Welcome to Litsy!

This book is beautiful when you get accustomed to the cadence. I think it‘s going to stay with me a long time and at some point, I‘m sure I‘ll flip this to a pick.

Based on my reading experience to date, I don‘t think Japanese Literature is 100% my jam. I enjoyed guessing who the Librarian character, Sayuri Komachi, was meant to represent, however. I got the impression that she was an incarnation of some goddess or deity: my best guess is White Tara. I liked the message about how important it is to feel like you belong, though as one character observes “belonging is an ambiguous state.” 👇🏻

Got to 70%. I guess, with such a short book, I could have carried on but, you know what, I just didn‘t care. Across 3 pages in this dull romance, a scene was, I think, set on a beach, then suddenly they were in a room. I either missed the transition because I was bored or it went surreal. That made me think it was going to be “all a dream” or the narrator is in a coma or some such rubbish. If it‘s neither, I predict the novel fizzles out.

1: Strangers/All of Us Strangers - my all-time favourite film, which is one of the few I can say, without experiencing that niggling book-blasphemy feeling, is better than the book.
2: Stardust - I loved the book so much, but the film has a totally different vibe, which I preferred.
3: Good Omens - technically not a film in this case, but an incredible series that is far superior to the book, I think.
(Couldn't screenshot, so had to improvise).

1. Tagged. The Earthquake Bird by Susannah Jones. I remember being obsessed by it some years ago. - I even once missed my commuter train stop on my way home from work at theatre in the middle of the night because I was so hooked 😅
2. Unheimlich (=eerie, uncanny), a YA romantic thriller omnibus by Ursula Isbel. Got it on my 13th b'day. Still reread it every once in a while.
3. After Dark and/or Dance Dance Dance, my two faves by Haruki Murakami.

Two months passed. It was well into autumn. The air was crisp and cool, and the leaves of the Japanese maples had turned the brilliant crimson of a geisha's painted lips. On the grounds of Tokyo University Medical School, in the neighborhood of the pond made famous by Natsume Soseki's novel Sanshiro, a tall, remarkably good-looking youth was loitering about gazing at the scenery.

Books I read recently.
My favorite was Strangers. Set in Tokyo , a recently divorced screenwriter has moved into his studio workplace to live. Immediately atmospheric. Suggestive , thoughtful, a short book and every word is numbered 👌🏻. I loved this one.

North Woods was a beautiful book to read.

Christ on a Bike I enjoyed, but didn‘t love it.

Writing Retreat , ok till 2d half. Then quickly a bail.

"Really, it is. But tell me, who is the murderer?"

"I can't talk about that right now." Tsunetaro sounded nervous, as if someone might be listening in.

"Why is that? Oh, I see, now that you mention it, this really isn't the sort of thing you can discuss on the telephone. Where are you now, at Peony? I'll come to meet you right away."
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What will happen now? ?