I started reading Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood". When I read this novel for the first time, I was a high school student. Until now, I have read it about 20 times. I can't see why I have been into it. It is still one of the novels which have been a part of me. I can remember that I have thought about this life and death while reading it. I had tried to write articles like Haruki's style which was cool and clear. It seemed to be translated from English to Japanese directly. I even tried to write short novels following his style. It's my shameful past memory.
Noboru Tsujihara, a novelist, says that you should have read Dostoevsky at your 10s. If you hadn't, you couldn't say that you read his novels truly. When I read these words, I was in my 40s and had never read Dostoevsky. After that, I had read "The House of the Dead" and "Crime and Punishment". Little by little I walked into his world. For me, as that kind of reader, Haruki Murakami was the author who wrote the Bible when I was 10s. Does it mean that I am dumb as a reader? If so, I would accept it.
When do you encounter the books and are influenced by them? These are your personal problem. So we can't discuss it as a universal problem. It depends on the person when you meet Dostoevsky. Even if you read Dostoevsky in your 10s, it might not mean the happy experience of reading. For me, "Norwegian Wood" was the Bible and it moved me definitely. If you laughed at it, I would say you could laugh at me. I don't want to show my knowledge and beat another person by it. It depends on the person. That's all.
I've read the first half of "Norwegian Wood". Reading it deeper and deeper, I can learn the tactic which has made this book. The magical style of this book is just the technique of him which is based on his realistic tactic (But I have never read Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby"). Life and death, love and youth. I remember the memory of when I was a high school student. The period that I didn't talk to other classmates and just read this book, thinking about life as a college student...
