop reading this book because it led me to the discovery of a truly amazing book...

What would it be like to be an alien?

As you know by now this story is about a man from Mars who has come to Earth and if forced to adapt and cope with the ways of our world. This man's ways are very different from our own, considering he is from another planet and all, but not completely different. He looks very much like us and has a basic understanding of our language. Language is one place where he encounters a lot of problems however. He takes a long time to decipher the phrases that people say to him and he is often confused by certain emphasis or slang. Also in the part of the story where I am now he is seeing a woman for the very first time. This confuses him and causes him to feel very embarrassed. This makes me wonder how difficult it would be to come to an unfamiliar world and not know anything of what you were seeing around you. It's one to visit a different country and not be accustomed to their culture or language to be from a completely different world would be incredibly strange and difficult.

A Good Start

Well I've started the book and so far it's very good. I'm a couple of pages into it but it has done a very good job of keeping me interested. The story thus far goes as follows: a space craft, with four married couples all with various skills on board as the crew, set off on a journey to Mars. The mission did not go well and the people of Earth assumed the crew had all died. 50 years later a drone craft was sent to Mars to do some recon. However, what this small craft finds is a man. His name is Valentine Michael Smith and he is a Martian. The ship carries him back to earth where he suffers a great deal due to the difference in gravity and atmosphere. Meanwhile the captain in charge of the voyage and several scientists who have been tasked with the duty of watching of the strange man from outer space argue over what to do with him. This is as far as I've gotten so far but I think it will be very interesting. I'm a fan of science fiction and the idea of life on other planets so I think I will find this to be a very good read.

Title: Stranger In A Strange Land

Author: Robert A. Heinlein

DOP: 1961

I just started a new book called Stranger In A Strange Land. I don't have much to blog about because I received the book only a few minutes ago as a birthday gift from my mom. I've never heard of this book before but my mom informs me that there was a movie adaption for which David Bowie played the lead part (a man from space) which does ring a bell. From what I've been able to gather from my mom and the text around the outside of the book the story consists of man who has come to earth from Mars. Like us he is human but unlike us he exhibits Martian behaviors and a Martian way of life. I assume that this is the story of his interactions with Earth people; trying to fit in, teaching them his ways, and undoubtedly making some friends and enemies along the way.  The book is apparently a bestseller and appears to be very good. I look forward to reading it and finding out more.

The End (of The Beatles)

I've come to the end of my book and I have to admit, even though I already knew what was coming, it was really sad. Everyone knows how The Beatles came to end. The terrible fighting, the awful girlfriends, and the crisis of money and Apple Corp. It's sad to look back on the early days when they were all so young and excited and happy to be making music and think that by the end everyone hated each other and it was more about money than anything else. Of course there's the infamous Yoko Ono situation, the crazy "artist" girlfriend of John Lenon who was constantly manipulating and causing issues among the band members. Then there were the sessions for their final album Let It Be in which they could barely stand to be in the same room with each other, so they recorded most all of their parts separately. At one point it got so bad that Ringo Starr actually quit the band temporarily and had to be coxed back by George Harrison, the other most level headed member of the band. Finally, the thing that caused most of the problems with in the band was the company they had started Apple Corp. Apple was intended to be a house for everything Beatles, but a lack of business knowledge had caused the company to cost them loads and loads of money. John Lenon eventually couldn't take it anymore and told Paul he was quitting. Paul however convinced Lenon to stick around till they could get their affairs in order and make an official announcement to the public. Then, in a move of bold back-stabbery, Paul told the press that he was leaving and The Beatles were no more. 

The Psychadelic Years

To me this is the most interesting period of The Beatles' career so naturally I find it very interesting to read about. Srgnt. Pepper's is my favorite album of theirs and it's very cool to learn a little bit more about how it came into creation. As the story goes Paul McCartney came up with the idea of having an alter-ego band called Srgnt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band while on an airplane. He then pitched the idea to the rest of the band and thus the first semi-operatic rock record was born. At this time The Beatles had begun to get very adventurous in the studio, using all kinds of strange experimental arrangements. This is what makes this music so appealing to me, it was a departure from their usual pop structure. Of course they had also began to experiment with other things outside of the studio at this time. In particular John Lennon, the band's tortured genius, had fallen hard into a pattern of drug abuse. While the music may have been ground breaking and excellent to listen to this is also when the band started having real problems with infighting. It was the beginning of the end, and what a sad and nasty end it would be.