The Strange Library

This is my first Murakami. And I understand it's not typical in the sense that it's... well, it's kind of a kids' book. Kind of. It's short (less than 100 pages) and maybe 40% of those pages have pictures, and the font is big, and it's about a kid (like elementary-middle school age). But it's dark and surreal and wonderful. (and it's not a kids' book)

A kid goes to the library and wants to look into some books about a topic he thought about, so he's directed down to the basement, to room 107. From there, he's further directed into the labyrinth of the basement of the library... which he didn't know existed. He's thus trapped and must find his way out with the help of a "mysterious girl" and a "tormented sheep man" (from the publisher's show more description of the book).

No more should be said and, given how long this book will take you to read (not long at all), that's all that needs to be said.

I know not everyone loved this. But I sure did. It was just a dip into the surreal. And though there was so much sadness explaining the dip, the foray was so deftly woven. I am VERY much looking forward to more Murakami!

5 of 5 stars. show less

This is such a neat book to see in its printed form because the cover folds differently, printing on the front & back edges of the spine relates to the story, interior pages are set in large Courier type, & a photo or illustration graces almost every other page. I'm not sure if this is meant to be a YA book or a short story or ...? It's creepy & a bit surreal & makes me think of spooky, weird stories told around a campfire that scare the bejesus out of kids before they crawl into a dark tent on a moonless night. Since I checked this strange, odd little book out of my library, does that make it even a little bit creepier? Maybe. And, then, on the very last page, one paragraph in much smaller type floats there... the contents of which show more broke my heart open & made me rethink everything I just read. Bravo, Murakami-san! Bravo. show less

Imagine climbing up a tower from the inner staircase. It's dark, creepy, and challenging, but you keep going up the spirals in spite of the difficulties in the hope of reaching the end and seeing a magnificent view from the top. Then suddenly, you come to an unexpected dead end with just a teeny window on the sidewall, and all that is visible from the window is darkness. You peek out the window in the hope of making sense of the view when someone pushes you out and you plunge into a free fall. All you can do while tumbling to the end is wonder why you began to climb the tower in the first place. That was my experience with 'The Strange Library'.

I expect weirdness from Murakami, and he always delivers. I also expect senseless open show more endings, but this time, he surprised me even beyond my expectations. I'm still in my free fall of thoughts about the library and I can't think of anything else. show less

I am not quite sure what to make of this little book. I got it because it had such fabulous reviews and apparently Murakami is a good writer. I had never heard of him before, so I decided to give it a whirl.
The Strange Library is not even a 100 pages long and most of it are lovely illustrations gathered from old books from The London Library. I want to say this book is eccentric but what it really is a pot-high-induced short story. Even reading it made me hungry with all those delicious meals the boy had, lol! But anyway, on to the plot.
Our young narrator finds himself a the library after school because he wants to find out some information about tax collection in the Ottoman Empire. Naturally, he walks in and requests books that talk show more about that subject. He is then directed to an old man -a creepy one, mind you- who takes him down long corridors and mazes to a special reading room. This reading room is more of a jail cell and the boy is chained to a ball -how old fashioned!- and a sheep man (yes, a man clothed in sheep skin) and a lovely mute girl who talks with her hands are his companions for three days.
The boy finds out that the old man wants him to memorize as much as he can from the books he gave him so that his brains will be all creamy and tasty because he plans to suck them. Yes: eat them. So the boy is fed absolutely mouth watering food -made me hungry, remember?- which miraculously makes him able to transport himself into the story and memorize the books.
After three says, the three of them try to escape. After all is said and done, only the boy makes it out because the mute girl turned into a ginormous starling and the sheep man vanished after making it outside.
Needless to say, the boy never returns to the library but after a few days his mother dies suddenly from a mysterious illness and the boy is left all alone in the world. Quite sad, honestly; but like I said before: I do not know what to make of this book. I only know I liked it in some weird way. show less

I've felt for quite a while that I needed to get around to reading some Murakami eventually, but I wasn't sure where to start. So when I was wandering around the library, I was drawn in by this quirky-looking little book and checked it out.

This is not where I should have started. I did find parts of the book charming, but... First of all, the library is evil? Which is, kind of a hard sell for book people, right? But I was mostly trying to go with it — it's like an offbeat little fairy tale, but then, what was that ending? Then there was a sort of afterword that put a different slant on everything, but still I was left with a whole lot of "huh?" feeling. It just didn't land well.

I've since heard that this really isn't a good show more introduction to Murakami, so I am still planning to try again. I will do a little research next time! show less

I had no idea this book would be so dark! The reason I picked this up as my first Murakami book was that it was the shortest: only 96 pages, half of them illustrations.

The Strange Library is indeed that ... strange! It is whimsical, surreal, and dark. It contains a lot of themes and symbolism that's left for the readers to analyze and interpret. The narrator is unreliable, and the ending is ambiguous.

"The sheep man has his world. I have mine. And you have yours, too...just because I don’t exist in the sheep man’s world, it doesn’t mean that I don’t exist at all."

I ended up enjoying this weird little book! It explores obedience, grief, friendship, and fear. Murakami's writing style is unique and surreal. Also, I heard that show more paperback and hardbound books provide a better reading experience compared to an ebook. Have you read this? Would love to hear your thoughts about it! show less

It's straightforwardly surreal but the thing i found most absurd in the book that had since been bothering me till the last page is this

"To tell the truth, i wasn't all that eager to learn about Ottoman tax collection - the topic had just popped into my head on my way home from school. As in, I wonder, how did the Ottomans collect taxes? Like that."

lmao like he couldn't possibly be any more random. I mentally chuckled through the whole book thinking about that line, honestly.

3 stars because i've given his another better pieces 4, but it's still good.