Noruwei no Mori

“……I don't want to waste valuable time reading any book that has not had the baptism of time. Life is too short” says a character from ‘Norwegian Wood’ (NW), the e-book which I am currently reading. It is a 1987 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Its Japanese version is Noruwei no Mori (whatever it means)! Well, I am not a very ‘novel’ person but I like this one. It was recommended by someone. This same someone had recommended ‘Les Miserables’ also by Victor Hugo which I had found so boring and stopped reading after a few pages. So I wasn’t reading NW till yesterday. I wasn’t sure about the story. It is my reading rule - I don’t go by recommendations. I like to go by my own judgment - I won’t blame anyone if I go wrong!

But NW is a nostalgic story of loss and sexuality and mental illness and everything that I don’t like. I am just into the story and I guess I like all these which I just mentioned as not liking. That’s why I am taking the trouble of writing about the book in my blog. Before this e-book, I finished the print version of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens and ‘The Age of Innocence’ by Edith Wharton. In these two books, there wasn’t anything that appealed to me or touched my heart though at times I did like the latter one. But it didn’t have the capacity to ‘move’ me. I left ‘Ben Hur’ midway. Then I read a few short stories by Guy de Maupassant but NW is doing the ‘works’ for me. Though I might not like to agree, it’s a good change. But don’t know how long this change can be sustained………………

PS: I guess I am turning out to be a book reviewer 