MURAKAMI RANKED | Ranking Haruki Murakami's Novels from Worst to Best
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Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside Japan
Books Include:
Hear the Wind Sing
Pinball, 1973
A Wild Sheep Chase
Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Dance Dance Dance
Norwegian Wood
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle
Sputnik Sweetheart
South of the Border, West of the Sun
Kafka on the Shore
After Dark
1Q84
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage
Killing Commendatore
Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack
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You’re telling me this guy, read the books, made the video, and wrote the music 😤 booktube legend
I absolutely love this video - I don't think I'll ever find another author that I could read like Murakami, My top favourites are Kafka on the shore and Wind - up bird chronicle, but I think 1Q84 is also amazing. And yes, hard-boiled wonderland is definitely underrated!
Kafka is so good! It’s pretty incredible that’s he’s written so many masterpieces.
I'm reading Kafka right now and honestly i don't really get the vibe, i mean don't get me wrong it's good but maybe i expected more as it is a bit overhyped. I haven't finished it yet so maybe i judge too early
Dude, your videos are just great, please keep with the hard work!. Love them!
Thank you!!
My top two Murakami books would have to be After Dark and 1Q84- even though the ranking for After Dark was low, I can understand why. But genuinely for anyone who was a quick, interesting, and fast paced read with really gorgeous literary aesthetics, please give After Dark a shot!
Over the years, After Dark has definitely risen in my rankings. Might be time to do a new ranking sometime soon.
Great list! I first read Murakami in 2020 and devoured 10 of his books in just a few months. I currently have Wild Sheep Chase and 1Q84 on the shelf ready to go pretty soon. He's such a compelling, unique voice in literature.
Nice! Those are two of my favorites. He’s hard to put down once you pick him up!
I just finished Sputnik Sweetheart and I just started Wind/Pinball and I see them both right at the start of this video as his worst LMFAO. I enjoyed Sputnik and I like Wind so far, but I have 1Q84 waiting next.
Great video, thank you. For some reason, I'm obsessed with Hind the Wind Sing and Pinball. I wish they were higher on everyone's lists
Haven't read all of his stuff (Kafka is next), but my top three are Norwegian Wood, Wind-up Bird Chronicle, and (hot take), Pinball / Wind. Can't explain it.
That’s high praise for Wind/Pinball! I hope you like Kafka, it’s the one I’ve read the most.
@@vellichor_ventures I think I just find weird pleasure in super flawed first novels. Plus it FEELS the most autobiographical (along with Norwegian Wood), before Murakami realized he wanted no information about his personal life public except:
1. Running Peter Cat
2. Baseball inspiration for writing story
3. He likes running, records, and t-shirts
I have IQ84 and it’s such a thick book I’m struggling to get through it.
Yeah it's definitely a little sow at times. I love it but I know a lot of people aren't as into it as I am.
Norwegian wood is the goat
-guy who has only read norwegian wood and 1Q84
NW is one of the goats for sure. Great “it’s cold out and I want to kill myself” book.
i come back to this video after every murakami book i read. love this video 🫶
That’s so cool! Thank you for saying so. Which one have you finished most recently?
I love how high on the list Hard Boiled Wonderland at the Edge of the World was on your list. It's without a doubt my favorite of his and probably my favorite novel in the magical realism genre.
It's so good! I'm not sure why it's so under discussed.
Hardboiled wonderland isn't magical realism. It's fantasy/science fiction.
@@MrK.A That makes sense. Thanks.
Sputnik Sweetheart is the first and only Haruki Murakami book I've read and thought it was pretty good, and you're telling me it not only gets better from here, but it gets infinitely better? What the flip
His books get way wackier and more fun than Sputnik so I hope you enjoy them!
Dang I’ve read a ton of Murakami and I gotta be honest - I wish I could get back the time I spent reading 1Q84 lol. The only part I really liked was when you followed the sleaze bag in book 3 or the cat town. Otherwise it all felt very boring imo, but otherwise I love your list!
Yeah I think that’s the main criticism of 1Q84 I hear from other Murakami fans. For whatever reason it just never fazed me and I was locked in for the whole thing. Thanks for watching!
Kafka on the shore was great and Norwegian wood is my favorite book of all. What a great mind for writing.
6:34 i love that you used the blade runner unicorn dream scene here. perfect imagery. and "chunky secretaries" cracked me up LOL. murakami focused on that aspect of her for an absurdly large amount of the story. hard boiled wonderland is definitely underrated. the revelations in the middle of the novel blew my mind, i wish i came up with something like that! the wind up bird chronicle was also my first and favorite murakami novel. i would have placed it first, but 1q84 is an acceptable alternative. i read 1q84 one lonely summer where i spent hours and hours at the bookstore because i didn't want to buy such a massive tome and lug it home in my suitcase.
