Books from Haruki Murakami

The Name is Archer

"I'd looked down the round blue mouth of death too often to fear it. I lived in a world where women had what-the-hell eyes, where men spread-eagled Ferraris across fast roads and the big blue dollar sign pointed to murder. I'm Lew Archer, the private detective, and a slip of a schoolgirl had chinked my armor. Her story was good and her terror was real. So was her bogeyman. He wore a Smith and Wesson and a much-wanted face. My juices stirring, I sallied forth in the errant night world of Hollywood and Vine to slay me a dragon..." --
Haruki Murakami
Writer
The first book he read in English was The Name Is Archer, by Ross Macdonald. As a high-school student he fell in love with crime novels.
Music recommended by Haruki Murakami
6 songs

Music mentioned in Haruki Murakami's Books

6 masterful pieces of classical music mentioned in Haruki Murakami's work "Absolutely on Music".
Haruki Murakami
Writer
6 masterful pieces of classical music mentioned in Haruki Murakami's work "Absolutely on Music".
Music from Haruki Murakami

Georg Philipp Telemann

Haruki Murakami
Writer
Music always stimulates my imagination. When I’m writing I usually have some Baroque music on low in the background—chamber music by Bach, Telemann, and the like.
Music from Haruki Murakami

Johann Sebastian Bach

Haruki Murakami
Writer
When I’m writing I usually have some Baroque music on low in the background—chamber music by Bach, Telemann, and the like.
Music from Haruki Murakami

Five Spot After Dark — Curtis Fuller Quintet

Haruki Murakami
Writer
When I was writing my newest novel, After Dark, the melody of Curtis Fuller’s “Five Spot After Dark” kept running through my head. Music always stimulates my imagination.
Cities from Haruki Murakami

Boston

Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States, and the 21st most populous city in the United States. The city proper covers with an estimated population of 694,583 in 2018, also making it the most populous city in New England. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country. As a combined statistical area (CSA), this wider commuting region is home to some 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States. Boston is one of the oldest municipalities in the United States, founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from the English town of the same name. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon gaining U.S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education and culture. The city has expanded beyond the original peninsula through land reclamation and municipal annexation. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing more than 20 million visitors per year. Boston's many firsts include the United States' first public park (Boston Common, 1634), first public or state school (Boston Latin School, 1635) and first subway system (Tremont Street Subway, 1897). Today, Boston is a thriving center of scientific research. The Boston area's many colleges and universities make it a world leader in higher education, including law, medicine, engineering, and business, and the city is considered to be a global pioneer in innovation and entrepreneurship, with nearly 5,000 startups. Boston's economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, and government activities. Households in the city claim the highest average rate of philanthropy in the United States; businesses and institutions rank among the top in the country for environmental sustainability and investment. The city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings.
Haruki Murakami
Writer
He collects records, specifically jazz and when asked where his favourite place in the world to travel to is, he said: "First would be Boston, Massachusetts, because it’s the most convenient and satisfying city for collecting secondhand jazz records."
Sports from Haruki Murakami

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two opposing teams who take turns batting and fielding. The game proceeds when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball which a player on the batting team tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team (fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate (the place where the player started as a batter). The team that scores the most runs by the end of the game is the winner. The first objective of the batting team is to have a player reach first base safely. A player on the batting team who reaches first base without being called "out" can attempt to advance to subsequent bases as a runner, either immediately or during teammates' turns batting. The fielding team tries to prevent runs by getting batters or runners "out", which forces them out of the field of play. Both the pitcher and fielders have methods of getting the batting team's players out. The opposing teams switch back and forth between batting and fielding; the batting team's turn to bat is over once the fielding team records three outs. One turn batting for each team constitutes an inning. A game is usually composed of nine innings, and the team with the greater number of runs at the end of the game wins. If scores are tied at the end of nine innings, extra innings are usually played. Baseball has no game clock, although most games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. Baseball is popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball (MLB) teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL), each with three divisions: East, West, and Central. The MLB champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series. The top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The World Baseball Classic, organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation, is the major international competition of the sport and attracts the top national teams from around the world.
Haruki Murakami
Writer
He can't say exactly why he decided to become a writer. It struck him one day, out of the blue, while watching a baseball game between the Yakult Swallows and the Hiroshima Carp. Dave Hilton, an American, came to bat. In the instant that Hilton hit a double, Murakami suddenly realised that he could write a novel having never had an inclination to be a writer before. He went home and began writing that night. Murakami worked on Hear The Wind Sing for several months in very brief stretches after working days at the jazz bar he owned.
Sports from Haruki Murakami

Swimming

Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs, the body, or both. Humans can hold their breath underwater and undertake rudimentary locomotive swimming within weeks of birth, as a survival response. Swimming is consistently among the top public recreational activities, and in some countries, swimming lessons are a compulsory part of the educational curriculum. As a formalized sport, swimming features in a range of local, national, and international competitions, including every modern Summer Olympics.
Haruki Murakami
Writer
When he's in writing mode for a novel, he gets up at 4am and works for five to six hours. In the afternoon, he will run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or do both), then read a bit and listen to some music.
Sports from Haruki Murakami

Running

Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walking, where one foot is always in contact with the ground, the legs are kept mostly straight and the center of gravity vaults over the stance leg or legs in an inverted pendulum fashion. A feature of a running body from the viewpoint of spring-mass mechanics is that changes in kinetic and potential energy within a stride occur simultaneously, with energy storage accomplished by springy tendons and passive muscle elasticity. The term running can refer to any of a variety of speeds ranging from jogging to sprinting. Running in humans is associated with improved health and life expectancy. It is assumed that the ancestors of humankind developed the ability to run for long distances about 2.6 million years ago, probably in order to hunt animals. Competitive running grew out of religious festivals in various areas. Records of competitive racing date back to the Tailteann Games in Ireland between 632 BCE and 1171 BCE, while the first recorded Olympic Games took place in 776 BCE. Running has been described as the world's most accessible sport.
Haruki Murakami
Writer
When he's in writing mode for a novel, he gets up at 4am and works for five to six hours. In the afternoon, he will run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or do both), then read a bit and listen to some music.