May 09, 2022rationallady rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Have you ever noticed when you return books through the window at the Bellingham downtown library, a seemingly disembodied hand sometimes reaches for them? I had always assumed, before reading this book, that the hand was attached to a…
May 04, 2022Egycal52 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Just read it. It's only 112 pages, and if you're into abstract theories and fast-paced but strangely lighthearted horror, you'll really enjoy it. The maze sequence had me thoroughly anxious, but the characters were so matter-of-fact about…
Dec 08, 2021khristinemarcinowski rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
This dark, eerie, and bizarre tale of a young boy, a mysterious girl and a sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library thoroughly creeped me out. I'm pretty sure I missed a lot of context and symbols behind Murakami's…
Jul 13, 2021severina2001 rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
A boy is kidnapped and held captive in a hidden room in a library. With a girl who may be a ghost. And a half-man, half-sheep. Aaand maybe it was just too cerebral for me, but I don't get it. At all.
Not at all.
This book was very fun to read. The medium is interesting. There is a great deal of illustration punctuated for great effect. The very short length of this added to the Murakami-ness of the story; strange, awkward, and endearing. If you…
One of the IndyPL 2020 Adult Summer Reading activities—read a book by an international author—reminded me to experience the surreal worlds of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. This novella with an intriguing premise (and book design) seemed…
Sep 28, 2019kwsmith rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This is a strange little book about a young boy trying to escape from the basement of a nightmarish library. Like most of Murakami's work, the real meaning of the book is hidden below the text, buried within symbols and allegory. I always…
Aug 31, 2019onepandella rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
A lonely boy is help captive underneath a library by an old man and figures out how to escape with the help of a sheep man, a mysterious girl, and a starling.
3/5 : This story was very surreal and strange on surface level, but it was…
Jul 17, 2019gjfricano rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This was my first experience with Murakami, and while it may be an odd choice it was perfect for me. Brief and strange, The Strange Library introduced me to Murakami's surreal vision of the world. A great read for those who enjoy tales…
Aug 13, 2018DPLSaraQT rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Strange indeed. A surreal, absurdist little fable taking cues from Kafka and Calvino, with little precursors of del Toro thrown in, too. I'm so glad I read the paper book and not the ebook. The images added here and there were at just the…
Mar 18, 2018SPPL_Vio rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
I'm a fan of strange, normally, but I just didn't get this one.
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rtendean
Sep 20, 2017rtendean rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
A very strange book indeed. It was a pretty interesting read, a short and concise story. I love Murakami's imagination for all of this. The book felt really dream-like and very surreal. I enjoyed it and hope to be able to finish reading…
Aug 23, 2017SPL_Liz rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
A dark and surreal tale of a boy's adventures in a strange library. The format and full-page colour illustrations make it even more dreamlike. Murakami paints two pictures for us: the boy's regular life with his mother and pet starling,…
Jul 05, 2017gogo12127 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
The Strange Library really is an appropriate title for this book, because the book really is strange. I read it in two days, but I could have read it in two hours if I had read it straight through. (The volume has no page numbers, but it…
Jun 09, 2017Andrew Kyle Bacon rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
A very strange little book. It seems very stream of conscience, with very dark but sort of magical underpinnings. In a way it reminded me of Daniel Handler's Lemony Snicket books, although much stranger and somehow more whimsical. This is…
Dec 03, 2016Starpoem rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
* If you like the Griffin and Sabine series, you will probably like this magical realism book.
* This is one of the weirdest books I've ever read. Even though I don't understand parts of it, and even though parts of it are quite dark,…
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JordanPedersen
Sep 28, 2016JordanPedersen rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
A fantastically strange short read. I consider it to be part kafkaesque, part conceptual art, due to the interesting relationships between the text and images. I enjoyed it, and found it quick to get through- in all it only required about…
Jan 09, 2016JLMason rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I finished this book two days ago and I'm still puzzling over its meaning. Perhaps it's simple: a young boy with a love of reading regularly goes to the library to lose himself in books as a way to escape from the reality of his mother's…
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The Strange Library