Haruki Murakami

Fully illustrated and beautifully designed, this is a unique and wonderfully creepy tale that is sure to delight Murakami fans. 'All I did was go to the library to borrow some books'. On his way home from school, the young narrator of The Strange Library finds himself wondering how taxes were collected in the Ottoman Empire. He pops into the local library to see if it has a book on the subject. This is his first mistake. Led to a special 'reading room' in a maze under the library by a strange old man, he finds himself imprisoned with only a sheep man, who makes excellent donuts, and a girl, who can talk with her hands, for company. His mother will be worrying why he hasn't returned in time for dinner and the old man seems to have an appetite for eating small boy's brains. How will he escape?

The Strange Library

Frederik De Bosschere

From internationally acclaimed author Haruki Murakami—a fantastical illustrated short novel about a boy imprisoned in a nightmarish library. Opening the flaps on this unique little book, readers will find themselves immersed in the strange world of best-selling Haruki Murakami's wild imagination. The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written. Designed by Chip Kidd and fully illustrated, in full color, throughout, this small format, 96 page volume is a treat for book lovers of all ages.

the earliest murakami i've read so far and i cen definitely sense his style and voice forming ! very excentric, surreal, and thoughtful. recommended for anyone wanting a strange read that will leave its mark on you.

mary ☆

Stef

It's kinda weird and surelis also give me gaiman's vibe. Good illustration and story even really short.

Olivia Mitchell

Toyah Blackburn

I feel a bit like I've just got off a roller coaster and my brain is going "what just happened?!" 

I already plan to read this again at some point. I don't think once is enough! There are so many elements, so many different interpretations that you can read into it. 

Amazing, surreal, completely inexplicable, fantastical, deep and meaningful, fun, symbolic, allegorical and loads of other things I'm struggling to put into words. This is the kind of book that you could read a hundred times and get something new from every single time.

tonja

Murakami=weird=beautiful=right up my alley! :)

Stefanie Sugia

"Why do I act like this, agreeing when I really disagree, letting people force me to do things I don’t want to do?"

This short tale is about a boy who visited the library because he wanted to return some books and was curious about the tax system in the Ottoman Empire. Inside the library, he was directed to a room where he met a strange old man. The old man provided him the books he wanted; but unfortunately those books have to be read in the library—well, in the 'reading room', to be exact. The boy followed the old man through a long and windy path to the so-called reading room. It was too late when the boy realized that the reading room is actually a jail cell.
"At the same time, my anxiety had turned into an anxiety quite lacking in anxiousness. And any anxiety that is not especially anxious is, in the end, an anxiety hardly worth mentioning."
While he was imprisoned, he met a sheep man who makes delicious donuts and also a pretty girl who talks with her hands. The sheep man then told the boy the reason why the old man kept him in the room to read thick books. It was because the old man enjoys eating small boy's brains; and brains full of information are nice and creamy. Later on, the boy planned on escaping with the help of the sheep man and the girl. But will he be able to?

  "All I did was go to the library to borrow some books."

"I am totally alone. No mother. No pet starling. No sheep man. No girl. I lie here by myself in the dark at two o’clock in the morning and think about the cell in the library basement. About how it feels to be alone, and the depth of the darkness surrounding me. Darkness as pitch black as the night of the new moon."
As this was my first experience reading a Haruki Murakami book, I thought it wasn't so bad—because I heard a lot weirder things about his writing. Don't get me wrong, this book is still weird and very strange, like the title stated. But I find myself enjoying Murakami's writing despite the strangeness of it all. The book is written from the perspective of the boy, whose name we do not know. In fact, none of the characters in this book has name; they're just called according to what they appear to be. The old man, sheep man, and the girl. I don't really have much to say about the plot because the book is only 77-pages long, and most of it I already wrote in my summary above.

