Continent Read-a-thon discussion

I already started Kafka on the Shore and so far I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. I'm about 100 pages in and it seems quite interesting even though some chapters just confuse the hell out of me. But I still have 500 pages to go so..... ;)

I'm reading that also. It gets weirder the further in you go. In most of his books, Murakami likes to begin realistically, then add in an increasing amount of magic realism and fantasy as the story progresses. I look forward to reading your and other's thoughts on this book when everyone is finished.

started Balzac and the little chinese seamstress today. not very far in yet, but so far I'm really liking it :)

Have finished reading Balzac and the little chinese seamsterss (about a week ago), Loved it!

Thinking about buying The Kite Runner for my next read.

I finished Inside Out and Back Again, which was really good, and now I'm reading Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise. I've only read a few pages, though, so I'll let you know what I think of it later on.

I finally finished Kafka on the Shore today. And even though it took me forever to get through the first 100 pages it got a lot better after that. I really enjoyed it but I'll definitely have to read some analysis on it because it's so complex that I really didn't get all the connections between people and "worlds". It was a 4 star read for me.
Now I'm moving on to Ru, which is way shorter ;)

Just finished The White Tiger and I liked it although I feel like showering and breathing fresh air now that I am out of that world. I read through it in two days so it's definitely very readable. We're reading this for a Cosmopolitanism class in uni and the class on this is on Monday so I'm excited to hear what our prof will make of it.
I think I'll check some other books by Aravind Adiga out eventually.

I ended up not reading Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise. I don't know, I just didn't feel like reading it at the time, but I'll definitely pick it up again soon. Instead, I read Girl in Translation and I really enjoyed it! I finished it a couple of days ago and I keep thinking about it. I'll have to check out her other novel, too.

I don't know what I'll read next. I'm currently reading a bunch of books and some of them are for university, so I have to read those first. I'm thinking about reading Asian books in May, too, to make up for it.

Girl in Translation sounds really interesting! I've had it on my to-read list for a while and now I want to pick it up soon >__< Was it an easy read?

University is messing with this read-a-thon for me, too... but thanks to my Cosmopolitanism class I'll read some more Asian and African books next month as well. Hopefully I can finish some of my own books anyway.

was planning to read The Kite Runner, but it wasn't availible at the moment (unless I want to pay over 30 euros for a special edition..) So I ended up picking up And the Mountains Echoed

Lena wrote: "Girl in Translation sounds really interesting! I've had it on my to-read list for a while and now I want to pick it up soon >__< Was it an easy read?

University is messing with this read-a-thon fo..."

It was! I read it in a couple of days. :)

I ended up picking up The White Tiger. I don't know if I'll have much time to read it, but we'll see.

I'm currently reading And the Mountains Echoed but I really can't get into it right now. I sort of don't feel like reading at the moment. And I HATE IT! And it's not even the book....it's just that my mind is occupied with so many other things that I can't focus on reading right now :( Hopefully I can make some slow progress with the book.

I am actually having a similar problem right now. With term papers I can't concentrate on much until it's over (although I'm not doing much). The only thing that works relatively well in cases as that for me are audiobooks. Which is why I started one by Haruki Murakami today (Von Männern, die keine Frauen haben) and I am really enjoying it. Love the narrator. Otherwise I am still on Scale-Bright, which is only 100 or so pages and really good but yeah...

Not really in a reading mood either at the moment.. Oh well, if I don't end up finishing it this month, I'll just take it with me to may :)

I read 'And Then', by Natsume Soseki. It seems like everyone else, I had trouble getting into my book. I skimmed over parts of it; not the book's fault, I have too many other things on my mind this month. Basically it is the Japanese Catcher in the Rye, about a guy, in this case a young adult, who believes he is superior to everyone and everything around him and does nothing with his life because he feels above it all. You can't call him a rebel, since that suggests a stand of some kind, and this character is uninterested in even that much.

making some very slow progress with And the Mountains Echoed not sure about it yet, it's definitely not a bad book, not at all, but i'm also not loving it so far..

Finishing The Noodle Maker. A meeting between two friends- a professional blood donor, and a writer - serves as the framing story for a series of stories told by the writer to his blood donor friend. The writer is bitter at having to write propaganda, and tells his friend realistic stories about the Chinese people. In reading these stories one hopes they are not quite as realistic as the writer insists. But they are interesting, and at times include dark humor.

Terry wrote: "Finishing The Noodle Maker. A meeting between two friends- a professional blood donor, and a writer - serves as the framing story for a series of stories told by the writer to his blood donor frien..."

sounds good!

I'm still nowhere near finished with And the Mountains Echoed.. I though I was starting to like it more, but then now I'm not even so sure about that anymore.. Idk, maybe it's jsut not the right book for me right now..

I'm also still struggling my way through And The Mountains Echoed. All these time and perspective changes really aren't my cup of tea.

Jasmin wrote: "I'm also still struggling my way through And The Mountains Echoed. All these time and perspective changes really aren't my cup of tea."

that's my biggest problem with it as well!

Finished Scale-Bright last night. Apparently the second half of my ebook are actually short stories that belong to the same universe. Although it took really long for me to get through the 100 pages of Scale-Bright I enjoyed it a lot and I'll definitely read the short stories at a later point! If you are into Science-Fiction I'd say give Scale-Bright a try :)

Okay, I wound up reading Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa. I'm editing my review video and will post it once it's done.

I finished listening to Men Without Women in German last night. I think my next audiobook will be another Murakami. I enjoyed his short stories a lot and I think they made a good beginning to his style (as far as that translates).

Last day of May and I finally finished my third Asia book xD" WOOP! Read The God of Small Things, again for my Cosmopolitanism class, and although it was really hard to read at times, overall I enjoyed it and think it deserved the prize it apparently won. Loved the murder/death story and how all the perspectives were interwoven.