[grady]

I'm on the same page(no pun intended) as winjer regarding The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. That was the last book by Murakami that I read and it felt very long and meandering, not that it's a bad book by any means, and I didn't enjoy it.

I started reading Murakami with A Wild Sheep Chase and then read all of his subsequent books in the order they were published. I'm glad I read his work in the order of publication. You can really see the progression of the writer and the way ideas developed and matured over the years.

Perhaps one my favorite of his novels, perhaps my favorite, is Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I think it's the perfect summation of his style and weird metaphysical writing that is always bordering on sci-fi.

Kafka on the Shore always struck me as another version of Hard Boiled Wonderland... just stretched out and rewritten, but adhering to a similar structure.

For someone new to Murakami I would recommend starting with a collection of short stories like The Elephant Vanishes or the novel Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World followed very closely by A Wild Sheep Chase. Hard Boiled has become my go to gift for people new to Murakami's writing. At this point I've probably given about 15 copies out to people over the past two and half years since I first read it in the Fall of 2004. The most recent copy I sent to B.miller for a birthday present as he and share the same B-day.