Reading Murakami Haruki's 1Q84 (Intermediate/Advanced Book)

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Out of curiosity, is this book 2 out of 3 or 6? I remember seeing a few different versions of the series.

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This is Book Two 前編, so yes :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

On a more serious note: There are three books, each of which is split up into two parts in the Japanese edition. So it is book 2 out of 3, or fragment 3 out of 6. :woman_shrugging:

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Chapter 5! More 青豆~

On to chapter 6. :slight_smile: This one’s actually a pretty long one.

Chapter 7! A day late, sorry! :pray:

Also, お願いします~

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:upside_down_face:

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Time for chapter 8~ I remember being pretty excited about this chapter when I read through the chapter titles 2 months ago. :slight_smile:
Somehow I’ve gotten pretty behind though.

Chapter 9!

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Very timely new thread this week. :partying_face:

No I only need to catch up within the 2 weeks we have left of this book.

Feels like it was no time at all since the last time, but once again, お願いします~

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Here’s the penultimate week! I’ll update the OP later! :slight_smile:

Oops - I just realised I missed a week between chapter 8 and 9. :see_no_evil:

Should I put up the last chapter thread as well?
@Hijiki, I think you’re actually caught up, right?

Yes, I’ve read a couple of pages from chapter 11 yesterday, so I guess I’m on schedule.

Book 2 progress with spoilers about a character appearing from chapter 2

I intended to write something about that detestable, yet somewhat scary guy that keeps popping up in 天吾’s chapters, but I always ended up moving on to the other half of the story to get rid of the bad aftertaste. Well, not that the other protagonist isn’t dealing with suspicious people herself, but at least those make me want to know more about them instead of praying for them to go away before they add any more complications to the plot. I keep switching between ‘I have to counterattack with some sort of characterization before this creature ruins the plot entirely (as if that could change anything…)’ and ‘ugh, he’s so despicable, now he’s not only wasting 天吾’s time, but also mine, he’s not worth the effort😫’.

That being said, I don’t have many expectations regarding the next chapter, but feel free to post the thread whenever you like.

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Sounds like you’re on my schedule, instead of the originally intended one, haha. Unless you mean you read some of chapter 12.

If that’s the case I’d take the liberty to stay on that schedule and just post the chapter 12 thread on the weekend. That’d give me a bit more time to catch up as well. :sweat_smile:

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That guy really is creepy! I totally get that feeling, even if I’m not feeling it as strongly. Even his absence is creepy, because it totally feels like he’s moving in the background, doing something.

The last week! Finishing the book means we’re halfway through this series!

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I forgot to ask before - are we planning to have another week’s break in between books?

Or do we skip it since I accidentally created a break week in the middle of the book already?

It’s been a long time since I last visited this thread (although at some point I remembered that 1 year ago I started reading this book and this was the first Japanese book club I became involved in) and I missed a lot of the stuff happening in the other books clubs lately, but with huge variations in reading pace I managed to finish Book 2 by the end of September.

I found it strangely satisfying to see the events unfolding in the same time of the year as my own life. Maybe moreso because after the world setting is largely explained about halfway through book 2 the focus shifts to intro/retrospection, which is something I feel more inclined to when autumn begins😊. Then the last couple of chapters had the characters finally deciding to tackle 1Q84 again, some cliffhangers, obviously, making it really hard to wait a few days until October began so I could start Book 3 according to the timeline mentioned on the cover (10月-12月). So I guess I somehow managed to find something other than the book club schedule to pace my reading (nevertheless, I did miss sharing some thoughts with someone else every once in a while), although that also messed up my ability to keep a uniform reading pace for the other books I was planning to read simultaneously.

Book 3 has more chapters and a different structure compared to the previous two (looking at the table of contents feels like a loathsome spoiler if you do it before finishing Book 2, yet a hopeful one if you do it afterwards, so I won’t go into further detail). I think I’ll try to finish the last part of the trilogy by the end of the year, without having a fixed schedule in mind - I’ll probably read 2-3 chapter per week and take a break if the story advances to the next month of 1Q84 before it begins in 2021😂.

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Book Two 後編
Book Three 前編
Book Three 後編

@Hijiki I thought a bit about whether multiple threads like this make sense, but ultimately decided to stick with our original separation of 後編・前編. I’m currently reading Book Three 前編, so will likely post there soon. :slight_smile:

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I figured I’d move this discussion kind of to where it belongs :wink:

I’ve read the first part of Book 1 already, so I would just wait until you start the second part and then join in, no problem!

Maybe we can first gather interest for such a re-reading group:

Would you like to read 1Q84 with us, starting from July-ish?

  • Yes, can’t wait!
  • Lemme think about it…
  • No, I’m good.
0 voters
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