I told myself not to read anything unrelated to uni until it finishes, which is after all only 5 weeks from now, but of course when I make promises I tend to break them as soon as I can. So, with the discovery of Fopp in Glasgow city centre (TWO of them), I am now broke from buying books when I should really NOT be doing so.
Among one of my purchases is Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, which I started to read while accompanying Flora at work and couldn’t put it down, so I finished it quickly.If you can’t beat them, join them… Interestingly, there is a Komura Memorial Library (fictitious, unfortunately) in it that’s quite a pivotal plot device in the story, so I can proudly say it added a new dimension to my own uni project. Yes, really…. Of course, now the library I need to design for my studio project will end up looking like my own interpretation of that traditional Japanese library, albeit with German & Scottish & Malaysian twists. Ahh.. what a mess of cross-cultural influences.
Anyway, seeing all the references to Franz Kafka only made me realise acutely I’ve still not read any of his works yet, something I”ve been meaning to do for more than a year, so the next day I went and bought Kafka’s The Castle at the same Fopp. :)
Other books I bought: Another Murakami book - Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, and 3 books that would be categorised under “Scottish Interest”.
HAHaA! I just read Kafka on the Shore not too long ago, as well. It’ll be interesting to see the library you designed ;) show!
Try also: The Elephant Vanishes. I don’t know why, but I like it a teeny bit better than Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman – I think the stories are more cohesive and flow better.
Wished I could read something else other than med books too! :p
How are you!
yv: well… there isn’t much literal elements that I can transplant however, it’s just too different a place from the site I have chosen….
yl: I’m fine… and where have you disappeared all these months?