A masterpiece! you will love it. — javi2541997

Loved the way it started simply with a lost cat and gradually branched into a complex story that came together in the end. Loved the rich and beautifully flowing writing.

They’re all memorable except Oracle Night, — Jamal

:groan: fail on my part. Ah well. Free is free.

I don’t remember Oracle Night well at all but I do recall enjoying it.

Loved the way it started simply with a lost cat and gradually branched into a complex story that came together in the end. Loved the rich and beautifully flowing writing. — praxis

I am glad that you are enjoying Murakami's wind-up chronicle :up: Yes, it is beautifully written, and it shows the skills of the novelist in developing such a complex story.

Be careful with Noboru Wataya :eyes:

I'm reading Kafka on the Shore next.

And for those not in the know, no, that doesn't mean I'm going to lazily read Kafka on the beach somewhere, although I'm pretty sure that I've done that too.

Wow! you are deep in Murakami's world!
I know that feeling. When you start reading his books, it is impossible to get rid of him.

The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms: Volume 4: The Metaphysics of Symbolic Forms
by Ernst Cassirer

I am reading a few books which I will break into groups.

Early Buddhism: What the Buddha Thought by Richard Gombich (a homage, I suppose, to Walpola Rahula’s work What the Buddha Taught; I heard somewhere that Gombich worked closely with Rahula), The Foundations of Buddhism by Rupert Gethin, The Literature of the Personalists of Early Buddhism by Thich Thien Chau (a complex book but mind blowing), and Buddhaghosa’s classic The Path of Purification.

Early Christianity: Rereading The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant by John Dominic Crossan and The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins by Burton Mack (these two books in particular are good analyses of how Christianity got going and make the connection that Hellenistic philosophy was very influential on Jesus and his disciples).

Stoicism: Rereading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (this is perhaps my all time favorite book and I can’t count how many times I’ve read it; If I was stranded on a desert island for the rest of my life with no help coming for me, this is the book I’d keep close).

Didn't know where to post this, but a great New Yorker article on contemporary philosophy of mind. Mentiones Kristof Koch, David Chalmers, Thomas Nagel and Donald Hoffman among others.

Article author also has a book on same.

Words and rules: The ingredients of language.
By Steven Pinker.

Ontology: Laying the Foundations
by Nicolai Hartmann

"Hartmann developed a pluralistic, humanistic realism that attempted to do justice to both the sciences and the humanities. Hartmann may be regarded as the first genuine ontological pluralist of the twentieth century."

Gathering Evidence by Martin MacInnes

a great New Yorker article on contemporary philosophy of mind. — Quixodian

Thanks for the link. I read the article but I don't think it adds anything new to our perennial discussions about this subject. What are your thoughts on that?

Gathering Evidence by Martin MacInnes — Manuel

I said to myself "Ah, a book on epistemology. I think I'll take a look." It's not about epistemology.

Hah! Nope, it is not.

I normally leave a small comment when I'm reading non-fiction.

The Decameron
by Giovanni Boccaccio

The Mill House Murders - Yukito Ayatsuji

Re-reading:

Tales of the Quantum by Art Hobson

Underground, Haruki Murakami.

@Tom Storm Tom, you asked me a few months ago what were the best Murakami's books. I replied with a two novels and one essay, but now I must update it because the essay that I am currently reading is a masterpiece.

The book is about the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack. Between February and December 1996, Murakami works as a journalist and asks a few questions to the victims. He even went to the trial of the terrorists too. He did this with the aim to help the victims and their families to get more respect and recognition, because the press was treating them badly...

The testimonial of the victims and the talent of Murakami to transcribe it all, makes this essay very worthy to read. :up:

:up:

Finished Don Quixote a few weeks back.

Over halfway through Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy — Maw

Heard this one is great. Been on my To-Read for a while.

Heard this one is great. Been on my To-Read for a while. — fdrake

It's fantastic, the prose is breathtaking at times.

Finished Don Quixote a few weeks back. — Maw

I always wondered how would be to read Don Quixote in other languages. If it is complex in Spanish, I cannot imagine in English or Japanese. It may be the same thought when Ulysses is read in a foreign language, as well as Genji Monogatari, and so on.

Translators have made it possible for us to read novels from all over the world.

I also heard it will ruin you. Curious.

I'm reading "What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics." Don't blame me, @Count Timothy von Icarus is making me read it.

I also heard it will ruin you. Curious. — Noble Dust

Just finished it and the answer is yes.

A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East by László Krasznahorkai

Ich und Du, Martin Buber (1923)

This is my stack of books for my to-read list this month!

Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz
The Outsiders S.E. Hinton
Crave by Tracy Wolfee
Crush by Tracy Wolfee
What A Life Can Be by Carolynn Dobbins, PhD.
Life and Death by Stephanie Meyer
When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle
Experiencing and Overcoming Schizoaffective Disorder by Steve Colori
Schizoaffective Disorder Simplified by Martine Daniel

Nova by Samuel R. "Chip" Delany.

Nick McDonell, Quiet Street: On American Privilege

Still, the rich like to believe in meritocracy, even fairness. These ideas are beloved by the media, and are one of the few bipartisan talking points. Barack Obama: “Anything is possible in America.” Donald Trump: “In America, anything is possible.” Famous examples demonstrate the seductive drama of economic mobility. Henry Ford was the son of a farmer. Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, George Soros—and so on in every profession. Such examples not only make one-percenters feel good; they distract from the reality that, in the United States of America and elsewhere, success almost always, and predominantly, depends on wealth—and frequently comes at the expense of the less wealthy. I could afford to spend a month writing a book at a fancy hotel, which, when it came out, took attention away from novelists who were not as rich or connected as I am. I could afford to buy a drink for that producer, who bought the rights to my book, not someone else’s.

[…]

The fear they shared was loss of wealth. Without ever saying so, they were very much afraid of losing their country houses, the space for the grand piano, the greenhouses, the pied-à-terre where their mother-in-law stayed without being in everyone’s business. They were afraid of processed supermarket cheese; they much preferred the organic stuff, which, they emphasized, would keep them alive longer. The same could not be said of their clothes, but they were afraid of losing the Prada bags anyway, the heavy zippers, the cashmere. They didn’t want to wear polyester windbreakers, or sit on Ikea sofas, or drive a Hyundai. They were afraid of losing the safer, sleeker Mercedes. They were afraid of losing all of it, any of it. And who wouldn’t prefer a Mercedes, anyway?

But the quality of the car was not what lay at the root of the fear. They feared losing wealth not for its own sake but because it was justified, in their own minds, by intelligence, hard work, determination—that is, by character. If they lost their wealth, then, well, who were they? The true fear was not loss of wealth but loss of self.