The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle or Infinite Jest?

[Silas D]

Which one should I read first? I'll eventually read both of them, but at the moment I'm going to have to start reading more books with the new semester coming up. What I've heard about Infinite Jest is that it's so overrated and that Wallace doesn't really seem to know where he is going in some parts. I haven't heard much about Murakami, except that most of his books are surreal.

[Charles Darnay]

Those are fairly accurate descriptions.

Wind-up Bird is great (I just read it a few months ago). It is more playful in its surrealism than, let's say, Kafka on the Shore. It is very enjoyable and beautifully written.

Infinite Jest is what it is. You read it for the experience of reading it. There is nothing much that sticks with you after you are done - it's just an experience. I would not recommend reading it if you have other books on the side or are busy. It is not the type of book you can read a bit of here and there - if you do this, you will be quite lost.

[islandclimber]

I adore both. Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is certainly Murakami's best work. And as Charles says, quite playful in its surrealism than certain other works of his, yet at the same time maybe a little more serious in many ways. It is quite brilliant.

Infinite Jest is life. A hyperreality of quotidian detail. There is a main narrative and yet a thousand incidental little riffs running wildly astray from it before looping back to be devoured more or less whole. At times, the immense weight of words threatens to crush the narrative, yet it always relents at just that crucial moment, when on the precipice. I don't know that it is just an experience, with nothing remaining once you are done, I found it to be something more, something that could be possessed, and slowly unravelled, and discovered. Like exploring a land that is new yet familiar. As though DFW has tapped into some collective conscious...

[qimissung]

Maybe try reading the first page and then seeing at that point which book you find more interesting.

[islandclimber]

Maybe try reading the first page and then seeing at that point which book you find more interesting.

Or the last page if you're willing to risk a ruination of a story, though certainly in DFW's work the last page doesn't elucidate much of the story. Murakami's little more. I'd suggest a compromise in the middle somewhere? Pick a random page, as the first page and last pages are never the best determinants of the quality of a work... What do you think Qimi?

[qimissung]

I think that is a swell idea. Actually, the method I mentioned is one I've always used. It has worked well for me, and there have only been a few times when it's failed me. Sometimes, I do glance at other pages. Mostly I'm looking at the author's style, and islandclimber is right that looking at only one page, and that the first page, may not give you the clearest picture of the style. But that's OK. It's just one method.

But you have make a good point,islandclimber, and I think I'm going to give it a try the next time I'm choosing a book.

[islandclimber]

True. And I suppose in flipping to a random page, you might encounter a mediocre part of the book. I suppose any page, first, last, in between will hopefully give an idea of a writer's style. So Qimi, I must ask now, if you have used this method often... Has there been a book or two, where the first page drew you to choose it, and then you were terribly disappointed by the remainder? What's the worst experience you've had with this?

I know I have certainly read a couple pretty awful books by reading a random page in the middle and enjoying it.

[qimissung]

It's only happened a few times, and unfortunately I can only remember well one of those times, and it was a long time ago. :D I don't remember the title, just that the first page grabbed me, and the rest of it seemed rather mediocre and trite. It was just a thriller. I think I was reading it on a plane, and I bought it an an airport, so I guess it was a quintessential airport novel.

[TheFifthElement]

Of the two, I've read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and it is excellent.

In terms of book selection, I read somewhere that you should read page 99 of a book to get a feel for it. Authors work hard at the opening (to grab the reader) and reading the end risks spoilers. No, it's the baggy middle bit that will give you a feel for what the book is really going to be like.

[islandclimber]

Page 99. I like that idea.

I've had two bad experiences with this random page method of selection.

I picked up Tom Rachmann's The Imperfectionists after enjoying a page from somewhere in the middle. I regretted every moment of it. It was dreadful.

And then Martin Millar's Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving. What rubbish this book was. Much worse than the previous. I cannot believe I chose one of the few decent pages and purchased it off of what I read. A couple hours I shall never regain.