Started reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami yesterday, and just finished it earlier today. This is the second novel by Murakami I’ve read, and it was just as amazing as I thought Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World was. They are very different from each other theme-wise, but the mood and writing style was absolutely wonderful in both of them. Reading it really made me wish I was Watanabe (the main character) in a way, there was something appealing about his lifestyle and the events that happened to him, specially his relationships. You’ll have to read it to know what I mean, but in short (and in very simple terms) it’s about a man who recalls his student days and his love affairs to two girls. And it’s completely different from what it sounds like, so I recommend reading it. There was something romantic about the whole thing, but without actually being romantic, as little sense as that might make.

Murakami is now one of the few authors I’ve read more than one book from, which is nice. In my book adventures so far the last years, I’ve ordered and read books of very varying subjects, styles and authors, trying to figure out what I like. Which means that I still haven’t really developed any favorite authors yet. Now I can say for sure that Haruki Murakami is one of them. My mom bought my dad a small collection of his novels last christmas, so I’ll most likely be going through those the next few weeks.

I’m a bit uncertain about what I prefer when it comes to non-English and non-Norwegian books. I read my first Murakami in English, and this second one I read in Norwegian. Then I noticed one of the other books in the collection I’ll be reading later is a Norwegian translation from an English translation, hmm. First of, I really enjoy reading in English, and developing my English skills at the same time. On the other hand, I read and write English every single day — almost exclusively — and I sort of feel that my Norwegian knowledge is slowly dwindling away bit by bit. I often find myself thinking in English, and sometimes when writing in Norwegian I can’t come up with the right word for something, and I have to go look in the English-Norwegian dictionary to find it. It’s kind of scary, but I’m hoping it’s just random fragments and that it’s nothing too serious.

To counter this however, I joined “The Norwegian Book Clubs” yesterday. It’s just what it sounds like, a book club where you get offers every month for a book, but with no commitment to buying anything, as long as you don’t forget to cancel them every month. It’s a small price to pay in my opinion, considering it gives you pretty good discounts on other books whenever you shop normally. Not to mention that you get 3 free books (except shipping expenses) when you sign up. So for my 3 free books I chose to get some Norwegian ones, or rather one Norwegian and two Norwegian translations: Menn som hater kvinner (Orig.: Män som hatar kvinnor, Eng: Men Who Hate Women) by Stieg Larsson, Ut og stjæle hester (Eng: Out Stealing Horses) by Per Petterson, and Labyrinten (Eng: Labyrinth) by Kate Mosse (curiosly, whose Norwegian translation seem to have gotten rave reviews here, contrary to its Amazong rating. I wonder if we have bad taste, or just good translators?).

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