I just bought a couple of new books to add to my stack. I’ll be going on a week long trip again and I’ve always make it a point to bring a book with me to read during long waits and especially this one during long flights.
First book in the list is Curious Incident of the dog in the Night-timeby Mark Haddon. The red packaging design and the upside down poodle on the cover grabbed my attention first time I saw this book a year ago. Looking at the inside pages, I was surprised to see an odd numbering of chapters and some puzzles and diagram within its pages. Curious, I read the synopsis at the back and found out about Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this novel who has gone about investigating a neighbor’s dead dog that lead to a series interesting of events ala Sherlock Holme’s murder mysteries. It was really interesting, grabbing you by the brain.
Second book I bought is Haruki Murakami’s latest novel “Kafka on the Shore.” I must confess though that ever since reading “Norweigian Wood” and “Sputnik Sweetheart,” I’ve been a fan (or better yet – an addicted fan!) of Haruki Murakami’s works. He’s one of those contemporary writers who defy the styles of writing and imbue a dreamy and emotional narrative that just really absorbs you into his own world. He is one of those Japanese writers along with Banana Yoshimoto that I really enjoy reading.
“Kafka on the Shore” incidentally is about another 15 year old boy who ran away from his dad due to an Oedipal Prophecy. It’s a departure from Murakami’s usual formula of having a 30-something passive solitary male as a protagonist, but I’m excited to see how he executed his narrative this time. I originally wanted to buy “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle” but it wasn’t available. But I’m sure I won’t be disappointed by Haruki Murakami.
Ferdz Decena is an award-winning travel photographer, writer and blogger. His works has found print in publications such as Singapore Airlines’s Silver Kris, Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay, Cebu Pacific’s Smile and Seair InFlight. He has also lent his expertise to various organizations like the Oceana Philippines, Lopez Group Foundation, Save the Children and World Vision, contributing quality images for their marketing materials.