Reading List For January, 2025

It's now the end of the month, so it's time again for the list of books read during the month. With twelve books read in January, this is most read in any one month since April of 2021 when the monthly count was 15.

This month, I'll be listing the books differently; normally I'd list the books in the order read. This time they'll be grouped by writer.

There were five written by Donna Leon, three by P.G. Wodenhouse, two by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and one each by Haruki Murakami and Larry Denninger.

I'm giving each book by Leon, Wodenhouse and Murakami five stars. Larry Denninger's book receives three stars. Sadly, Toshikazu Kawaguchi's two books are only getting two stars each. These two are part of a five book series - much of what's written doesn't hold up after five books.

The list:

Beastly Things
The Golden Egg
By Its Cover
Falling in Love
The Waters of Eternal Youth   by Donna Leon 

A Damsel in Distress
Right Ho, Jeeves
The Code of the Woosters   by P.G. Wodehouse 

 
Before We Say Goodbye
Before We Forget Kindness   by Toshikazu Kawaguchi 

 
End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland   by Haruki Murakami

 
Songs for Clara   by Larry Denninger

Haruki Murakami's "End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland" A New Translation by Jay Rubin

A few days ago, I wrote a blog post on Haruki Murakami's novel End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland. As I mentioned in the post, I had read Alfred Birnbaum's 1991 translation, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World in October and after reading Murakami's latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami the first week of December, I wanted to read Jay Rubin's new translation of End of the World........

At the time of that blog post, I had only read about 65% of Rubin's translation. I write:
It's odd. I seem to have a good recollection of the "End of the World" section, although in many ways, the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" section seems almost completely new to me. It's still difficult for me to connect the two sections. With luck, I'll be able to do that when I finish this re-read.

I went to readings list to compare the length of time it had taken me to read the two different translations. The new translation was taking a bit longer. I read exclusively e-books now, so I did not immediately notice the difference in the actual length of the books. I opened both files and saw right away that in my PC's e-reader, the difference was obvious - Birnbaum's translation contains 273 pages - Rubin's translation comes to 404 pages! It's little wonder that much of the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" section seemed completely new. Had these two books been in print form, I would have seen the difference. In his afterword to his translation, Rubin explains why Murakami wanted him to restore the pages omitted in Birnbaum's translation.

Having read the Rubin translation, I can connect the two sections. Anyone wanting to read Sekai no Owari to Hādo-Boirudo Wandārando should choose the newly released Rubin translation - End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland..

Reading list for December, 2024

 

Today is the final day of December and the time has come for the list of books I've read this month. Unlike in most months, I was able to post onto the blog a little bit about each book read. Clicking on the titles listed will, of course take you to the individual blog post.

There are only six books listed; I was certain that I'd have more, but that was not to be. A few days ago, I had created different images with the book covers - one image showing eight books, another showing seven just in case. Sadly, I was unable to finish End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland in time to make this month's list.That book will be the first in 2025. That's just as well. I'll be doing an additional blog post on the book.

Here is the list of books I read in December, 2024.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls  by Haruki Murakami
Crime and Punishment   by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Kafka on the Shore   by Haruki Murakami
Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End   by Bart Ehrman
The Stranger   by Albert Camus
The Plague   by Albert Camus

End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland by Haruki Murakami

As I write this post, I am approximately 65% finished with a re-read of Haruki Murakami's novel from 1985, Sekai no Owari to Hādo-Boirudo Wandārando. This past October, I read Alfred Birnbaum's 1991 translation, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. The novel was recently released with a new translation by Jay Rubin as End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland, reversing the order in the title.

I wanted to re-read the novel, mainly because I had just read Murakami's latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, which is a rewriting of the "End of the World" portion of the earlier book.

I'm hoping to have this re-read finished in time to make my December,2014 reading list. I'm writing this post now while the book is fresh in my mind.

Not being able to read the original Japanese, it's difficult for me to be totally objective as to which is the superior translation. I'm leaning toward the later Jay Rubin translation - after all, why would a newer translation be needed if Birnbaum's translation had been up to the job? Still, I do feel that Rubin's version flows better.

It's odd. I seem to have a good recollection of the "End of the World" section, although in many ways, the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" section seems almost completely new to me. It's still difficult for me to connect the two sections. With luck, I'll be able to do that when I finish this re-read.

I follow a Haruki Murakami fan page on Facebook. Another follower asked if The City and Its Uncertain Walls was a stand alone novel, or if it was necessary to read End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland first? Of course, The City........ is certainly a stand alone novel, I answered that I thought it best to read Hard-Boiled..... (or the later translation) first, if for no other reason than because it was written first.

