Until this summer, I would never have considered myself a runner. In fact, my description for people who ran on a regular basis was “crazies.” And now I am one of those crazies. I am a crazy person who puts on running gear and runs several miles and feels absolutely wonderful afterwards. I’m not going to use the silly cliche about getting high on adrenaline or oxygen or life (I have to give myself a little more credit than that) but the feeling that I encounter after pushing myself for a few miles on a run through my neighborhood is harder to describe than I initially would have imagined. Luckily, I have Haruki Murakami to help me out on this one:

“As I run I tell myself to think of a river. And clouds. But essentially I’m not thinking of a thing. All I do is keep on running in my own cozy, homemade void, my own nostalgic silence. And this is a pretty wonderful thing. No matter what anybody else says.” –What I Talk About When I Talk About Running 

This is exactly why I am now a runner. I love losing myself to the physical aspect of putting one foot in front of the other and just going. After making some relatively big life decisions this summer – which included making the move from Nashville down to Jackson without having a job lined up or any sort of actual plan for that matter (insert thanks to my Lemuria family for taking me in!) – I found running to be the perfect distraction. At first, half a mile was overwhelming, but I have eventually worked my way up to around 5 miles and am pretty proud of it! I am even planning, perhaps a little too ambitiously, to run the Mardi Gras half marathon down in New Orleans at the beginning of March 2012. Whoa.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Murakami’s memoir about running, writing and how he intertwines the two in his life. (We’ve recently had some Murakami fever at the store due to the fact that his latest novel, 1Q84, hit the shelves this past week.) Not having read any of Murakami’s work, fiction or non-fiction, I didn’t really know where to begin, so I started with his memoir on running. If nothing else, I hoped it could give me some inspiration. Thus far, I have not been disappointed.

Reading Murakami’s thoughts on running, writing and life in general has been similar to having a really wonderful one-sided conversation-0ne of those conversations where you can’t get a word in edgewise, but you really don’t mind because what the other person has to say is so interesting that you want to keep listening. Even a person who is not into running would enjoy reading Murakami’s memoir, and I cannot wait to get into his fiction, which is highly recommended by several Lemurians. (And to any readers who feel they are up for the half marathon in March, see you in NOLA my friends!)

Click here to see all of Haruki Murakmai’s books.

Click here to see other blog posts on Murakami.

by Anna

Liz Sullivan is our Random House/Double Day rep, and we were lucky enough to have her join us for Chuck’s Damned Night. Liz also writes a blog about her Adventures in Book Land with another friend who also works in the publishing industry. I enjoy reading their unique perspectives, and Gianna and Liz are also funny! Inspired by Liz’s ambition to read every Chuck book before the event, Gianna is now inspired to read every Danielle Steele book. At last count, I think that’s about 178 books! Read about their Adventures in Book Land here.

Liz kindly allowed us to republish her blog. Here’s what she had to say about meeting Chuck Palahniuk and the whole Damned Day and Night. -Lisa

After reading ten Chuck Palahniuk books in under three weeks, on Thursday the actual Damned event d-day arrived. I picked up Chuck and his publicist Todd at 8:45 Thursday morning and we joined Lemuria’s blog goddess Lisa and my boss Valerie at the Eudora Welty House for a 9 o’clock tour.

Welty house expert Karen Redhead and Eudora’s niece Mary Alice White met us there and we received the VIP treatment. If you’re going to Jackson, the Welty House should be on your agenda. It’s close to my version of paradise; books are everywhere, the house is a quaint style with great windows and architectural lines, and there was even a cat out front. The gardens are lovely too, but I’m sure that I’d just manage to kill the plants. It didn’t even have a shower; just a bath. You should know by now that I love my soaks. Also, Eudora’s literary awards are under glass so you can’t lift her Pulitzer. Sorry.

Chuck seemed to really enjoy the tour. He likes to view other writer’s homes and writing spaces because it helps him connect to their writing. He spent extra time in the gardens. The Welty house was an excellent way to begin the day, a bit of quiet that would progressively amp up until the climax that night.

