One of the world’s greatest writers, Haruki Murakami writes stories that makes you feel something you’ve never imagined you could. His writing style, although very simple carries an air of suspense which the reader can never figure out till the end of the story. And sometimes, not even by the end of the story. Murakami-chan is from Kyoto Prefecture, and started his writing career only at the age of 29. Here are some things about the great Japanese writer who wakes up at 5:00 AM and sleeps at 10:00 PM and follows his schedule very punctually.
Without fail, the first thing about him has to be his love for Jazz. His first job, prior to becoming a writer was at a record store and the love for Jazz has been forever an important part of him. Till date, he has over 6,000 music records. Secondly, you can never find Murakami’s quote in a piece about book criticism. He believes he is better at observing people and writing about them rather than judging someone. Murakami balances his physical strength and artistic sensitivity by following a rigid schedule. Apart from finishing his books, he also goes to swim and runs about 10 kms everyday.
Since his early college days, Haruki Murakami has loved movies. News is that he ends up watching some 200 movies in a year! Waseda University, is his alma mater and that’s where he met his wife, Yoko-san. One of the sweetest things to know about him is his love for Indian food. Murakami, generally prefers his cultural food and is very fond of it but also like the Indian cuisines. Next on the list, is his love for cats. It is a well known fact that Murakami owned more than ten cats so far and loves having cats around him.
Murakami learned English by reading English novels, especially crime stories while in High School. The first book he read in English was The Name is Archer by Ross Macdonald.
While watching a baseball game one day, it struck Murakami out of the blue that he should try his hands at writing and what followed was firstly Hear The Wind Sing and then the rest is history.
Speaking to the Paris Review about his whodunnit crime novels he said: "I myself, as I’m writing, don’t know who did it. The readers and I are on the same ground. When I start to write a story, I don’t know the conclusion at all and I don’t know what’s going to happen next. If there is a murder case as the first thing, I don’t know who the killer is. I write the book because I would like to find out. If I know who the killer is, there’s no purpose to writing the story.” Thus, it is no wonder that his novels and short stories leaves the readers thinking a long time after they have read it. A very interesting thing about Murakami’s books is that all his books are first read by his wife Yoko. "It’s like Scott Fitzgerald," he says "Zelda [Fitzgerald] was always the first reader.” He chooses between Alfred Birnbaum, Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin to translate his novels into English.
Murakami has lots of fans around the world and they all know that they have learned way beyond literature from Haruki Murakami. One very interesting thing observed by one his fans called Alex Iskold is what start ups can learn form this amazing writer. “I'm a big fan of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. The genius of Murakami is in his discipline, focus and determination. I see him as a virtual Zen master - an embodiment of wisdom, passion, skills and exceptional will.” The link to his article about it is here : http://readwrite.com/2008/07/29/what_startups_can_learn_from_haruki_murakami.
Haruki Murakami, 67-years old, fit and healthy, wise and bold, is a man of great standards and continues to be one of the greatest writers in contemporary times.