Reading Murakami is a good way for me to learn about musical recordings and writers that I'm not familiar with. In this book, the narrator of the Hard-Boiled Wonderland section reads Stendhal's The Red and the Black. I had a difficult time reading that particular book in 2021. I believe the problem may have been the translation. Murakami and Jordan Peterson both give the novel high marks. Perhaps I should consider reading a newer translation.

Another writer mentioned by the narrator of the Hard-Boiled Wonderland section is the author of 87th Precinct novels, published under the pen name Ed McBain. I've downloaded the entire series. I'll try to read a few of those next year.

Rereading Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore.

I began December by reading Haruki Murakami's latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls. This novel is a retelling of a short story of the same name (which is no longer in print) and a novel from 1985, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World which I read in October of this year. The two novels share several similarities and in some ways I thought of  my reading "The City" as almost like reading the earlier novel a second time.

This idea led me to consider rereading novels I had actually read before. With that in mind, I reread Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Riding that same train of thought led me to once again read Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore.

With Murakami being Murakami, in each these three novels, a library plays a significant part, as does Ludwig van Beethoven. Add the Oedipal aspects, the old, disabled man with the uncanny ability to talk to cats, and the feeling of moving in and out of alternate realities and we're in for quite a ride.

In a blog post from November, 2021, I said of Kafka on the Shore:
The story takes several bizarre twists and turns. In an interview posted on his English-language website, Murakami says that the secret to understanding the novel lies in reading it several times. That may well be the case.

I can say that upon my second reading of the novel, I do have a somewhat better understanding of the work. Reading the wikipedia article on the novel was also a help in my (partial?) understanding.

I'm certain that I will follow Murakami's advice and read the novel again, although I suspect that will not be in the near future.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

I first became aware of the Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami in early 2021 when I had come upon reviews of two of his novels, Kafka on the Shore, and Norwegian Wood. I was later able to download mobi files for the two and read the books in November and December of that year.

This year, I managed to read six more of his novels - or eight if you count 1Q84 as three books as was originally done when released in Japanese in 2009 and 2010.

The remaining five include - Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and now The City and Its Uncertain Walls.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls was published in Japanese in 2023 with the English translation released on November 19, 2024.The novel shares its title with an earlier short story of the same name, which was published in the September 1980 issue of a Japanese monthly literary magazine, Bungakukai. Unfortunately, Murakami has not permitted this short story to be reprinted but Murakami expanded that short story into his 1985 novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

Like most of Murakami's novels, this latest one has a surreal quality. I'm not inclined to give spoilers, but like in the earlier novel, the character in The City..... spends a good deal of time in a library. This recurring library reminded me of Kafka on the Shore where a library also plays a prominent role. In my earlier blog post on Kafka on the Shore, I wrote that in an interview posted on his English-language website, Murakami says that the secret to understanding that novel lies in reading it several times. I've decided to do just that. First, I plan on rereading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (in a more modern translation than the one I've read so many times before).

I've also learned that a new translation of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World will be released sometime this month. That will probably wind up in the queue.

The October, 2024 Reading List

 

The time has come again to post a list of books that I've read this past month. With ten books, October leads the year in total number of books read per month.

Two of these books were recommended by the folks at the Commentary Magazine daily podcast; one of those being written by a podcast regular, Christine Rosen - The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World. The second book - Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévy.

In her book, Rosen discusses the cultural and emotional difficulties stemming from our addiction to modern technology.

Israel Alone focuses on the isolation of Israel and the tragedy of October 7, 2023 starting with Lévy’s eyewitness account the day after the attack by Hamas terrorists.

Two of the books on the list were written by one of my favorite modern writers - Haruki Murakami. The 1985 novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and the 2004 novel, After Dark.

I wrote about three of the books making the list in a previous blog post - Arthur Koestler's Trilogy .

The three remaining books making the list were written by this year's winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Han Kang. 

A review of her first novel, The Vegetarian can be found by following this link. Four of Han's novels have been translated into English; three made my October reading list. In addition to The Vegetarian, I managed to finish The White Book, described as "an exploration of personal grief through the prism of the color white", and Human Acts , a story one boy's death during the Gwangju Uprising of 18 May 1980 in South Korea.

The list:

The Extinction of Experience    Christine Rosen

Israel Alone           Bernard-Henri Lévy

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World    Haruki Murakami

After Dark                  Haruki Murakami

The Gladiators           Arthur Koestler

Darkness at Noon       Arthur Koestler

Arrival and Departure  Arthur Koestler

The Vegetarian             Han Kang

The White Book            Han Kang

Human Acts                  Han Kang               

The May, 2024 Reading List

 

The list of books read in May isn't long. Six isn't spectacular, but it is more than one a week - so there's that.

