Novelist As A Vocation

Novelist As A Vocation by Haruki Murakami is a non-fiction book that was published in Japan in 2015 and was published in The US last year. The book is part autobiography and part writing instruction. I began reading it on Sunday and finished reading it today. I almost bought this for myself as a Christmas present back in 2022 but then thought, I wanted to read his other works before picking this up. I am glad I’ve read some of Haruki’s other works and I’m glad I picked this one up.

Writing Advice & Personality

What’s great about Novelist As A Vocation is it felt as though the book gave you good advice while at the same time balancing doing what you the aspiring author feels is right. What I thought was fascinating was Murakami claimed he doesn’t put up with writers block. If he doesn’t feel like writing he doesn’t, while at the same time he sets a time limit for himself even if he feels like writing more. I also like how each chapter he doesn’t give a simple answer as to what someone who wants.

While reading the book I get a sense of who Murakami is as a man. Murakami seems like a very humble down to earth man. After he gives advice, he makes it clear that it’s his opinion and he’s sure what works for him won’t work for everyone. It also felt as though this was a giant Q&A session turned into a book because he would talk about the questions people would ask him about his books & writing. I’m thinking to myself, These would be questions I would ask him.

The writing flowed really well and I felt as though Murakami was speaking directly to me as I read. When I was finished reading the book, it was a bit sad. It was as though I was saying goodbye to an old friend. I do hope one of these days I would have the honor of meeting him and speaking to him myself. Murakami is one of many authors who I would love to meet. I also found it sweet that he tries to respond to every email he gets from his fans.

Autobiography

I like that Murakami talks about his life before his life as a writer and during his time. Murakami initially didn’t set out to be a writer also speaks an unpopular opinion about how he didn’t like school and that you really didn’t need school to become an author. It made me feel better reading that. I excelled in certain things in school and yes I went to college because it was expected of me. Ultimately I became a blogger which is a writer by default and while college wasn’t a total waste as it helped my writing skills a little bit I didn’t really need it either.

Overall

Overall this book is for fans of Haruki Murakami, for anyone who enjoys non-fiction, biographies and autobiographies and books about writing. You get the sense Murakami is speaking with you personally and the book doesn’t read like some non-fiction books do which can be very dry. Thank you Haruki Murakami for your fiction and non-fiction, I can’t wait to read more of your work both old and new and if it’s meant to be to hopefully meet and speak with you someday.