From Eudora’s place we drove to Lemuria Bookstore. Chuck was treated like a celebrity upon entering the store. How did this event happen? Zita, one of the Lemuria booksellers, is the biggest Chuck Palahniuk fan I’ve ever met. The first time I met her several years ago, she was reserved until I mentioned that there was a new Chuck book on the list I was selling, and she animated like Wakko Warner spotting Hello Nurse (yes, that’s an Animaniacs reference. I love the Animaniacs.) When I sold Damned in the spring, John Evans, the buyer and store owner, mentioned that they’d never hosted Chuck. Joe, the store events guy, added Chuck to their events requests and I talked to Todd, Chuck’s publicist. John and Joe talked up a Chuck event at BEA (Book Expo America), too. Todd thought it was a good opportunity and we set a date. And then the Lemuria staff went to work.

Back to Zita. She is a Chuck Palahniuk super-fan. Her love of Chuck spread among the staff and when I next visited Lemuria to sell the spring list, it seemed like everyone there was reading and talking about Chuck. They were talking about Madison, the protagonist for Damned, and they were talking about his older books. We started talking about event ideas, and about making Damned one of the Lemuria first editions club picks. When Chuck walked into Lemuria on Thursday, the hug Zita and Chuck shared was one of the best moments I’ve witnessed in Book Land. It was perfect.

One would have to have been blind to set foot in Lemuria and not to know about the Damned event (and why would a blind person spend a lot of time in a bookstore?). Chuck books, Damned posters and bookmarks, Damned t-shirts–there was Damned stuff EVERYWHERE. They featured a display of Chuck’s favorite books and authors, you know, for some variety. I take some secret joy in knowing that other publishers’ reps have been walking into Lemuria to sell books and they’ve been staring at Chuck (and therefore Random House) endorsements for hours. Yes, I am that competitive.

While at Lemuria, Zita acted as store hostess and helped Chuck sign books and meet-and-greet a class of high school students. One kid wore a buffalo hat. Yeah, he’s definitely read a Chuck book or two in the past.

After making memories with some high schoolers (get your minds out of the gutter, pervs!), Chuck returned to the hotel, and Valerie, Todd, and I ate lunch and drove to Hal and Mal’s, the venue for the evening event. Hal and Mal’s is an old warehouse that’s been converted into a restaurant and entertainment venue. The space is huge, and almost all of it was dominated by the Chuck preparations. Hal and Mal are Zita’s uncle and father, and apparently she’d basically lived at the place for the last week decorating for the event. The effort was obvious. In addition to the book reading, Lemuria coordinated with other local businesses to make the night a huge JX RX (Jackson Rocks) event in support of local businesses. From Hal and Mal’s to Cathead Vodka, to local artists, to the Parlor Market restaurant, to bands, the community bonded over the event and helped spread the word.

In one room at Hal and Mal’s, an art show inspired by Damned covered the walls. Devils and images of hell and violence covered the walls. If I’d had $1,500 to spare, I would have purchased one of the pieces. They were all very cool, and the art show was a great idea as a passive way to entertain people (and hopefully sell some local art) before the show started.

And then there was the room where Chuck would be speaking. It’s HUGE. And every part of it was decorated like the hell from Damned, no detail overlooked. In Chuck’s hell, stale popcorn balls and candy are the only foods, and Zita made popcorn balls and hung them from the ceiling. In hell, The English Patient movie plays round-the-clock. Done. Light bulbs were switched for red lights. Staffers and fans dressed in costumes. While Chuck was still in the hotel giving phone interviews, Valerie and I took pictures of the empty space and ate a quick dinner in the restaurant at Hal and Mal’s, and by the time we left to pick up Chuck and Todd from the hotel, the crowd was already building, two hours before the main event and over an hour before the doors opened.

