Haruki Murakami, we shall meet soon.

Sometime back, people are slowly discovering the pleasure of reading and list of famous authors begin to grow. Among the authors in the list are Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahniuk, and Haruki Murakami. Neil Gaiman, I have loved since way back then, long before Stardust was shown in theaters. The other two though, I haven’t tried yet. And then I saw this:

“… So I made up my mind I was going to find someone who would love me unconditionally three hundred and sixty-five days a year. I was still in elementary school at that time — fifth or sixth grade — but I made up my mind once and for all.”

“Wow,” I said. “And did your search pay off?”

“That’s the hard part,” said Midori. She watched the rising smoke for a while, thinking. “I guess I’ve been waiting so long I’m looking for perfection. That makes it tough.“

“Waiting for the perfect love?”

“No, even I know better than that. I’m looking for selfishness. Perfect selfishness. Like, say I tell you I want to eat strawberry shortcake. And you stop everything you’re doing and run out and buy it for me. And you come back out of breath and get down on your knees and hold this strawberry shortcake out to me. And I say I don’t want it anymore and throw it out the window. That’s what I’m looking for.”

“I’m not sure that has anything to do with love,” I said with some amazement.

“It does,” she said. “You just don’t know it. There are times in a girl’s life when things like that are incredibly important.

“Things like throwing strawberry shortcake out the window?”

“Exactly. And when I do it, I want the man to apologize to me. ‘Now I see, Midori. What a fool I’ve been! I should have known that you would lose your desire for strawberry shortcake. I have all the intelligence and sensitivity of a piece of donkey shit. To make it up to you, I’ll go out and buy you something else. What would you like? Chocolate mousse? Cheesecake?’”

“So then what”

“So then I’d give him all the love he deserves for what he’s done.”

“Sounds crazy to me.”

“Well, to me, that’s what love is. Not that anyone can understand me, though.” Midori gave her head a little shake against my shoulder. “For a certain kind of person, love begins from something tiny or silly. From something like that or it doesn’t begin at all.“

I think I am running to the Fully-Booked later to buy my own copy of Norwegian Wood.

A Book a Week Keeps Stupidity at Bay

There are three material things I love about life: shoes, chocolates, and books. The first and the second need no more words because boys and girls alike hoard shoes even in moments direly needing strict frugality, and chocolates, who on normal earth doesn’t like chocolates?! The third though, only less than half of the population would understand.

Living on a third world country roughly means having restricted choices. We get to experience simple joys in life, yes, but looking for variances ain’t bad at all. I’ve always been a fan of “a little bit of everything” thus as much as I love our culture, I get the desire to experience what others do. And when resources are lacking – time, money – books are the easiest way to enjoy things otherwise unavailable to a commoner like moi.

As they say, you only learn things through either of these two: you experience things firsthand, or you read about it. You get to experience other culture, places, and even another era. By putting yourself in the shoes of the characters, you slowly gain understanding of how human mind works. It is always a field trip unique to a reader.

Please excuse me as I loss myself again into the pages of a book.

“There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.” — Bertrand Russell