A boy who was poor but used reading to fuel a passion in storytelling
Earlier I shared my passion for filmmaking, but the very first storytelling experience I had was reading. I will share stories of five books that shaped my storytelling imagination.
Often we don’t really think about how certain concepts that are deemed simple really started formulating for us.
I am someone who does not follow reviews for movie, books, events, restaurants. I do look at reviews when making purchases on electronics I will admit. But if I want to do, read, see, or eat something I will do that. I do not care who knows, if it is too popular, or not popular enough. I don’t mind what others like and do not mind sharing what I like.
Although my storytelling journey did not necessarily start with books, books did play a huge role in allowing the exploration of my imagination.
With that said, let’s jump into the books:
5. Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows
As most people, I started this series back in around 1998. It was hard to choose just one of the books for this list.
To see battles and deaths occur was wild. Some of the ensemble were falling left and right. I remember being in a library when Molly Weasley yells as she kills Bellatrix “Not my daughter, you bitch!”. This book helped us grow up in a way. And this final book of the original series really got more mature than a typical children’s story. It covered topics of betrayal, losing family members, and we get to see the ultimate series finale to this saga. I lost it when Harry is visited by Dumbledore in a dreamlike state.
Even though these are fictional characters, it will helped me learn how to cope with loss and change.
4. Hannibal — Thomas Harris
My favorite movie of all time is Silence of the Lambs, and it wasn’t until about 2000 when I started reading the books and this was the first one I read. This book impacted me for the weirdest reason, it talked about methadone (very briefly) which my mom was prescribed. We both loved the story of this crazy character.
This story covered quite graphical content, and to see the main character’s relationship seven years after Silence of the Lambs blew my mind. It also goes into a little of Lecter’s childhood which Silence of the Lambs did not.Mason Verger plots his revenge against Lecter for an incident years before.
This book has FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling reunited with Hannibal Lecter and their reunion is quite unexpected. But this book helped me tap into storytelling pain and complexity in characters.
3. Kafka on the Shore — Murakami Haruki (村上 春樹)
This was the second book of Murakami that I read. I do not have an heroes but he would be the closes person to one.This authors style resonates with me most.
This story follows two narratives.
One being about a 15 year old guy named Kafka who is tired of home life and decides to run away with no final destination. As I was reading this I noticed similar stuff in the story happening to me in real life. Kafka lives in Nakano and ends up running away to Takamatsu. I had my apartment in Nakano and went to Takamatsu to meet someone from a youth group I was a part of. I felt like both Kafka and myself were growing in many of the same ways during this joint journey.
He ends up in Takamatsu at a library and befriends Oshima who is 21. This journey may seem tedious but it is quite evolving for Kafka.
The other narrative follows an elderly man named Nakata who finds a part job of finding cats. He befriends a truck driver named Hoshino who likes him so much he abandons his job to help Nakata in his quest for finding cats for people. Murakami featured a lot of cats in his books.
Murakami was able to illustrate this story with words that had me become an actual character of this story. I ended up doing a whole quarter in my undergraduate studies focusing on Murakami. One of the projects I did was to carve into plexiglass 9 places of blueprints/ maps that I called home, and one of them was a blueprint of this library in Takamatsu because I felt like I spent countless hours at this fictional library and it helped me.
2. Battle Royale — Takami Koushun (高見 広春)
So these two books on my list are the first books I really purchased when I got my first job.
I had heard about Battle Royale and knew the concept very well. This book was massive in size to me at Kinokuniya Bookstore in the International District in Seattle, WA. I had to own this book!
Although a very heavy one, the concept is quite simple; a whole class of junior high school are put in an area and must kill each other until there is only one survivor. This story was quite interesting because with a whole class you have pre existing relationships going into this ‘game’ and that can add motives to help or go after certain classmates.
This book helped me start to think about dynamics between people, places, things, etc. Does this person get along with that person? Or with that place? What do they like? how are their mannerisms?