Thank you! I thought the unicorn footage from Blade Runner was too good to pass up. Wind Up Bird is amazing and always will be. I almost put it #1, and maybe it’ll end up there next time I read it.
1Q84 is the first novel by Haruki Murakami that I have read. I like it very much. The world in the book is immersive, and sometimes I feel inexplicably frightened, and it has written the confusion in the minds of many people. This is contemporary 1984, and I have to put him in a prominent place on the bookshelf.
Weird how different our tastes are. Sputnik Sweetheart is my favorite, and my friend's favorite too. We even imagined it would make a great movie. I liked the chain-smoking hipster girl who's obsessed with Kerouac. It's an amazing blend of travel adventure and thriller with a very surreal ending. Everyone seems to love Norwegian Wood but it's my least favorite. I think it's totally overrated. 1Q84 had the potential to be amazing but fell flat in the last 40 pages or so. My other favorites would be Windup Bird Chronicle, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and I was surprised how much I loved his one non-magical realism novel Colorless Tsukuru and his Years of Pilgrimage.
I'm 800 pages into 1Q84 and considering not finishing it. I haven't read any of Murakami's other works, and I guess I probably shouldn't :)
So glad you put "Kafka on the shore" in a place where it deserved to be. It's a great novel. My first Murakami read, was enough to dive me into his world of magical realism.
I pretty much agree with your ratings. Like yourself, 'The Wind Up Bird Chronicle' was my first read of Murakami and it remains my favorite still. I just finished a reread of 'A Wild Sheep Chase' and had to bump it up the list as one of the best. Thanks for sharing. It's always fun running into other Murakami fans.
1Q84 is the first Murakami book I've attempted and I need to go off the grid to complete it and I don't want it to end.
Great video. Funnily enough Murakami isn't massively popular in Japan but he translates so well into English. I was disappointed by IQ84 but am now reading Killing Commendatore and am surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. My favourite living novelist since Terry Pratchett died. My favourite book probably Dance, Dance, Dance or as us Japanese say "Odori, Odori, Odori."
i guess because murakami first wrote his novel in english then translated them into japanese.
I was enjoying your video, and then, oh no! Kafka on the Shore and Killing Commendatore are my favorites along with IQ84 and Wind Up Bird Chronicles. Every cat I see, I wait excitedly to enter into conversation. All of his books leave me in the same place: I am crestfallen when they end. I hope Gabriel finishes translating The City and its Uncertain Walls. Can't wait for summer to wear my "We're all Kind of Weird" Murakami t-shirt. Though relatively tame, I also felt sad when Drive My Car ended. I have lived in 13 states and in the Philippines when I retired. Where I would really like to live is in Murakami's head.
You're really under-rated ... And also you got a new subscriber!
Thank you!!! Much appreciated :)
I enjoy your ranking. But I think After Dark is one of his best books, with many subtle plot themes.
I agree that The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is fantastic.
Colorless Tsukuri is one of my favorites, but doesn't have the magical realism that you might want, but neither does Sputnik Sweetheart, which is more of a realistic novel, which I like a lot.
I first read Murakami in the late 1980s or early 1990s with The Wild Sheep Chase, and fell in love with his writing with following Hard Boiled Wonderland, and others.
I understand why many people might disagree about Murakami's best, but I think he's the greatest novelist living today.
I've been looking for this comment, yes after dark is one of his best if not the best in my opinion
This was really helpful, thank you so much for reassuring me that I've started on the right track when it comes to reading Murakami. The main thing that's really got in the way of me diving into magic realism, certain types of sci-fi philosophy and surrealism is the awful, awful fear of being ripped off by the author.
You know when you mishear song lyrics and those misheard lyrics REALLY speak to you and you go 'wow, that lyricist/musician is a GENIUS'-- and then you deflate, feel horribly disappointed and feel like a lonesome idiot when you learn what the real lyrics actually are? I'll try one more time to clumsily get to my point: The best way I can describe what I mean is the TV series 'Lost'. All those incredible clues and the focus on mysterious patterns and symbols and allegories and creepy sub-plots made me super excited, thrilled each episode trying to figure out what it all meant. By the third last episode I was almost weeping and outraged with disappointment, knowing nothing was coming together in any way. None of it meant anything and the writers were NOT geniuses just ambitious, creatively and intellectually lazy tricksters who had come up with ideas and details that ultimately meant absolutely nothing that I thought and hoped they would. I don't like to feel excited about finding a momentous slab of creative and intellectual genius only to discover that it was just a giant exercise in indulging in stream of consciousness style of 'dreamscaping'. I'm trying to find an author who really is a genius and where all the dreamy sequences, symbols, gnomic conversational exchanges and use of allegory ARE trying to tell me something in the way a dream is trying to tell me something.
