After I widowed in late Oct 1993, my first book was Pronto! by Elmore Leonard. My second book, from the Jackson Heights Branch of the Queens Library, was Dance, Dance, Dance. My son was three years old at the time. Over time, he became an avid Haruki Murakami reader and has outpaced me in keeping up with his books. My best Jesuit HS in Puerto Rico friend (going back to the first week of 7th Grade in August, 1967) got into Murakami. He advised me to get a Kindle, as he had done after his wife protested at the space taken by all of his lifetime accumulation of books.
So, I tell him I have become a Kindle owner. And what does he do? He proceeds to order me hard copy of both Murakami’s 1Q84, which is at least 1,000 pages, and Arturo Perez Reverte’s El Asedio (The Siege) which is 816 pages. So, if I ever have a need for two really heavy doorstops, I do have them.
The last Murakami short story collection I read, I was not crazy about. During the 80-90’s Mario Vargas Llosa went for me from a point where I loved everything he wrote to where I cannot read him or stand to read about him. Don DeLillo too, during the early 2000s. The last short story collection by Murakami, which I read during a late night baby sitting gig in 2018, was that kind of experience for me.