Three books on the list were reviewed in earlier blog posts : The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami - and The Steppenwolf  by Hermann Hesse, so there's no need to write more on those three here.

In the Courts of Three Popes by Mary Ann Glendon tells of the writer's experiences in Rome during the pontificates of Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. Unfortunately, the book deals more with her than with the three Popes. It's not exactly what I thought I was getting into when I started reading the book.

Edith Tiempo was a Filipino poet, fiction writer, teacher and literary critic in the English language. She graduated from Silliman University in Dumaguete (the city I call home now) and would go on to attend Universities in the U.S.. She would eventually return to Dumaguete to teach at her alma mater. Although she wrote six novels in English, I was only able to locate one as an ebook - Blade of Fern. The story tells of a mining operation is the fictional village of Nibucal, Mindanao.

One of Tiempo's short stories was required reading in my son's final year of high school. I suppose I might be able to find more of her books at the local public library.

The Provincials - A Personal History of Jews in the South by Eli N. Evans was originally published in 1971. Although I'm not Jewish, I can relate to much of the book, having grown up in the American south during the time period of which the book was written. Again, although Evans wrote a number of books, this one is the only one I could find in ebook format.

This list for May, 2024:
The Son of Tarzan    by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle  by Haruki Murakami
In the Courts of Three Popes   by Mary Ann Glendon
The Steppenwolf      by Hermann Hesse
Blade of Fern   by Edith Tiempo
The Provincials   by Eli N. Evans

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

 

I first learned of Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami about three years ago when I read an interesting review of his novel, Kafka on the Shore. I've gone on since then to read four more of his novels, although two of those - 1Q84 and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - were originally published as trilogies, so I suppose you could say I've read nine in total.

In 1Q84 a particularly nasty character named Ushikawa plays a crucial role. After finishing that book, I learned that Ushikawa had appeared in the earlier The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle so I made it a point to read it as soon as I could fit it in.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, reading Murakami brings to my mind the works of Franz Kafka and Mikhail Bulgakov with perhaps a bit of Dostoevsky thrown in for good measure. In my review of Kafka on the Shore I described Murakami's writing as "surreal and hallucinatory". The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle certainly fits that bill. I might even add that this novel reads like a Salvador Dalí painting - dreamlike.

While reading this novel, I was reminded of a novel I read back in the days when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth - The Steppenwolf  by Hermann Hesse. I'm placing that one in the queue to be re-read very soon.

The March, 2024 Reading List

 

Anyone who is even slightly familiar with this blog knows that I am an avid reader; I am constantly looking for recommendations for books to download. When a book recommendation does pique my interest, I'll go to a particular website that is basically an online library where almost every book imaginable is available. I'll come upon the name of an author and download everything the author has published in English. As a consequence, I have more e-books than I can read in my lifetime. The e-books will be filed away, to be retrieved later.

Just before finishing 1Q84by Haruki Murakami I went to my digital library for an e-book to put into the queue for March. I don't recall exactly when I downloaded Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck - the file properties says Feb.14- and I couldn't remember where the recommendation for the novel came from. I did a web search for Erpenbeck and the reviews I found for her work were very impressive. Visitation was the first book I read this month. Sadly, I was disappointed.

From a review on themodernnovel.org:
"Erpenbeck really does an excellent job of showing German history of the twentieth century in such a short book. The valuables hidden in the lake when the Soviets arrive and buried when the architect leaves the area are equated with the burial of the bodies of local Jews found in the forest. Erpenbeck has written not a Holocaust novel nor an East German novel but a German novel, warts and all, showing us that Germany has buried its past but, like the bodies of the Jews or the valuables hidden in the lake, everything come back to the surface sooner or later. Everything except the gardener, who disappears."

If you're looking for a fictionalized account of German history of the twentieth century you be better off reading Günter Grass.

Next on the list for March is The Girl of his Dreams by Donna Leon. This is #17 in Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series. It's no secret that I'm a fan of the series.

From time to time, I'll get book recommendations from the books I'm reading. That was the case when I reread,last year, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when I discovered the book was a favorite of Japanese writer Kenzaburō Ōe. It was also the case when I came upon a character in a book by Haruki Murakami who had a copy of Oliver Twist in their library. At one time, both books would have been considered classics in literature, but have fallen out of favor due to the racist views of Twain and Charles Dickens.

