And here I am, reading another Murakami. Thanks to Gi, who endlessly supplies me with Murakami books. This is yet another compilation of short stories but unlike the Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, this book contains fewer stories therefore I managed to finish it in a span of 1 week. Of course aside from the fact that I somehow got the ‘best technique’ in reading short stories that actually worked for me; continuously read each story!

Stories ranged from surreal to mundane probably brought about the trauma and/or realizations the character had after that major earthquake (time) .I enjoyed reading the whole book but of course, there will always be favorites. I particularly liked ‘All God’s Children can Dance’ which was about a boy who tried to search for his father, ‘Super-frog Saves Tokyo’, which was about a man who, I think, was hallucinating about a huge frog saving Tokyo from a giant worm, who when angry, causes the earth to shake (earthquake) and ‘Honey-Pie’, a friendship, turned love-triangle story which proves once again that true love can wait and that if feelings are real, and meant to be, it will prevail in the end.

By now, you all know that I’m striving to inspire myself with words, one of the main reasons why I enjoy reading any kind of books available; here are my favorite lines from the book;

“No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself” –UFO in Kushiro

(ohhh….interesting..)“…So somebody gave us a bell to carry – about the same size as a wind-bell. You’re supposed to shake it when you walk sp the bears know there are people around and won’t come out. Bears don’t attack people on purpose. I mean, they’re pretty much vegetarians. They don’t have to attack people. What happens is they suddenly bump into people in their territory and they get surprised or angry and they attack out of reflex. So if you walk along ringing your bell, they’ll avoid you. Get it?” – UFO in Kushiro

(I can imagine the frustration and the feeling of how he’s wasted his 33 years of existence by not living his own life) “You know Doctor, I am a bachelor. I have never once married. I spent 33 years as another man’s shadow. I went everywhere he went. I helped him with everything he did. I was in a sense a part of him. When you live like that for a long time, you gradually lose track of what it is that you yourself really want out of life.” – Thailand

“…As Nietzsche said, the highest wisdom is to have no fear.” – Super-frog Saves Tokyo

“…But as Ernest Hemingway saw so clearly, the ultimate value of our lives is decided not by how we win but by how we lose.” – Super-frog Saves Tokyo

(Sweettttt…) “…I want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so they can hold the ones they love. But right now I have to stay here and keep watch over this woman and girl. I will never let anyone- not anyone- try to put them into that crazy box – not even if the sky should fall or the earth crack open with a roar.” – Honey Pie