Update: October 2019

All of these pictures were posted on my Instagram, but I thought I would post them in a blog format.

🌸🌸🌸

Can’t wait to read this book~

Thanks crew~

Katsu with soba~

My first Kaiji thing. It’s pretty much impossible to find anything from this anime in Canada… Thank you to my friend for the belated birthday gift! Those who watched Kaiji Season 2 will know about the dice… The ざわざわ wrapping paper OMG

Bought this Totoro mug cover

Mazesoba

Picked this up yesterday at the store

Shungiku Nakamura is one of my favourite mangaka ^^

Taiyaki~

Chirashi don~

Matcha ice cream

• 

Should I keep doing this kind of monthly update? Let me know. x)

🌸🌸🌸 Rose

Book Review: Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

Men Without Women is a collection of seven short stories written by the famous writer, Haruki Murakami. Murakami’s original works are in Japanese, and his books have been translated into 50 languages. I read the English translation.

Can we take a moment to appreciate the front and back covers? The back cover starts with the word, 女 ‘woman’ and it transforms into a puzzle piece. The front cover depicts a man with a puzzle piece missing. He is a Men Without Women.

Haruki Murakami is my favourite contemporary writer. He often writes about the themes: isolation, loneliness and loss. These are stories of men who have lost important women in their lives, sometimes to other men, sometimes to death or due to complicated reasons. The impact of these women lost and gone forever cut deeply, and sometimes life will never be the same again.

I was pleasantly surprised at how different each story is. I really enjoyed reading six of the seven short stories, which is a really high number. My favourite story from this collection is “Kino.”

Murakami often writes about sex, so don’t be surprised about that if you read his works. I started reading his novels when I was in high school. Another common feature in his works is that the endings are often open to interpretation. You may be disappointed at the endings of some of these stories, or really confused. However, he gets you to think critically about the stories which draws upon your imagination and creativity. As a reader, you are an active agent.

This was a really quick read, which shows how invested I was in these stories. I love short stories because they are little gems. I recommend Murakami’s books because his writing is engaging and because he really brings his characters to life. I believe that he has a lot of knowledge on human emotions. Every time I read his books, I gain new perspectives.

These things spark joy

Ace Attorney on Nintendo DS

Haruki Murakami’s Men Without Women – Review coming soon.

I find several four leaf clovers every year.

I Won a Book Giveaway!

I feel really lucky sometimes because I won another giveaway, and it’s a great one! In my life I’ve won four giveaways but I used to find many four leaf clovers so maybe that has something to do with it. I actually don’t think there’s a correlation LOL.

The giveaway I won this time was hosted by our fellow blogger friend, Neha, who runs Biblio Nyan, a blog on books, anime, self-care tips, and more. I won their 500 follower giveaway and got a $30 gift card to buy any books of my choosing from Book Depository or Amazon. I got FIVE books from Book Depository!

1. Edogawa Rampo’s Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination

Jon recommended this book to me a while back so I’m happy that I finally own it! I read one of the short stories called The Human Chair, and it was honestly the most interesting story I’ve read in my life. I might blog about it one day, and write about Junji Ito’s version of it as well.

2. Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination 

I’ve been borrowing my friend’s Poe book for months so I’m happy that I finally own my own copy.

3. Monkey by Wu Cheng’en

This book is also known as Journey to the West and is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. This story was published in the 16th century and many anime, including Dragon Ball, were loosely based on this story. Some of the earliest Japanese animation were inspired by the Chinese animation of Journey to the West.

4. Desire by Haruki Murakami 

Haruki Murakami is one of my favourite authors. I’ve read a number of his books. This is a collection of his short stories.

5. Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination

I’m giving this one to a friend.

I’m honestly surprised by how many books I got. When I found out that I won, I thought that I would get two books so this really exceeded my expectations. The books were delivered in a timely manner and I’m really happy with everything. Thank you so much Neha for everything. ❤