I hope that made some kind of sense. I'm searching for something more than 'academic psychedelia', something epic. If you ever find any author that has a creative imagination and integration of intelligence that BIG, please please please let me know. I'm on the hunt. For now, I will imagine that Murakami has a plan for every novel in terms of what he's trying to say with each chapter's oddness-- not just trippy-ness for the sake of it. I wonder how close/accurate my own complex interpretations are to what he intended to say through strange world building? What do people think 'A Wild Sheep Chase' was REALLY about? It haunted me.
Thanks so much for sharing your views and recommendations in such a compelling way, I really appreciate your hard work on this video.
I first read (if we don't count Absolutely Music) Wild Sheep Chase and was instantly hooked by the style. Then Kafta on the Shore, Wind/Pinball (even bought the Japanese version as it is short), Sputkink Sweethearts, First Person Singular, Hardboiled Wonderland and I just finished Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (which isn't a novel), got 1Q84 as a present from my best friend, can't wait to read it too.
Glad you found your way to him! It’s so fun getting through all his work. They’re all a little similar but also totally unique.
Great ranking and cool editing, enjoyed it a lot.
Thanks for watching!
Absolutely loved this video! It was so cool to hear another persons thoughts and love for Murakami! Can’t wait to watch more!
Thanks for watching!!
Outstanding production of this video. Do a video on how you made this video! Seriously, very impressive.
Thank you!! It takes a lot of time to do the editing so I'm glad you appreciate it :)
@@vellichor_ventures It's brilliant, and I was serious. Everyone would love to be able to do that, or at least approximate it. It's rare to see a video that good, even from major outlets.
Loved this video and agree with almost all the rankings. Kafka, Wind-Up Bird, and Commendatore are my three favorites (1Q84 probably in 4th). Murakami is one of those "instant read" authors for me; I will read every new book as it comes out. Can't wait for The City and its Uncertain Walls.
Commendatore is a cool choice! I need to give it another chance.
I just love Killing C. I think taking the surrealism to the next level by making metaphor etc as living characters is greatness. And being the 1st book read way back in the late 80’s I think Hardboiled is his best and can’t wait for his next book coming to America in Nov!
I've seen that a lot of people really love Killing Commendatore. I've always thought of it as solidly mid-tier Murakami. Time for a re-read!
I do need to reconnect with Murakami, while I was disappointed with First Person Singular. I love his novels, I would probably hold Sputnik Sweetheart, Colorless..., South of the Border, West of the Sun and Norwegian Wood as some of his best.
Colorless... in particular arrived to me at the right moment in my life, and left an undeniable impact.
Colorless is underrated for sure.
Im a sucker for a sad love story, so Norwegian Wood is my fav book of all time, i have read this shit like 6 times already in English and Indonesian, briliiant book, everytime i re-read this shit i put some of the most atmospheric music i've discovered so far and it feels AMAZING
That sounds amazing. I haven’t re-read Norwegian Wood in quite a while but I’m probably due for it. Kind of off season for reading it but I might crack it open anyway.
Norwegian wood is one of the best books ever written
It’s a classic! Definitely time for a re read for me.
1Q84 my favorite, then Kafka on the Shore, then Killing Commendatore. Murakami is a trip...wonderful
Killing Commendatore high up on your list! I need to revisit it at some point.
when i tell you i screamed when i got this recommendation omg! i have a murakami collection and i just have to say, i adore the conexion you made between killing commendatore and wind up bird because i have said the exact same ting about those two books myself, and im also still in awe at lieutenant mamiya's story, despite having read wind up bird a couple of years ago at this point i still think really frecquently about the ray of light at the bottom of the well. this was so fun, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!!
I "love" Murakami's books. As a child I read Harry Potter and hated it so much, that i decided that reading sucks. In highschool we had to read Hard boiled and it just opened a new world for me. It was interesting, new and wierd. In the next half year I read Norweigen Wood, Kafka and Wind up bird Chronicles and sadly that kinda ruined the auther for me. I read him at a really dark time in my life, where it all just resonated with me, but know when I try to pick up his work it just reminds me of that time and makes me not wanne read his works. Maybe in 20-30years when Im in my midlife Crises I can Enjoy him again. (Also way to much r*pe in his books)
That’s so interesting that you had to read him in high school, they would never do that where I’m from. I totally get avoiding things from dark times in your life, maybe you’ll find new meaning in it later.
