The Strange Library

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed a copy of this as an audiobook from my library.

Audibook Quality (4/5): The audiobook was well read and I would recommend it.

Thoughts: I didn’t realize until after listening to it on audiobook that the original book is illustrated, so I am guessing I lost a bit of the ambiance listening to the audiobook. Still it was a short listen and I enjoyed the oddness of the story.

The premise is deceptively simple. A boy goes to a library after wondering about taxation in the Ottoman empire and is captured by an evil man there who wants him to read and memorize books to improve his brain. Then after the boy has finished learning, the man wants to snack on his delicious, enhanced brain. The main driver is whether or not the boy will escape.

This is a weird read and I liked it, never read a story quite like this before. I liked the oddly chipper sheep man and the mysterious girl. I am sure you can analyze this story to death and that there are allegories for each character and for the things that happen. However, I would rather just take it at face value and enjoy the weirdness and the strangeness of this one. It does make you think about knowledge and seeking it and the value of all of that.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this, it was weird and captivating. It is a story I won’t forget any time soon. I enjoyed the craziness of it, the atmosphere, the oddity of the characters, and the way they reacted in the situations they were in. If you are looking for something very odd and out of the box I would recommend this. It’s very short but has a big impact for its length. At some point I would like to go back and read it in paper format with the illustrations but the audiobook is still worth a listen. ( )

Surreal. Think David Lynch: Quasi-Comic Book Edition. ( )

Started off good. Sorta. Then just went flat. Don't bother. ( )

Something in between a fairy tale and a nightmare. Fascinating presentation. ( )

This book was one of the first Haruki Murakami exposures to our book club members, and as such many found it hard to understand and get into, especially given the abstractness of the story. Overall the rating was 2/5. ( )