Reddit mentions of Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami will definitely provide feels. A lot of folks find it depressing; I personally found it quite hopeful. It has a great ending, in my opinion. Takes place in Japan so might serve as a nice bridge for you from light novels. Very easy read as well.

Norweigan Wood!

The Book of Awesome
or
Wood: Identification and use
or
Norwegian Wood
Perhaps?

1: Fruit Snacks! In particular, Shark Bites and Fruit Roll-Ups. It's a running joke that my husband and I will fight over the last pack of fruit snacks!

2: I feel pretty awesome about it because those things are freakin' delicious!

3: Yay, books!

4: But I want IT!

5: Understood.

6: Sounds good!

I am currently reading [The Night of the Gun] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Night-Gun-reporter-investigates/dp/1416541535/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1405104663&sr=8-1) by David Carr as well as Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

I actually started Two Cities over a month ago but forgot the book at my parents' place when I was there last. Kind of annoying since I only had about 80 pages to go but I'll be there this weekend so I am hoping I can wrap both books up by the end of the weekend.

Next up is either [Norwegian Wood] (http://www.amazon.com/Norwegian-Wood-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0375704027/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405105257&sr=1-1&keywords=norwegian+wood) by Haruki Murakami or [Sirens of Titan] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Sirens-Titan-A-Novel/dp/0385333498/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1405105400&sr=1-1) by Kurt Vonnegut.

My hope was to try and read 52 books in 52 weeks (aside: if this kind of challenge interests you be sure to check out /r/52book) but I'm pretty far behind at this point and will have to really ramp things up if I want to get that done.

For beginners?

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World-- Time, Duality, Left Brain/Right Brain Dillema

Norwegian Wood-- Memory, death (and therefore life), music

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle-- Surrealism, Defilement, Water (if you didn't like Kafka, you might not like this. It's like two steps back on the weirdness scale but twice as long).

He is easily one of my favorite authors of all time and I personally think every single one of his books is fantastic. Granted, Kafka was the last one I read, and I had read so many others before it that I wasn't phased by all the weird shit that goes down.

In my opinion, Murakami is the type of author that everyone will find at least one of his books enjoyable. It might be Norweigian Wood for some, 1Q84 for others, and maybe even A Wild Sheep Chase or Dance, Dance, Dance for a someone else.

I think there are certain works of his that are basically you either "get" them or you don't. This isn't an intellegence/educational thing, it's more like you're in a different place emotionally. That's okay, though, because his body of work is so large, complex, and thought provoking that it touches upon a lot of variable subjects.

Red Sorghum by Mo Yan - brutal Marquez-esque magical realism during WWII-era China.

Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado - a gang of children and adolescents run rampant on the streets of Bahia, Brazil.

Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui - a really odd novel involving machines that can invade people's dreams. Very weird and fun.

Tombstone by Yeng Jisheng - the most thorough and brutal account you'll ever read of the Chinese Famine of 1958-62. Much talk of cannibalism and insect-nutrition charts.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Matsuo Basho - it's both a collection of haiku by one of the medium's acknowledged masters and an idiosyncratic travel narrative of 1600s Japan.

Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - a great first Marquez to recommend to people who don't yet want to take the One Hundred Years of Solitude plunge.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami - one of the few books I've read more than twice.

The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie by Agota Kristof - a trilogy of short novels about distance and isolation in Europe during and after World War II. The three books form a narrative that contradicts itself, doubles back and retells events, and generally messes with your head until you're not sure what to believe.

Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino - my favorite of Calvino's works. This is a collection of short stories about and narrated by heavenly bodies, mathematical formulae, supreme beings. They're basically cosmic fairy tales.