This far I've only read norwegian wood... but your video does get me very excited to read his other works, after all i genuinely LOVED norwegian w.
Excited for you! There’s so many good ones.
Have been looking for answers where to start with Murakami but instead I seem to have found another interesting channel.
I have a video about that too! Where to Start with Haruki Murakami: A Beginner’s Guide
th-cam.com/video/iv23tWqlnR0/w-d-xo.html
@@vellichor_ventures
I already skimmed through the video titles before the subscription and my initial thought was: this must be the murakami expert channel. 😅
Thanks for the link.
i only read norwegian wood when i was young and i remember finding it super misogenist but i was probably just really simple minded as a kid.
I mean you’re not entirely wrong! Murakami’s writing for female characters is pretty hit or miss
@@vellichor_ventures i hated how the nice guy type character got with literally every woman in his life even the therapist like thats what i remember from it. also i feel like his obsession with vulnerable people was kind of toxic of him, maybe its good commentary though i might have to read it again. i think maybe he felt insecure of his friend the one who died and thought he was being left behind for a reason or something.
I don't know why, but I didn't like The Windup Bird Chronicle that much.
Maybe it has something to do with me reading an old german version, which was translated from the english adaption and not from the japanese original.
There's a german version translated from the original text now & I'll give it another try.
I really loved South of the Border, West of the Sun. The ending left me in a dream like melancholic state.
Actually Wind/Pinball I've now read twice and for some reason they are my favorites so far of his realism sort of stuff.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is such an incredible experience. It's Murakami at his soul and its worth a read whether you're a runner or not.
I'm not a runner but I thought it was great! Looking forward to reading Novelist as a Vocation at some point.
I have two Gods to start. And my soft spot is for Wild Sheep Chase which is what I started with oh so many years ago!
The Wind-Up Bird was my first too and found me in a bad place as well, got me through it.
great video! also love the background music
1Q84 was my first Murakami book and i was hooked from the very beggining. Maybe because the female character was a badass, but i mean everything tied in so nicely. All the characters were interesting in their own right. Since then i read few more books of his and honestly none of them came close, idk why people thought it was a "let down"...
Yeah I don't really agree with the criticisms of the book either. It gets a little repetitive in the third book but the world he created is so engaging.
I really love your jazzy music choices in your videos. Do u have a specific playlist u can share? :)
This is a good one if you’re on Spotify! It’s a playlist of Murakami’s vinyl collection. Lots of jazz in there: open.spotify.com/playlist/7LxqhxqClpyc76C85V7Zs2?si=b6HFnArjQ8u3aSVJKju0nQ
@@vellichor_ventures very nice, thank you!
Sputnik Sweetheart is also my least favourite Murakami book
Also, Colourless Tsukuru.. isnt my favourite (thats Wind Up Bird, natch) but it was the book that had the biggest effect on me personally. I relate a lot to Tsukurus issues
Yeah it’s just kind of a nothing burger of a book. Not bad but feels super inconsequential.
Sputnik sweetheart is mid agreed
I had a similar affinity for Akira Kurasowa's movies, especially Dreams and Kagemusha.
Men Without Women.
Probably my favorite of his short story collections
DING DING DING DING! FAKE MURAKAMI FAN DETECTED! A real fan would have never left out his greatest work, his artistic peak, his magnum opus: "What I talk about when I talk about running: A memoir"
Just kidding, great video, nice editing.
lol that one is great too!
just wow, I love finding gems like this thank u
I was sooo ready to disagree thinking this is just another random reader trying out Murakami, refuse to think then drag the books through mud. I was gladly taken aback! Love your ranking although for me I would put Wind-up Bird at no.1 - I just love Kano Creta
Thank you!! Wind Up is number one in my heart.
I really like the montage in your video
Thank you!!
Are there any authors similar to Murakami you recommend? I’m currently reading 1Q84
I really like Banana Yoshimoto. Her writing isn’t as strange but it has a similar melancholy quality to it. If you like his slower books like South of the Border or Norwegian Wood then you’ll probably like her.
Etgar keret for me. He's brilliant. I'd recommend Missing Kissinger. Just a heads up.. Keret only writes short stories. That being said, he's very gifted. Much like Murakami Haruki.