When we drove back to Hal and Mal’s with the author and publicist in tow, we couldn’t even find a parking space. PACKED house. Chuck and Todd went inside to set up while Valerie and I parked, and then we joined them backstage, where Todd was blowing up an inflatable skeleton and Chuck was inflating a brain. Chuck likes to play games with his crowds. I peeked around the curtain and indeed what I saw was my version of hell–hundreds of drinking, rowdy people anxiously crowding a stage to see their literary hero and have a good time. (I don’t like crowds). John, the owner of Lemuria, introduced Zita, and then Zita introduced Chuck.

Chuck Palahniuk the performer is the consummate crowd manipulator. It’s fascinating to watch him push them into a raucous frenzy and then instantly calm them with an insight into humanity. He told a graphic and disgustingly hilarious story about being a candystriper as a 13 year-old Catholic going through confirmation classes, and the lesson learned was both appropriate…and dirty (I’m not going to give it away since Chuck may be using the story at all of his events). Then he threw out hundreds of inflatable brains to the crowd in a game and generated the hysteria…only to settle the crowd once more as he read an original story written for the tour. Chuck spoke for over an hour, never letting up. People pay $60+ for tickets to hear A-List comedians, yet Chuck’s performance is so much more than that, and longer, and for the Jackson crowd on Thursday night, free.

So what’s Chuck Palahniuk like in real life? He’s quiet and unassuming and highly intelligent. He has a wicked sense of humor and a great appreciation for absurdity, but he’s also sensitive to feelings and kind. He’s a generous donor for charities including animal no-kill shelters (he’s recently donated the coffee table from the movie Fight Club to auction as a fundraiser for The Pixie Project) and he’s a champion of other authors and their books. I talked to him about the animal sex capitol of the world and a zombie convention while we were driving from Eudora Welty’s house to Lemuria, but it was a totally normal conversation. No, really, it was. He reminded me of some of my most hilarious friends, the kind of guy you want to ask to dinner and the kind of guy who can tell a good fart story over dessert in the hotel after a huge event and long day.

Thank you to the Lemuria staff, the Jackson local businesses, Random House, and Chuck Palahniuk for making the Damned book night possible. I’m glad that I was able to participate. It was a great night to be a part of Book Land.

Some years ago I met Tom in the fiction room and eventually we discovered that we both loved Murakami. We have had many conversations about books we love, but none so enthusiastic as the ones on Murakami. In all the anticipation for 1Q84, I asked Tom if he would like to join our blog series on Haruki Murakami. -Lisa

Here’s what Tom has to say:

The spring semester of my junior year of college was – without question – my worst. Within a stretch of about two weeks, Cancer forced itself into my family and Murder pointlessly ended the life of one of my dearest friends. Even now, the weeks and months that followed are blurry at best.

That summer, I discovered Murakami.

The nominal purpose of the summer was to conduct research for my thesis, but – whether it was clear to me or not at the time – the summer also served to remove me from a world that made no sense and whose foundations no longer seemed stable. Though I wasn’t aware of it, the financial crisis happened that summer, too.

I picked up Kafka on the Shore in a bookstore in D.C. – drawn by the back cover’s promise of talking cats, fish falling from the sky and prophecies. That summer, I needed – and more importantly, needed to believe in – all those things.

And, what Murakami gave me that summer was solace in chaos. Peace in grief. Life in absurdity. Constancy in change. Hope in loss.

I needed another world – perhaps where cats talk or soldiers never age – as an escape, and Kafka on the Shore – every time I read it on a subway or in a café – delivered.

It’s not very often – for me, at least – that books make me wholeheartedly want to live in the world that is described within them, but Murakami’s books did and still do that to me. They are stories where the journey is more important than the ending. And where the ending doesn’t always make sense. Where our questions – not the answers, necessarily – matter most.

But more important than my own personal experience with Murakami is how your experience will be. I envy everyone who has never picked him up before. I envy the discoveries that you’ll make and the characters that will speak to you – who maybe never spoke to me. I envy your first dive into a world where things are not as they seem – and where everything in this world, even for just a moment – seems possible, and dare I say, magical all over again.

1Q84 is on sale today!

Click here to see all of Haruki Murakmai’s books.

Click here to see other blog posts on Murakami.

hmhm

Within the past year Haruki Murakami has become one of my favorite writers. I’d like to take up a little space on this blog to tell you about him and maybe win you over on his behalf.

