Interesting book about his T-shirt collection. ( )

Pourquoi, mais pourquoi ça ? Faut-il vraiment tenter de tout valoriser ? L’éditeur de Murakami va-t-il nous vendre ses verres à moutarde sur E-Bay, pourra-t-on bientôt acheter ses coloriages d’enfance (il ne dépassait presque pas des traits), quand assisterons nous à une vente aux enchères de ses bouts de crayons ? Et les taillures des crayons ?

Misère, quel livre inutile !

Murakami, maître absolu des mondes oniriques, écrivain majeur du 20e, auteur à la poésie subtile et délicate, créateur d’univers décalés, sensibles et fantastiques… Et voilà qu’il nous décrit dans un premier degré invraisemblable les divers t-shirts qui emplissent ses armoires.

Non, désolé, je ne comprends pas pourquoi ces articles ont quitté les pages de la revue Casa Brutus dans laquelle ils avaient peut-être leur place entre le mobilier de cuisine et les sofas ( )

If you’re thinking it’s unlikely a book about someone’s t-shirts could be interesting, you’d be right. ( )

Ok, it is Murakami, so I bought it because I am one of those reader. As I was buying it, I thought, why am I buying a book about tee shirts? There has to be some deeper meaning here, right? Nope, it is about certain tee shirts from his tee shirt collection and what they mean to him. You learn he has lots of them, he doesn’t know what some of them mean, he has boxes filled with tee shirts, and many mean something to him.

I still enjoyed it. ( )

I wear a lot of different writing shirts in my course videos for writers, so one of the writers who subscribes to my videos sent me a copy of this Murakami book.

Murakami basically talks about T-shirts he owns -- and he seems to own thousands upon thousands. And then tells little stories about each one. Some stories are mildly amusing, and some seem one step lower than an anecdote (what exactly is one step below an anecdote? Just a dote?)

It's not a bad read, if you're stuck inside on a rainy day and already love Murakami. It's filled with droll observations, understated humor, and even some melancholy stories, like the former pro-surfer who sold out and now works in real estate.

I've got to admit that some of the details he marshals are surprising as well -- he talks about Darwin drowning iguanas in the name of science, and Japan sending incendiary balloons to set the U.S. West Coast on fire during WWII.

I found it funny that there's a whole section of the book that seems to be highlighting Murakami's lack of experience -- he has shirts of bars he hasn't been to, cities he hasn't visited, and beers he hasn't drunk.

But I did discover that he refuses to wear T-shirts with his own name or image on them (yeah, that would be kind of weird, yo), but will wear shirts depicting his books (like a cool bird image representing the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle).

Plus, in his very Murakami-esque way, he has a funny talent for stating the entirely obvious and yet attempting to make it sound profound: "pro-social forces are very desirable." You don't say, Murakami!

In the end, though, the book is a little too slight. I've written blog posts longer than this entire book. It's more of an article with some pictures that a crafty publisher decided to publish as a book. And why wouldn't they? It'll probably earn more money than anything I've ever written. ( )