2020: I would consider this my bible when I feel myself adrift once again. I'm in a new swamp but there is always a way through. 2020 review to come.

2019: Re-reading a favourite is like catching up with an old friend you haven't seen in a while. Just like how no-one is beloved by all, it's almost impossible for this book to be beloved by all. To describe with acuity what it is about them you love is impossible. And sure, you might come up with some descriptors: they're kind, know you well, etc. But that doesn't scratch the surface. See, a really good friendship has something that cannot be described easily, that feeling of something locking into place. It just works. Likewise, this is what this book is for me revisiting it in my mid twenties. I read it when I was 20 the first time, a book that was around at just the right time. I too was in university and in the swamp, leaving my teen years and awkwardly growing into adulthood. Now at 24 I'm in a different swamp, taking one faltering step forwards at a time. This aimlessness is encoded well. The reason I bring a favourite being like an old friend is because I feel understood by it, lines that have been pulled straight from my heart have been arranged in black ink on the page. Like a person a book changes over time because your perspective changes. Inevitably. You are different today than you were yesterday, though that's subtler than the difference of years. And like a friend you develop over time and have new lessons to learn about yourself.

Unlike my younger self, I understand the ending and it is appropriate for Watanabe's journey, for example.

This isn't perfect--it's a bit too long, for starters--but Murakami conveys moods and emotions like no other writer I've read, which is why this holds such a special place in my heart. When something moves you, it moves you. Perfection is an illusion, anyway. 'Til next year, old friend.