Good ranking! I would put Killing Commendatore way up, in top 4. The wind-up chronicle would be first, but is okay. And the Wild Sheep Chase, I would put it in the bottom, together with Wind/Paintball. Sputnik, can be a bit higher, not the absolute bottom. But good good! Cheers!
That’s pretty high for Killing Commendatore! I liked it a lot but I also haven’t re-read it since so maybe it’s time.
Useful, sir.Thank you so much ❤️
Hard Boiled jumped to my top 3 or so once I got the connection between the 2 worlds. Plenty of TH-cam explanations and they really helped understand the narrative connection. Brilliant. First read I DNF’d a couple of times and when I finally got through I was totally confused and underwhelmed. Last spring I reread and it exploded in my brain
It’s underrated! Excited that he’s treading similar ground with the new one.
hardboiled wonderland is not an easy read but unequivocally my favorite book of all time. the end of the world passages....second best is wind up bird, then kafka, then wild sheep chase i'd say. 1q84 felt tremendously corny and trite for the last third (third in the trilogy). i've read it twice and felt the same way both times. meanwhile i've read hardboiled and wind up bird 4+ times each
Hardboiled is really great, and pretty unique in his bibliography. Thanks for watching!
Where's south of the border West of the sun, i really love that book. The mc in it is the most relatable character i ever read.
It's in there!
Great job. Love your thoughts. I started and gave up on a Murakami and I always remember how much I was loving it before I somehow got lost and could not find the thread of the story. I have Norwegian Wood on my shelves so I will likely start there. Thanks again.
Thank you! Happy to hear you’re gonna give him another go.
Ugh have to disagree about 1Q84. Absolutely hated it. Agree about Kafka and wind up though
Yeah 1Q84 seems to be pretty divisive for a lot of people. I loved it enough to read it twice!
omggg i love this!!
Thank you!!!
I agree recency affects ranking. I just read killing commendatore and I think I liked it more than Norwegian wood
I want to try that one again soon. I feel like I might be more into it now than the last time.
I read Hard boiled after WUBC and Kafka and in my heart it is my favorite Murakami even though I don't want to admit it. I believe that I think so highly of it because I already read the other two, though.
Hard Boiled is really underrated!
Love this video! I recently started reading Murakami. Started with Norwegian Wood and then right after bought 4 of his other books. I love his writing style.
after dark and hard-boiled are my personal favourites!
I just got a really nice hardback of After Dark so probably going to reread that one soon! Hard boiled is amazing too.
It's scary how much i agree with your Haruki Murakami tier...
Great minds think alike!
I read WITAWITAR first (I'm a runner), then Norwegian Wood and then my first magical realism was 1Q84 which is still my favorite after reading most of his books now. I have read some reviews where people loved the first third and thought it went downhill from there but I was the opposite. I read the first third , set it aside for a few weeks and when I got back to it really enjoyed the last two thirds. I'll probably do a reread soon. I got excited with his writing and read Kafka, Wind up Bird and HBWATEOTW in quick succession which I enjoyed but not as much as 1Q84. Maybe I should have put some time between readings and I would have appreciated them more.
His books are so specific in tone and style that I like to space them out a bit between books.
I am so confused about iq84 reading a quarter of it and kind of disliking it
It's definitely not for everyone!
I think this couldn’t have been more perfect way of putting a POV on murakami ranking. Thankyou so much @shawnburry.
I picked up "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage' because of your description, and I think the way you mentioned the time in your life can impact the way you perceive this book, I turned 30 this year, and it really did hit me differently than it probably would have if I was a teen.
Such a fever dream video for a fever dream writer, lot of love ❤
That's so sweet of you to say, thank you. Glad my descriptions didn't disappoint :)
I read 1Q84 ... and totally hated it.
Too long.
The descriptions are way too repetitive.
It's a slow moving narrative where there's lots of pages where nothing really happens. Actually in the whole book, there's very little taking place.
I'm pretty sure that one's perception of Murakami's prose in Japanese might be way different than reading an English translation.
Yet... no.
After spending a lot of time reading the whole thing.... the rewards were simply not there.
There's hints that simply go nowhere : the seven dwarfs reference (really?), the main male character being named Tengo (is it a reference to the Tengu from Shintoist folklore?), and then the mazza and dohta (a reference to mother and daughter, clearly) one being sort of the shadow of the other.
And the narrative is pretty simplistic and stupid (in my opinion) : being drawn into a fantasy world where fantastic beings exist and where there's a quest for power (or the restoration of a religion's powers) only for the main characters to leave the fantasy world, crawl back into the real world .... and that's it.
Can it be more boring than this?
Definitely not for me.
Peace.
🤷🏼♂️