Category: Books

Usually best selling books in Japan are not novels, but this year things have changed and the top best selling book in Japan has been 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. The novel, published by Shinchosha has two volumes, and both occupy the top two spots in the ranking.

1.- The novel 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

The second most sold book during 2009 is “読めそうで読めない間違いやすい漢字” that can be translated as “Kanjis that seem legible but are easy to mix up”. It is a book about Japanese characters that can be confusing or that usually cause problems. It is aimed to Japanese people, and it’s not recommended for Japanese language learners, anyway if you have a Japanese language level near 1-kyu it can be a quite useful tool. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t surprise me that a book like this is the second most sold book, taking into account how complex Japanese language can be, even for native speakers.

2.- Kanjis that are easy to mix up.

And the third spot on the list is occupied by “ドラゴンクエスト９　星空の守り人　大冒険プレイヤーズガイド” which is a guide, published by Shueisha, for the Nintendo DS video game Dragon Quest 9. This third position doesn’t surprise me either because Dragon Quest 9 has been the best selling video game this year in Japan.

3.- Dragon Quest 9 guide

Via Mainichi.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること) is the penultimate Haruki Murakami book published in Japan; the last one is 1Q84. It is not a novel, it is a book written in first person by Haruki Murakami about his experience running marathons, triathlons and even a 100 km ultra marathon.

The book is quite entertaining and can be read easily in some hours without stopping; when you finish reading it you feel like going out and start running. Haruki Murakami never tells the reader to go running, he simply tells how he combines his life as a writer with his love of running. The writing style is informal, enjoyable and not very structured; it reminded me a lot of the travel diaries of Haruki Murakami (3 books that haven’t been translated to English).

Now I would like to share with you some passages of the book that grabbed my attention:

Sometimes when I run, I listen to jazz, but usually It’s rock, since its beat is the best accompaniment to the rhythm of running. I prefer the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gorillaz, and Beck, and olides like Creedence Clearwater Revival and Beach Boys.

I don’t have an iPod, I use MD. At this point I don’t want to mix music and computers. Just like it’s not good to mix friends and work, and sex.

The most important things we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.

Nothing in the real world is as beautiful as the illusions of a person about to lose consciousness.

I think certain types of processes don’t allow for any variation. If you have to be part of that process, all you can do is transform – or perhaps distort- yourself through that persistent repetition, and make that process a part of your own personality.

English book cover

Japanese book cover. Japanese book covers are usually pretty dull.

Haruki Murakami training to run a marathon

You can grab What I Talk About When I Talk About Running at Amazon.com.
Indispensable for Murakami fans!

Other Haruki Murakami books:

• A Wild Sheep Chase
• Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Japanese people, speciallly Japanese women, love pets. The more kawaii (cute) they are, the better. When you meet a Japanese woman the first thing they often do is to show you a picture of their pet, which they usually have as a wallpaper on their cellphones. Apart from the usual dog books section, the other day I saw a special cat books section. The incredible thing is that most of the books only include pictures of one cat posing and doing different activities.