Oliver Twist became book # 3 for March. Dickens' antisemitism may have been typical for people of his social class in the 19th Century, but it makes reading his books today difficult. In Oliver Twist, Fagin is particularly despicable - so is Bill Sikes for that matter; but in the case of Fagin, Dickens is forever reminding us that he is a Jew. Dickens could have just as easily portrayed Fagin as a villain without the antisemitism.

Ring by Koji Suzuki is the first in a series of Japanese mystery horror novels by the writer. His second book in the series will be the first in April's reading list.

#5 on the March book list is Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. Wikipedia describes the novel as..... "a Bildungsroman that tells the story of Japanese railroad engineer Tsukuru Tazaki". Haruki Murakami continues to live up to my expectations.

Next on the list is The Three-Body Problem by Chinese Sci Fi writer Liu Cixin. The book is the first in a trilogy, Remembrance of Earth's Past. The book has recently been released as a Netflix movie and was highly recommended by the folks at the Commentary Magazine podcast. I have to say that I can't add my recommendation. Most of the book went right over my head and I had difficulty following along. It's unlikely that I'll finish the trilogy.

Reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki as a bildungsroman brought to mind another novel which falls into that category - Demian by Hermann Hesse. I read Demian fifty years ago, so needless to say, I remembered very little of it. It was so long ago that I'm not 100% certain I actually finished it. I have two translations of the book in my digital library; the 1965 English translation by Michael Roloff & Michael Lebeck and the 2013 translation by Damion Searls. I couldn't decide which version I should read so I read the two simultaneously. I have to say I prefer Searls translation. According to Wikipedia, there are three additional English translations, although I was unable to locate a free ebook version of those. There is, however, an English translation from 1923 by N. H. Priday available as an audiobook at Internet Archive.

The next book on the list was also a recommendation from the Commentary Magazine podcast. A Brutal Design by Zachary Solomon is a nightmarish, dystopian novel. It starts off Kaffaesque and then quickly branches off into a world that is a cross between Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov.

Now, for the list:

Visitation    by Jenny Erpenbeck
The Girl of his Dreams    by Donna Leon
Oliver Twist   by Charles Dickens
Ring    by Koji Suzuki
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage  by Haruki Murakami
The Three-Body Problem  by Liu Cixin
Demian   by Hermann Hesse (Tr. Michael Roloff & Michael Lebeck)
Demian   by Hermann Hesse (Tr.Damion Searls)
A Brutal Design   by Zachary Solomon

The February, 2024 Reading List

 

The first book on my list of books read in February is The Worlds Religions by Huston Smith. The book was initially based on a class given by Smith at Washington University in St. Louis in 1955. The class attracted the attention of a NET affiliate (the precursor of PBS) who produced a television series based on Smith's class. The series would lead to the development of a book that became the standard textbook for colleges and universities for classes on the World's Religions. .

A book review from 1958 says;
"Because Dr. Huston Smith, Professor of Philosophy at Washington University, St. Louis, has such a high regard for man, he is able to give us a book about man's major religions that an intelligent reader may read, understand and be thankful for. Refusing to be [sic] begged down by the details which so easily and often throw the interested inquirer off the track, he moves rapidly into the meaning these religions carry for the lives of their adherents. In this book, we both [sic] sea and feel why and how they guide and motivate the lives of those who live by them".

I recommend this book to anyone interested in taking a look at religions other than their own.

I wrote of Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister, The Serial Killer in an earlier blog post.

Two of the books on this months list - The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen and Budapest Noir by Kondor Vilmos - were introduced to me through recommendations from the Commentary Magazine daily podcast. It's one of my go to podcasts, by the way.

Finally, I wrote a bit about 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami in my last blog post. This "trilogy" has lead me to put more of Murakami's books into the queue, as well as Dickens' Oliver Twist. Of course, another book in Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series will be on the list for March.

Now, for the list:

The Worlds Religions             by Huston Smith
My Sister, The Serial Killer   by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Wolf Hunt             by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Budapest Noir             by Kondor Vilmos
1Q84 (books 1,2 & 3)   by Haruki Murakami

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

 

I first became award of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami a little over two years ago, reading two of his novels - Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore. Both of my blog posts written at the time were favorable toward Murakami, although I mentioned that I thought his novels went into far too much detail about the sexual activities of the characters.

There's no lack of sexual activity in 1Q84 but it seems to be more important to the story than was the case in the earlier novels.

The story takes place in a fictionalized 1984 which slightly parallels the real 1984. The protagonist refers to this parallel year in which she finds herself as 1Q84.

The novel was originally published in Japanese as three separate volumes between 2009 and 2010. When the work was translated into English, it was published as one novel. In the ebook format I have, the book is nearly 850 pages and when I began reading it I was not expecting to finish all three volumes in time to list the book in this month's reading list. I managed to finish the "trilogy" with one day to spare.

