Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

Reissued today, (or thereabouts), Wind/Pinball: Two Novels  collects two early novels of Murakami Haruki in a new translation by Ted Goossen, a while ago I received an email highlighting the fact that you can read Murakami's introduction online via Literary Hub, the introduction is also translated by Goossen. I've already got copies of the two editions published originally in the Kodansha English Library series, but think I'll have to track out a copy of this new translation.

Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became A Novelist at Literary Hub

The book at Secker/Harvill and at Knopf

travels and book prompts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies for the recent lack of posts but have been on journeys, nice to amble through familiar neighbourhoods and to get lost in some more slightly unfamiliar ones. My trip back would probably best be described as being domestic in nature and on the whole off the tourist track but did keep an eye out for books, although two that I'm particularly looking out for remained elusive, but perhaps maybe next time. A book spotted in an Aeon discount stall, that I'm pretty sure I'm going to regret letting slip through the net, was a book of Domon Ken's photography published by Mainichi, for a book of this type it was at a really good price, just over a thousand yen, but indecision got the better of me. Another more recent book that caught my eye was a recent book on Okamoto Taro, called Okamoto Art which is an informative bilingual survey of the artist's work, 1911-1996. A book that I thought I caught glimpse of was a new one on Ishida Tetsuya, I returned to the store to find it again but it had disappeared in the space of an afternoon... I did make a couple of purchases but perhaps posts will be forthcoming, one being the first volume of I Am a Hero by Hanazawa Kengo, film adaption forthcoming.

Aside from books some other landmarks during my visit were the ending of Massan on NHK, a dramatized account of the life of Rita Taketsuru, (Japan Times article), which was a tad too weepy for me, along with this was the animated version of Oda Tobira's manga series of Danchi Tomoo, (wiki on the manga), which by turns introduced the band Mongol 800. Three places to visit next time - Koyasan, which is celebrating it's 1200th anniversary, and also Shitennō-ji, and also a castle that I've passed many times and whose park I've walked in but still not yet entered is Himeji jo, recently reopened after extensive renovations. Perhaps not actually too many book prompts, there's always a stack of novels that grab my attention on each trip, and I've a few reads to catch up with in forthcoming posts, but recently time hasn't been my own - apologies.