Fascinating stuff - Murakami's a favorite of mine, and I have bought one of his novels before our family vacation each year to read while we were away. I started reading this at a Borders before the cell group I was facilitating met on Thursday evenings - the cell group ended and so did my serial, semi-surreal experiences of reading and overhearing conversations floating past from others in the store. Happy to see this in affordable paperback, I got it and am enjoying it thoroughly!