After a girl recommended Norwegian Wood to me, a novel that I then consumed from front to back without a break while on a vacation abroad, I've become a huge fan of Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. I think he is one of the best contemporary writers, period. So with that fanboy disclaimer, I'm really excited about A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World , a collection of essays written by "novelists, translators, artists, and critics" from around the globe, that attempts to unwrap, distill, and explain his novels' worldwide popularity.
But I'm not so interested in those essays. If anything I prefer to leave the journey to myself. What REALLY gets me jazzed about this new book however is that it includes a full-color montage of his novels' covers from various markets. I've been trying to track down this one particular copy of Norwegian Wood just because I love the cover, and I actually jump into used book stores when I pass by them to see if they have it. No luck so far, and I can't find it on the great Internets.
[Via]