Absorbed

Over the last few weeks, I have been completely absorbed by Murakami's 1Q84 trilogy. I know there's a lot of hype around it but on this occasion, I think I can say it's justified. I've loved every page and I can honestly say I don't want it to end. It's a slow burn but by the end of book 2 I was so hooked by the "cliffhanger" that I had to download and start book 3 immediately.

I like reading but this kind of obsession doesn't happen to me very often. There was Kafka, when I was a teenager, and for a while I couldn't decide whether Max Brod was a hero or a villain. Then I went through a Martin Amis phase in my twenties but lost interest around about "Money." Since then, there have been only occasional books that have gripped me.

There's "The Great Gatsby" of course - there's always Gatsby, which I tend to read about once a year. Recently, "Wolf Hall" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin" obsessed me, as did Colm Tóibín's "The Master" - a book so lambently beautiful that I dare not read it again, in case it doesn't live up to my memory of it!

So, as 1Q84 approaches its end, I'm surveying my pile of unread books and wondering what to pick up next. I have a feeling that, whatever it is and however good it is, it will only be an anticlimax.