Books for Summer

Earlier today I finished reading 'Norwegian Wood' by Haruki Murakami. I'm ashamed to admit that it took me about six months to finish. A shame, because it's a beautifully written book and well-deserving of the praise that was heaped on it when it was first released. It follows the main character, Toru, while he is at university and his relationships with two very different young women in his life. This is my copy:



Yes, it's battered. I believe I found it in a book catalogue aged about 15 and pestered my mam to buy it for me solely because it was named after a Beatles song (and if that's not a good enough reason to buy a book, I don't know what is). Of course, I started it but never finished it, then it ended up on the bookshelf in the room I shared with my sister and was largely forgotten about. (Sorry, Mam.)

Of course, I've since grown up, left school and gone to university, and in doing that have met people who've read Murakami and can recommend him to me. So when I was home over the festive, I retrieved my copy from the shelf and took it away with me. It's in two parts to echo how it originally looked when it was first published (the only other edition I saw in Fopp was in one volume). Like I said, this time around it took me six months (or thereabouts) to read, but I read it and loved it.

The other one I'm reading is 'Mrs Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf. It was on the syllabus for the Modernism class I took in 2nd year (other 'Modernist' writers include James Joyce and TS Eliot). Needless to say I barely got it started, but this year I ended up writing my second semester essay for my Private Self class on Virginia Woolf's diary. I ended up using 'Mrs Dalloway' as well, and felt compelled to re-read it outwith the constraints of university. I'm loving it a lot.