Comments on: Short Saturday: Murakami, Borges, and Babel

By: Bookie Mee | Short Saturday: Borges and Nabokov

Bookie Mee | Short Saturday: Borges and Nabokov — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:05:41 +0000

[...] week after he shouted at strongly encouraged me to try one when I talked about Borges’s The Library of Babel, did I manage to listen to two of [...]

By: mee

mee — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:19:45 +0000

Yea now I know. I’ll listen to the entire podcast first next time. Though I do like it more if I can understand a story without someone having to explain it to me. Okay, those two up next!

By: mee

mee — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:16:58 +0000

Yeah! One of the best right? See! :D

By: Mark David

Mark David — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:55:51 +0000

I have to say, this is one of his best short stories that I've read :) .-= [Mark David´s last blog: Woolf in Winter: To the Lighthouse] =-.

By: Mark David

Mark David — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:46:20 +0000

Haha, yeah you have a point. Hey, you really have to listen to the entire podcast first. That’s how I do it. The discussions are often very enlightening and they tend to point something out that will make you focus on some part of the story when you listen to it again.

Hmm… what should I recommend next? (trying to figure out which one you’ll like)… I guess the episode “Books and Blades” (Nabokov’s “My Russian Education”) or “From Russia With Love” (Sergei Dovlatov’s “The Colonel Says I Love You”).
.-= [Mark David´s last blog: Woolf in Winter: To the Lighthouse] =-.

By: mee

mee — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:50:08 +0000

I repeated the ending like 5 times because I didn’t get it. Until I continued on and Paul Theroux explained it.. Oops..

Mmm I haven’t read many Murakami short stories to compare. But with novel you have more time and space to not make reader completely go “huh?” at the end.

By: Mark David

Mark David — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:04:55 +0000

Yes I have to agree about Murakami. Do try one of his books Rebecca! If you're not much into quirky stuff, you might want to try Norwegian Wood first. Both Mee and I loved it :) .-= [Mark David´s last blog: Woolf in Winter: To the Lighthouse] =-.

By: Mark David

Mark David — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:03:15 +0000

Oh come on, there’s lots of stories we read and don’t understand quickly (sometimes not at all). To be honest, when I read Murakami I usually just allow myself to get lost in the story not bother anymore whether I get it or not :) But anyway, don’t worry. I can’t say I understood this story in full as well. I think there are different ways to look at it, or interpret it. But I just thought that for something so short, it’s quite good (style-wise at least).

Feel free to buzz (or bug) me anytime ;)
.-= [Mark David´s last blog: Woolf in Winter: To the Lighthouse] =-.

By: mee

mee — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:15:12 +0000

I was confused too to be honest. Not because the topic was weird, but because… I don’t know what it was! Was it the translation? I just listened to another of his short this afternoon called The Gospel According to Mark, and I don’t think I get it.

Yes you need to read Murakami. He’s so universal. I can talk about his books to everybody. Even to people who are not big readers.

By: mee

mee — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:09:21 +0000

So I read your comment this morning and because you shouted, I listened to it in the afternoon. So at this point, I have listened to it. To be honest, I don’t really get it. But I’ll bug you about it later.