Murakami is a Japanese writer (his works, both fiction and nonfiction, live in the foreign fiction section here at Lemuria), who has gained a great deal of international acclaim over the years for novels like Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore.  He’s one of the only Japanese writers to gain a loyal following in the United States, and in Japan his novels have made him into something of a celebrity. Not being a fan of his fame, Murakami exiled himself for a few years and has allowed few interviews (I was only able to find five when I was researching for this blog).

Part of Murakami’s success in America may come from the fact that stylistically his novels are Western.  He explains his style choices in a 2004 interview with the Paris Review:

“When I was 29, I just started to write a novel out of the blue. I wanted to write something, but I didn’t know how.  I didn’t know how to write in Japanese—I’d read almost nothing of the works of Japanese writers—so I borrowed the style, structure, everything, from the books I had read—American books or Western books.”

Though the structure of his writing may be familiar to those of us who are fans of Western European and American literature, Murakami’s themes and stories are all his own. He has a talent for churning out fantasy/sci-fi mixed with serious philosophical and moral questionings.   I have never before encountered an author who writes so elegantly about the kinds of strange events that pop up in Murakami’s novels and short stories.  I’ve discovered dancing dwarves, psychic prostitutes, girls who willingly fall into the role of sleeping beauties, and alternate universes entered through sleep and deep wells in abandoned lots. Yet as magical as his worlds are, Murakami’s protagonists are level-headed and calmly take on their fantastical encounters with amusement and intelligence.

I never tire of the recurring themes in Murakami’s works. Whenever I’m in a reading slump, I put down everything else and dive into one of his novels.  I’ve read three of them already since January (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark and Norwegian Wood) and I have three more waiting on my shelves.

But besides being a wonderful fiction writer, Haruki Murakami is just an interesting guy, who has managed to achieve quite a lot in his lifetime.  Below I’ve listed some fun facts about Murakami, so you can get a sense of what he’s all about:

• Before becoming a writer Murakami opened the coffeehouse/jazz bar named Peter Cat with his wife.
• Murakami is a marathon runner and a triathlete (He has written a book on the subject of running called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running).
• In 2006 he won the Franz Kafka prize for Kafka on the Shore.
• In addition to being a writer Murakami works as a translator. He has translated the works of Raymond Carver, J.D. Salinger, Truman Capote and F. Scott Fitzgerald into Japanese—many of which are the first translations to ever be available in Japanese.
• Murakami served as the writing fellow for both Princeton and Tufts University.
• Murakami received an honorary doctorate from Princeton in 2008.
• When he won the Jerusalem Prize in 2009, Murakami attended the ceremony (despite the public’s threats to boycott his work) and gave a speech to Israeli dignitaries criticizing Israel’s policies (concerning the recent bombing of Gaza).

Interesting guy, huh? I can’t get enough of his work and have seen information about there possibly being a new book being published in the U.S. sometime this year.  Needless to say I can’t wait.

Do you have any writers that you simply can’t enough of? If so, please share.  -Kaycie

You can read the entirety of the Paris Review interview I cited here.

This blog was originally published March 12, 2011.

1Q84 is on sale today! Click here to reserve your copy.

Click here to see all of Haruki Murakmai’s books.

Click here to see other blog posts on Murakami.

hmhm

Dear Listener,

I didn’t read Virgin Suicides.  I haven’t read Middlesex.  I even failed to see the movie The Virgin Suicides.  Honestly, I hadn’t even heard of Jeffrey Eugenides until The Marriage Plot came in.  BUT!  I read The Marriage Plot. 

If you like the eighties, or French philosophy, or love triangles, or hopeless romantics, or mystics, or India, or intellectualism, please read this book.  If you disdain every single thing I mentioned, if you hate literature, if you can’t stand a modern love story set thirty years ago, do not read this book.

Even if you hate everything I mentioned, watch this video anyway.  Be creeped out.  Get yourself ready.  This video is brought to you by the good people who invented Halloween.

by Simon