Book Review | Norwegian Wood
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2014
- Norwegian Wood: / norwegian-wood
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most beautiful book ive read
I just read Norwegian Wood and i share your opinion. It's just a wonderfully written book. A book I relate to the characters and understanding their struggles and choices.
whoohoo welcome to the Murakami fan club :) I particularly liked Kafka on the Shore. Best one of the four I've read.
Thanks for the tip!
Thank you for this beautiful review. Norwegian Wood is one of my all time favorites. My favorite character was never Naoko though - always Midori
I also loved Midori, I just didn't want to talk about her too much and give anything away. I really connected with her.
unmanagedmischief
yes me too. I'd wanna be her best friend :)
Samee. Midori😍
Love your new glasses. I was super pleased when I got new specs too- felt like a new shinier person lol
I found Norwegian Wood to be very tragic and haunting. It's one of those books that really stays with you long after.
Honestly I didn't consider Toru to be whiny at all, I just took him as he was that- ofc doesn't invalidate other people's criticisms.
I own Kafka on the Shore too but haven't read it yet. I have only read After Dark besides Norwegian Wood and would highly recommend it.
I didn't really think him to be whiny either. I found him pretty relatable, albeit sometimes a bit frustrating because I didn't agree with his choices. But I was pretty happy with the ending. Midori was my favorite character throughout the novel. I also really liked Reiko, probably against my better judgement considering her past...
I will probably read Kafka next, because I own it. But lots of people have also suggested After Dark so that's definitely high on my list too! :] Thanks.
Fantastic review! Oh, that passage sounded gorgeous. Just me sitting here listening to you read it sounded so amazing. I think this is the type of book I'd really like. Seems like there's a lot of depth to it.
It is really great! I've been a bit too busy to read any more Murakami, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.
Me too. Listening to you read that passage was fantastic
WUBC really is a must. Not sure if you’ve read it yet. Very much a mythic, dreamy book.
Yes it's a Great book - Murakami is a Genius specially his novels, I find his short stories often so vague and leaves me wanting so much more but his novels are brilliant..
I haven't read many of his short stories, but I really want to! :D
It will be interesting to see what you think - some really love his short stories but my history of reading Murakami was that I read first Hard Boiled Wonderland and found it absolutely Brilliant and then I read his short story collection The Elephant Vanishes and found it so Boring that I just gave up on Murakami. This was in the late 90's - then last year on a whim I picked up The Wind up Bird Chronicle and found it so Brilliant that I went on a Murakami binge and read all his works even the short stories. - The latest one was Absolutely on Music and since I love Classical Music I found it Great Fun.
Norwegian Wood was my first Murakami book as well and though by now I can say this is not my favourite book by him, I still hold it in high regards. I think my favourites are The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore, Sputnik Sweetheart was also excellent. I've read several others, had a lot of problems with 1Q84 and I didn't manage to quite get into his short stories at all (Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman) - maybe I will try more stories some day but it was as I suspected that if author writes in a bit of syrrealistic manner, it takes a whole big book for me to get into it.
I agree with everything you said in about the last 2 minutes of the video.
I think I'm going to pick up Kafka on the Shore next. Its been recommended highly by almost everyone I've heard from, and it is the only other Murakami novel that I own. Thanks for the recommendation!
I really enjoyed Norweigan Wood. I completely agree with you that it isn't just a love story, I got so much more out of it than that. I thought that the characters were amazing. I loved the fact that his characters seemed so real. I didn't necessarily like many of them, but they felt human and I understood all their actions and thoughts even if I didn't agree with their choices. I found them just really well written. And his writing really is beautiful.
It's the only Murakami I've read but I can't wait to read another one. Although I'll be aware that the next one I read could be very different!
Great review (:
I have 1Q84, but after watching many reviews of his books, I'm thinking this is not a good book to start to know his work. Is Norwegian Wood a good pick?
Norwegian Wood is the only book of his I've read, but I really enjoyed it. I can't say how it compares to his other works, but I think it stands alone very well. :]
The first book from Murakami I've read was The Elephant Vanishes.I didn't love the book, even though I really enjoyed some parts and the writing is amazing. So, I want to give it another try and I'm curious about Norwegian Wood.
If you liked the writing, I think you'd like Norwegian Wood. The writing really makes the novel, especially since it isn't a plot driven narrative. I'm really looking forward to reading more Murakami. I've also heard that Sputnik Sweetheart and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are good for those new to Murakami.
Excellent review, as always. It's nice how you read a passage from the book. I have not read any Murakami because, until recently, had never heard of him. This is one of the things I love about BookTube. Do you have a template you work from when constructing your reviews? They are always so we'll organized and touch on all the important points. Watching your reviews is always educational.
Thanks! I'm really glad you like my reviews and I wish I could be more helpful in explaining the process. I've never scripted a video, although back in the early days I did write down notes on things I wanted to touch on. Now, I usually talk to myself for a little bit after I read a book, almost like rehearsing things I want to say during my videos. Generally though, I just turn the camera on and talk about the things that come to mind, although the raw footage is usually quite a bit longer and I cut out all of the pauses and things I say that I don't think are super necessary.
I have always been good at writing lit papers, and usually enjoy that process too. But, I always found brainstorming for papers or mapping out the structure of the essay before I write to feel forced and inorganic, so I tend to just start writing and the thesis and flow to the paper just sort of happen. I think filming reviews is a similar process since there is limited pre-planning and any structure that there may be just happens naturally. I wish I could explain it better, or had some type of system really in place. I always try to make sure I explain why I liked or didn't like something, and usually in a literary context. My analytic brain can't ever really turn off, so I even analyze the books I read for fun, so I'm somewhat predisposed to think of things in terms of more literary criticism.
I remember when I started watching BookTube videos, I was really disappointed in the lack of analytic discussion in books. I now know that it exists, but a lot of what is popular and the most easily accessible is talking about ships or beautiful book design (things that sometimes matter to me, but never seemed that relevant to what I wanted to do), so I've always tried to approach my channel with intellectual and meaningful intent. That's what makes my book reviews feel fulfilling to make. Also, since I'm an English major, even just thinking about fundamentally why I like or dislike something is an academic and analytic challenge and keeps my brain functioning even outside of an academic context.
I've recently been looked down on in one of my Goodread's groups for over-analyzing 1984. Hmph. I understand how it can be frustrating wanting to just "enjoy" something without it being dependent on whether or not you can "figure it out." Maybe that's not what you were trying to say, exactly. I think my insecurities about making a quality book review video is what holds me back from doing them. I have always been a much better written communicator than a verbal one. My Goodread reviews seem to be well constructed and flow concisely...I just can't get my mouth to follow suit.
It can definitely be tough trying to enjoy things in a more passive style. Especially in terms of something like Eleanor & Park for instance, I probably would have enjoyed the book much more if I could passively consume it rather than thinking about the book critically. But I don't think of analyzing things in a negative way. Sometimes I might come off sounding pretentious, but this is the way I like consuming and critiquing media. It is both a gift and a curse.
unmanagedmischief THE VIDEO LENGTH. It makes me cry tears of happiness.
Oh good! All I could see from the notification was "THE VIDEO LENGTH" and I was afraid because it is kind of long and I was a bit worried. Glad that it turned out to be positive :]
unmanagedmischief No worries; I love long videos! This isn't even that long compared to some booktubers...including me.
I like them too. I also admire people that make awesome reviews that are under six minutes, but I'm pretty sure I don't have that ability.