There was shock value over the things that went on in this story. But in reality, people learn and experience things a lot sooner. Things like first kiss, sex, exposure to violence, bullying, etc. This story had several groups within the class; jocks, popular, and other stereotypical cliques.
It really showcased human instinct; survival. You must be smart in this ‘game’ and develop alliances and strategies. Anything can get in the way between life and death. Some people lured others with romance interest to take out their competitors. This book I related to most and you can check out my first article that briefly goes over it. I already knew people can be very dark and bad.
1. 1Q84 — Murakami Haruki (村上 春樹)
As you might have noticed there are two books by this author on this list! I use to goto the Kinokuniya Bookstore quite often and saw this big book with a great almost see through book cover jacket. It had a face of two people on it. I had no idea what this book was about before buying it, but knew I just HAD to read this book. A great friend named Charles lived in the apartments above this book store, which already sounds like a story that would be in one of Murakami’s books. Even though this book seemed heavy, I had to have a physical copy of it, something that would belong to me.
The story is a typical style of Murakami where it follows two narratives that end up crossing over. The fist narrative follows a character named Aomame (青豆) who goes into a taxi, but her life changes forever after she gets out of the taxi and goes down this emergency escape ladder. We find out she is an assassin for hire. Very interesting to see how she becomes one. She kills men who have done horrible things.
The second character to be followed is named Tengo Kawana (川奈天吾) who is a cram school instructor with a secret passion for writing. He is then assigned to rewrite a young girl’s work secretly in hopes to have her become a prodigy.
Their lives intertwine as the story progresses and we find out that they use to be class mates but never knew that until recently. They end up instantly fall in love. There is a murder and Aomame and Tenga end up being followed.
This story has such complexities and parallel world concepts in play. Even though I read this after High School, it really ignited my love for reading. I can be in a room full of loudness and mute it out and soak in each word, each page. I read this book in a week and just had to find out how these two lives’ would end up. This also became the standard for me, to read a book in at least a week, I do not like to finish a book in a day. I need to marinate in the world of each story I am reading about. I need to smell, see, touch, experience the book.
It causes me to think of similar things in my world, what is different? what is the same? For example in 1Q84 there are two moons, and for a long time it almost feels as there are two moons in my world.
Murakami’s stories always seem to be about someone who is ‘ordinary’ but experience something out-of-this-world, but then we get to see them return back to the ‘normal’ world. I actually met Murakami in what appears to be a page from one of his books. I was at an Izakaya in Seattle, and someone was taking me out for my birthday. We sit down and I lock eyes across the room, I recognized him instantly. My soul knew it was HIM! I remember the waiter checking him out read his credit card name and did a double take.
My friend suggested I go ask for an autograph or photo, but that was not what I needed. I don’t typically get star struck, but this was speaking to me. So we end up leaving the Izakaya and I feel someone reach for my arms, it was none other than Murakami. There was no exchange of words, just a signal he needed help to get down this spiral staircase. So I escorted him down and to the front entrance. His team members were all outside by the door waiting for him. They all bowed and said they hope to make him proud of the release. The next day they announced Wind/Pinball English release.
So just like a narrative in his story, we were at an ordinary place, cross paths, and then resumed our lives. This felt more realistic than the typical ‘happily ever after’ stories.
Imagination is not linear
Harry Potter provided magic themes for me to explore, Hannibal gave me the details, Kafka gave me this ‘coming of age’ narrative that I did not find in other books but related to immensely, Battle Royale taught me how complex relationships can be (not just romance relationships), and 1Q84 ignited me to begin the exploration of story telling. Most of the time people take away something from a story that isn’t the literal meaning. For example, several of my stories involve horror and death but if you dig deep inside you realize it is so much more than that.
These are some of the things I think when I open my laptop and allow myself to write stories.
What are some books that shaped your imagination and approach to projects and stories you tell?