It's not really my purpose to go into detail regarding the plot of the book. One can go to Wikipedia for that. I will mention one detail. A musical work, Sinfonietta by Leoš Janáček plays a significant role in all three volumes. I wasn't familiar with Janáček prior to this and I couldn't resist searching for the piece on Spotify. Like two of the characters in 1Q84, I've taken to using Sinfonietta as background music for my workout. 

I'll be putting more of Murakami's novels into the queue.

December's Reading List

For several years, I've been posting a list of the books I'd read that particular year. The annual book list would be posted either on the final day of the year in which the books were read, or on January first of the year following.

This year, I began posting a monthly list. Today being the final day of 2021, I will post the list for December. Tomorrow, I will do the list for the entire year.

As I mentioned in my post on The Tin Drum , it had been my original intention to read Günter Grass' Danzig Trilogy before years end. With the coming of typhoon Odette early in December, it looked as if I wouldn't be able to do that. Without electricity, it was impossible to keep my Kindle's battery charged, so I was obliged to read two printed books until the power was restored.

When the electricity returned, I wasn't certain I could finish reading Grass' Dog Years in time to make this list. It's a long novel, and not an easy read but I did manage to finish it today.

Within a day or two, I will do a post on the Danzig Trilogy .

So, for what it's worth, here is a list of the books I read in December, 2021.

I Am a Cat                      Natsume Soseki
Republican Rescue         Chris Christie
Norwegian Wood            Haruki Murakami
There Is a God               Antony Flew / Roy Abraham Varghese
His Monkey Wife           John Collier
Buddha                          Karen Armstrong
The Bhagavad Gita       Translated E. Easwaran
The Tin Drum                Günter Grass
Cat and Mouse              Günter Grass
Dog Years                      Günter Grass

Norwegian Wood - A Novel

Haruki Murakami's 1987 novel, Norwegian Wood could be described as a "coming of age " novel, or as the German's say, a Bildungsroman. The events in the novel take place in 1969 when Murakami, like his protagonist,Toru Watanabe was 19 years old. Murakami is a few years older than I am - I was 17 in 1969 - and although he grew up in Japan and I grew up in the United States, I can relate to many of the events in the novel. Music played a role in both our lives, and there was a cultural upheaval in both countries at that time. In the novel, many of Watanabe's friends commit suicide. Thankfully, I didn't share that experience.

Naturally, as young men fast approaching adulthood, we took advantage of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Unfortunately, like in his later novel, Kafka on the Shore Murakami goes into far too much detail writing about the sexual activities of the characters. In many ways, Murakami writes as well as the great writers of the 20th century - Hesse, Mann, Joyce - to name a few, but to me, his spending so much time on the sexual aspects detracts from his writing.

After finishing the novel, I watched the documentary series, The Beatles: Get Back which also takes place in 1969. After three days reading the novel and nearly seven hours watching the documentary, I was ready to leave 1969 forever.

Kafka on the Shore

A few days ago, I made an unsuccessful attempt at reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago . This three volume memoir is highly recommended by Dr. Jordan Peterson, but unfortunately, I scarcely made it thru a quarter of the first volume. I recognize the importance of the work, but after so many tales of arrests and imprisonment during Stalin's reign in the Soviet Union, it becomes a bit tedious.

Putting away The Gulag Archipelago for another day, I began reading a novel I've been wanting to read for quite awhile - Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.

Naturally, one would expect a novel with Kafka's name in the title to be more than a little unusual and that's certainly the case with Kafka on the Shore , although I would not use the word "Kafkaesque" in describing this book. If anything, I'd be more inclined to compare this work to Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita . Murakami's novel is more surreal and hallucinatory than anything Kafka may have written, with the possible exception of The Metamorphosis.

The story takes several bizarre twists and turns. In an interview posted on his English-language website, Murakami says that the secret to understanding the novel lies in reading it several times. That may well be the case.

The novel can, at times verge on the pornographic. The references to the music of Beethoven and Franz Schubert seems to me to be an attempt to draw one away from the novel's potent sexuality. I suppose the graphic descriptions of sex can be considered a very important element of the novel, but it all became too much after a bit.

Like in The Master and Margarita , cats play an integral part of the story. Murakami mentions the works of Natsume Sōseki who, it can be assumed, was an influence on Murakami's writing. It was my original intention to read Murakami's Norwegian Wood next, but I've decided to read Natsume Sōseki's I Am a Cat first. That book is more in keeping with the direction I seem to be led.