Mike Harding

This is the first Murakami book I read, so it will always be my favourite (having now consumed most of his other books as a result)

An easy read, and quite the little page-turner. While the premise feels a little played out (memory lost, putting together the pieces), and some of the plot points can be seen coming, there was enough intrigue to keep me on the hook to the end. A great holiday book, which is where I read it :)

I found it hard to get into this one, probably in part due to the small pockets of time I had available to read, but while on holiday I had the chance to put more time in and halfway through Wind I found my stride. Of the two books I much preferred Pinball, which I would rate higher than Wind, and now feel like I want to go back and read Wild Sheep Chase to see if I get a different perspective knowing some back-story of the Rat.

There was some really clever writing here, as with his other novels, but I'd say you'd definitely want to read the previous books in the series before approaching this one. In isolation without back-stories I imagine the characters would be more unlikable and some of the humor may be lost. I'm looking forward to reading the last book :)