It's a 3 out of 5 this one. Most books by Haruki Murakami take a few chapters to grow on me and find their rhythm. Typically the further along in a book I am the more I get into it. Not so for this one, I found myself more and more disengaged the longer it went on. Maybe with time it will marinate and might prove more memorable. It's possible. It is a good book and drips with Murakami's deliberate slow style and wonderful prose(it runs for about 27 hours or so on Audible). Yet, it's told from the perspective and narration of the least interesting man in the world and does not deliver a story that is memorable. It hints at a worthwhile story and spins a few threads but then they go almost nowehere. It is in short a lesser Murakami. It does not have the depth and fascinating sprawl of Wind-up Bird Chronicle, the engaging surreal fantasy of 1Q84 or the humanity and characters of Norwegian Wood and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki.
I have a few hunderd cookbooks and many of those I actually read. This one, the follow-up to the first NOMA book from the highly-regarded Danish restaurant, initially did not feel more useful beyond the gorgrous photography and the unique ingredients. The recipes are not even in the book, beyond descriptions and a photo of each dish. You have to go to https://noma.dk/recipes/ to get to them assuming you purchased the book. After letting it sit a while though and then actually reading through it, this is a masterpiece of a cooking manual. It's a collection of unique processes and components from one of the most important restaurants since El Bulli. I really want to dig into it in detail starting with downloading all the recipes for easy access. This is especially true since I've been playing around recently with the many applications of Koji . I will not be making any dishes with duck brain or deer penis anytime soon, but beets slow roasted and flavored with rose and Koji oil? Sounds fantastic.
Finished this a while back. It stuck with me and I want to read it again. I still think I got maybe 70% of the plot. I've heard that The Matrix films "borrow" from this and are influenced by it, but had no idea to what extent. So many concepts, images, and ideas are straight up from Neuromancer.
I'm about 75% of the way through this. On Spotify audiobooks. I think I'm following about 50% of what is happening. Fascinating though. The person reading the book is not my favorite.