Book Review 022 Read Haruki Murakami's "If There Really Was a Time Machine"

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The world is so vast and boundless, and at the same time, it is only a A compact place that can be reached with just two feet.

When I first saw the title of this book, I thought it was a novel. But when I opened the content, I didn’t expect it to be a travel diary.

Books such as travel diaries are very easy to read. I just read "Thirty Thousand Miles of Africa" ??by Bi Shumin some time ago. The content also describes anecdotes during the journey. Different authors go to different places. Different scenery is described, but the only similarity is the understanding and kindness deeply rooted in the author's heart when facing different races and cultures.

The cover of the book "If There Really Was a Time Machine" is so simple that it won't even attract people's attention to open the book. There was only one bird drawn on the pure white page, and it was very small and inconspicuous. It was only when I read the chapter inside that I realized that the name of the bird was originally a puffin.

Puffins left a very deep impression on Haruki Murakami. The weak animals have things that humans cannot do. Let's take a look at this story:

After the puffin parents raised their children to a certain size, they seemed to say "you can deal with it yourself" and flew to the sea without looking back. Gone, leaving behind a group of ignorant children.

Children wake up every morning to find that they have been abandoned by their parents and no one will ever deliver food. They waited quietly for a long time, "Aren't you ready for dinner?" But their parents never came home, and they became increasingly hungry.

With no choice but to leave the nest, they flap their wings under the guidance of instinct and fly to the sea to find food on their own. The little puffin, unable to catch food, died like this. It's an extremely simple world.

If it were a human being, it wouldn't be like this. If you are abandoned by your parents, even if you happen to survive, the incident will leave a psychological scar that may hinder your future life.

Until yesterday, the puffin parents who were working tirelessly and diligently to find food for their children suddenly changed their attitude and said, "It is none of my business from now on" and disappeared without a trace. Whereabouts. There seems to be much to admire in such a calm and sober outlook on life.

When Haruki Murakami was preparing to travel to Laos, a friend asked him: "What is there to see in Laos?" In fact, this question sounded a bit funny. Haruki Murakami wanted to go to his own place. Destination, friends said Laos is not worth seeing. When a person wants to go somewhere, there must be something he thinks is worth seeing. How can one's own opinions block what others want to see? Use reverse psychology to understand that the more obstacles there are, the stronger the power to move forward.

A good way is to compare like with like. If a friend provides another place worth visiting and lists all the features of the place like a senior traveler, maybe the author will think about it. It is useless to stop him. It's better to just say I wish you a safe journey.

Although Haruki Murakami is not a master of photography, his understanding of landscape and photography has the same insights as a master of photography:

The scenery in front of us absorbs the vastness , the almost eternal silence, the deep fragrance of the tide, the unobstructed wind blowing across the surface, and the unique temporality flowing in it can be established.

The colors have been exposed to wind and rain since ancient times to form their current appearance, and they change all the time with the changes in climate, the rise and fall of tides, and the movement of the sun. Once cut by the camera lens, or translated into scientific color matching, it will become completely different from what is presented to you at this moment.

I am afraid that anything similar to the mood that existed during this period will be gone. So we can only spend a longer time to appreciate it with our own eyes, engrav it in our brains, then put it in a drawer with an impermanent memory, and move it somewhere by our own strength.

Although the scenery seen and the scenery captured are the same scenery, the pictures and inner feelings are completely different. Looking at the scenery puts people in it, and the eyes and mind absorb it naturally; shooting and cutting are artificial sculptures, which can also be said to be "dressed up" scenery. People tend to prefer the most natural and pure things.

Haruki Murakami also has a certain hobby for bars. After writing, he occasionally jogs along the river, and sometimes goes to local bars for a drink. In the book "If There Really Was a Time Machine", Haruki Murakami traveled around the world to describe the customs and customs while also introducing some characteristics of local bars. Among them, the most distinctive one is the "avant-garde village".

Avant-garde Village lives up to its name and is a long-established jazz club located in Greenwich Village. Since Max Gordon held his first concert here in 1935, it has been operating continuously in the basement of the same building for 76 years! At first, it also performed folk songs and comedies, and by the mid-1950s it had become a club dedicated to playing jazz. The awning and neon sign that stretches out onto the sidewalk are the store's signature.

Ms. Lorraine still decides which musicians to perform. It's almost a family run business, with my daughter and son-in-law helping out. Performers' remuneration for their performances is the same regardless of whether they are famous or not.

Even if Wynton Marsalis comes to perform, he can't pay a high performance fee. When Henry Kissinger visited this store, Ms. Lorraine stood at the door and said calmly: "The entrance fee to our store is 20 US dollars, and the minimum purchase of drinks is 10 US dollars. We do not accept credit cards or checks. Is that okay?" This anecdote Very famous. Kissinger honestly took out the cash from his wallet and paid. All in all, it's a stubborn old store.

The old store that has persisted for more than 70 years has become the most popular "avant-garde village" by virtue of its own strength. It must be said that it is related to Ms. Lorraine's unique business method. Treating investors and customers equally is the business philosophy that runs through this store. This business philosophy is the spirit of Avant-garde Village and Ms. Lorraine’s family spirit.

When I went back and reinterpreted the book "If There Really Was a Time Machine", I understood its meaning. The meaning of the time machine is that the author hopes to go back to the past, but where is the time machine? Therefore, the author named this book "If There Really Was a Time Machine" to express the author's incomparable nostalgia for the places he has visited.

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I am Run Sheng,

< p>Insist on reading a good book and writing a simple article.

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