Sara's reading log

I am a book hoarder and reader. My main genre is SF, but I also love magic realism, fantasy and general fiction. Favorite authors are Iain M. Banks, Ursula K. LeGuin, Haruki Murakami, José Saramago, Isaac Asimov, Ben Aaronovitch and more. My rating system is based on five stars. I rate books based on my expectations and what a books aims to be. This means that the brilliant 'Fahrenheit 451' gets five stars because I thought it would be good, people said it was good, and it was good, but 'A Closed and Common Orbit' also gets five stars because in its series, in its style, I really enjoyed it and was not disappointed.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

  • Started on: 2011-03-13
  • Finished on: 2011-03-15
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: ****-
  • Genre(s): Magical Realism

One of the more weird Murakami’s I have read, this book is more science fiction than surrealism/magic realism. The concept is very theoretical, very fantastical, but the story was very enjoyable. The book contains two stories, told in alternating chapters. In one story the main character is working with data, encrypting it with his mind. He meets a professor and the assignment he is one turns out to be the strangest and most life changing yet. In the other, the main character is trapped in a town, and he doesn’t really know what happened and how he got there. In the end, the two stories meet.
A very cool and unique story, I really liked it all, the writing, the premise, the characters. Another great book by Murakami.

  • Started on: 2011-03-13
  • Finished on: 2011-03-15
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: ****-
  • Genre(s): Magical Realism

One of the more weird Murakami’s I have read, this book is more science fiction than surrealism/magic realism. The concept is very theoretical, very fantastical, but the story was very enjoyable. The book contains two stories, told in alternating chapters. In one story the main character is working with data, encrypting it with his mind. He meets a professor and the assignment he is one turns out to be the strangest and most life changing yet. In the other, the main character is trapped in a town, and he doesn’t really know what happened and how he got there. In the end, the two stories meet.
A very cool and unique story, I really liked it all, the writing, the premise, the characters. Another great book by Murakami.