During my break from school, me and my fiance took a huge step: we canceled our cable television! This was actually one of the best decisions ever. I was never one to watch a lot of TV, because I am way too type A to sit still for that long, but the boy is a pro at relaxing (which I definitely see as a compliment–I wish I knew how to slow down sometimes!), and I would always find myself curled up with him on the couch when we were bored. Even if it was just an excuse to cuddle up, it was getting out of hand when we were DVRing episodes of hoarders. And then when we realized how much we were spending every month on cable, that was the last straw.
So we canceled our cable! It’s not that we don’t watch television anymore: we still have Netflix and watch episodes of The Biggest Loser and The New Girl online. But I immediately felt like my mind was so much more clear without the television on in the background all the time. Instead, we put music on, or we read the piles of books and magazines we have accumulated.
So long story short, I started reading Haruki Murakami’s books over the break. And I am completely obsessed. I know he’s really popular, and when I read descriptions of his books a while back they sounded a little depressing. But he is one of those authors who can take melancholy and sometimes downright sad stories and turn them into spectacular, engrossing books that make you think about things in a whole new way. He reminds me of a cross between Gabriel Garcia Marquez and J.D. Salinger: both of whom I love, ergo I love Murakami.
So far I have read After the Quake, After Dark, and Norwegian Wood. And now I am reading IQ84, which is my favorite yet!
Here are some passages from Norwegian Wood that I loved. Even if you have never experienced the death of someone close to you, it teaches you so much about how we deal with tragedy, how we learn to move on and let go, and how your thinking changes as you grow up.
Park and Division 
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