The Haruki Murakami Book Challenge: Book One

I was recently walking around my local Barnes & Noble--a habit I try to avoid in the name of saving money and precious bookshelf space--when Haruki Murakami's new book, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, caught my eye.  I know we've all been told to never judge a book by its cover, but I always do.  The plastic covered cutouts immediately intrigued me and I ran over to the shelf, grabbed the book, and pulled back the dust jacket to reveal an even cooler looking book cover underneath (you can see both covers below).



I then read the rather vague description of the book's plot and came to a realization that I wanted to read it and see if the story and writing could live up to the cover.  I had two other Murakami books on my shelf at home--both of which I still have not read.  This new book seemed as good a reason as any to challenge myself and see what all the Murakami hype is about.

Therefore, I plan to read three Murakami books by the start of 2015 and share my thoughts here on the blog.  I have never read a single paragraph of Murakami and am very excited to get started.  I will begin with the most recent release (already mentioned above).  I will then move on to the rather daunting 944-page 1Q84.  This one was released in 2011 and has been sitting on my shelf for two years.  I will then end (for now) with one of his earlier published novels, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (1994), which my book club has been passing around for 3 or 4 years.  I'm pretty sure it's been in my possession the longest.

There you have it!  As soon as I post this post, I'm going to read my first sentence, paragraph and page of Murakami.

Have any of you read Murakami?  Any suggestions on ones I should add to my list for future reading?

ANGELA'S CORNER OF SELF-DISCOVERY:
Yes, it has been almost one year since I last wrote on my blog.  I feel like I'm trying to keep a diary going all over again.  Anyway, I'm back for now and have some major "new things" to fill many blog posts.  Thanks to those of you who have encouraged me to start writing here again. I appreciate the pokes and prods!