Why didn't anybody ever tell me how good Haruki Murakami is? I feel like I was the only one not in on the secret.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is indescribably weird and one-of-a-kind excellent. The book alternates between two seemingly disconnected narratives -- and I say "seemingly," but of course part of the excitement in reading the book comes in struggling to put them together. The first storyline is science-fiction noir, reminiscient of something like Blade Runner or Snow Crash; the second is a self-consciously Kafkaesque pastoral landscape where people must surrender their shadows to a mysterious Gatekeeper before entering an isolated, unnamed town fully encased by an impenetrable wall.

How these fit together is a deeply resonant parable about, well, it's hard to say exactly. Consciousness and junk. It's damn good.

Some writers seem like they've been eavesdropping on your conversations; Murakami is like that for me. Next up is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, then Kafka on the Shore.