I'm not sure if I fully understood the meaning behind the story or not. This book made me question whether what happened throughout the story is real or just the boy's imagination. And somehow I think there's some kind of connection between what happened to the boy in that strange library and what happened afterwards. Anyways, the story is very vague—and I guess it's up to the readers' imagination to interpret the story. I'm actually the type of reader who doesn't think too deeply about a book; and from what I can see this book emphasizes a lot on the narrator's fear of many things. Maybe the whole story wanted to depict the narrator's fear of what's going to happen at the end of the story. Of course I won't spoil the ending for those of you who haven't read it, but that's just my personal thought.
"The tricky thing about mazes is that you don’t know if you’ve chosen the right path until the very end. If it turns out you were wrong, it’s usually too late to go back and start again."
The best part about this book—and what encouraged me to rate this book 3/5—is the beautiful layout and illustrations that completes the story. I've got the UK edition of this book and I love how it's so beautifully designed. Some of the pages looks a bit old and decayed, just like some old books we see in libraries. Several times the text are blended into the illustration; one of them is where the text reads "But it's pitch black" is printed on a completely black page. I think the eerie illustrations fit perfectly with the tone of the story: strange and haunting. Here are some pictures to show you a little bit of what's inside the book :))





Even though I wasn't particularly loving this book, I still enjoyed it and felt that it was quite a nice introduction to Murakami's writing—at least it didn't put me off too much. I can definitely sense his peculiar writing style; especially through several similes in the book that I cannot seem to understand; For example: "I can read the two of you as easily as I can a watermelon patch in broad daylight". Well, for those of you who're planning to read this book, prepare yourself for something really weird. Although plot-wise, I still think Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane is a lot weirder and even more difficult to comprehend. If you like absurd stories or a fan of Neil Gaiman's writing, this book might be right up your alley. So don't judge this book according to my personal opinion because I'm not very used to surreal stories. This might not be my last time reading a Murakami book, but I really don't know where to start. Feel free to recommend me some other books by Murakami, or share your thoughts about this book if you've read it :))

Read the full and complete review here:
http://www.thebookielooker.com/2015/0...

Sabine Delorme

Wenn man zum Geburtstag zweimal das gleiche Buch geschenkt bekommt, ist das üblicherweise verbunden mit hektischem Suchen nach Kassenbons oder, falls die nicht auftauchen, dem durchgehen der Freundesliste, wem das zweite Exemplare wohl noch gefallen könnte. In diesem Fall hat der doppelte Murakami nur riesige Freude ausgelöst, war doch eines die englische, das andere die deutsche Ausgabe und es hat riesigen Spaß gemacht, diese beiden dünnen, so unterschiedlich illustrierten Bücher parallel zu lesen.

Er möchte doch nur zwei Bücher zurückbringen und eventuell wieder welche mitnehmen. Nichts deutet daraufhin, dass der namenlose Junge in einem kafkaesken Alptraum landen wird, als der seltsame Bibliothekar ihn nicht in den Lesesaal führt, sondern in ein Labyrinth, das sich unter der Bücherei erstreckt und wo er ihn heimtückisch einkerkert. Er trifft dort auf den mysteriösen Schafsmann, auf ein wunderschönes stummes Mädchen und auch, wenn man ihn mit den schönsten Leckereien füttert, so bleibt er doch ein Gefangener, dem der Tod droht. Der Junge muß drei dicke Bücher lesen, die der Bibliothekar ihm aushändigt. Er will wissen, warum er diese Bücher lesen und auswendig lernen soll und der freundlich-einfältige Schafsmann erklärt es ihm auch freimütig: “Ehrlich gesagt wird man dir den Kopf absägen. Und dann das Gehirn aussaugen.”

Die komplette Rezension findet ihr hier: http://bingereader.org/2015/11/07/the...

Jas Wang

I can definitely see why people consider this as one of the weaker books of Murakami’s, but I stand with my recent-developed belief of how a book becomes a good book when it finds the right person at the right time. It found me today, and it was a match made in heaven.

Jade Flynn

"The tricky thing about mazes is that you don't know if you've chosen the right path until the very end.

What a strange little story.

Nikki K

“Shoes you can replace, but you can’t replace your brains or your life.”
“You’re right about that, Mr. Sheep Man.”

idk this was so WEIRD. the quirky, matter-of-fact dialogue just cracked me up. 
I mean, he said TOOTSIES !! love that

The Strange Library

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