Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge 2011

It's that time of year again... The time of the year where we challenge our reading selves to read! I love Japanese literature, and ever since joining The Japanese Literature Challenge hosted by Dolce Bellezza a few years back, I've had Haruki Murakami on my mind. I have yet to read Murakami for the Japanese Literature Challenge, so this is will be my nudge to finally open up those Murakami books on my shelves. Tanaba of In Spring it is the Dawn is hosting the Haruki Murakam Reading Challenge 2011. Here's what the challenge is all about...

The goal of the challenge is simply to encourage you to discover, or re-discover, the unique story-telling of Haruki Murakami. It's a really flexible challenge and all you have to do to participate is read at least one book by Haruki Murakami in 2011.

Levels of participation:

Hajime - Read one book

Sheep Man - Read 3 books

Toru - Read 5

books

Nakata - Read 7 books

Sumire - Read 10+ books

Super-frog - Read everything Murakami has written! (that is available in English, or your preferred language) For a list of the books available in English, visit the Books Page.

Remember...

*You don't need to have a blog to participate- you can share your thoughts on Goodreads, LibraryThing or any other places where readers get together and chat about books.

*You ca

n join anytime.

*You don't have to list the books you intend to read and can change them if you do.

*You can change the level of particpation at anytime too.

*Books should be read between January 1st and December 31st, 2011. And you can submit your reviews to the review links page.

*Books can be in any format: paper, ebooks, audio.

Sounds pretty simple, right?! That's right, just read something by Haruki Murakami to participate! This is suppose to be fun! I am going for Sheep Man! That's just 3 Haruki Murak

ami books. My initial thoughts on which books to read are Sputnik Sweetheart and After Dark. And, I just downloaded the audiobook of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, which is Haruki Murakami's memoir about his love of running and training for the 2005 New York Marathon. There are so many books to choose from. I'll be listing the books I've read for this challenge right here, with links to the reviews. So, stop back and see how I'm doing and see which Haruki Murakami book's I've cracked the spines on.

Sound like fun to you? Have you read any Haruki Murakami? You can read all about the challenge and sign up to participate at the Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge 2011.

Books

Read for The Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge:

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (audiobook)... In this wonderful memoir, Haruki Murakami writes about his preparation for the New York City Marathon, and cleverly weaves together a story that includes his thoughts on life, writing, music and and other things he "thinks about while he's running." Loved this! I listened to the audiobook, but intend to grab a "dead tree" copy so I can read some of his wonderful passages again. *Read my full review HERE.