Here are some of my favourite quotes from Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the shore:

• Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.
• It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.
• Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.
• Listen up - there's no war that will end all wars.
• Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time.
• A certain type of perfection can only be realised through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect.
• Narrow minds devoid of imagination. Intolerance, theories cut off from reality, empty terminology, usurped ideals, inflexible systems. Those are the things that really frighten me. What I absolutely fear and loathe.
• Not just beautiful, though, the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they are watching you.
• I close my eyes and relax, letting my tense muscles go loose. I listen to the steady hum of the train. And then, without warning, a warm tear spills from my eye, runs down my cheek to my mouth, and after a while, dries up. No matter, I tell myself. It's just one tear. It doesn't even feel like it's mine, more like part of the rain outside.
• If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets.
• Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to slip through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won't be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there - to the edge of the world. That's something you can't do unless you get there.
• Closing your eyes isn't going to change anything. Nothing is going to change just because you can't see what's going on. Infact, things will even be worse the next time you open your eyes. That's the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won't make time stand still.

• For every theory,there has to be counter evidence - otherwise science wouldn't progress.
• It's all a question of imagination. Our responsibilities begin with the power to imagine. It's just like Yeats said: In dream begin responsibilities. Flip this around and you could say that where there is no power to imagine, no responsibility can arise.
• You're afraid of imagination and even more afraid of dreams. Afraid of the responsibility that begins in dreams. But you have to sleep and dreams are a part of sleep. When you are awake, you can suppress imagination. But you can't suppress dreams.
• But that calm won't last long, you know. It's like beasts that never tire, tracking you everywhere you go. They come out at you deep in the forest. They are tough, relentless, merciless, untiring and they never give up.
• Of course it's important to know what's right and what's wrong. Individual errors in judgement can usually be corrected. As long as you have the courage to admit mistakes, things can be turned around. But intolerant, narrow minds with no imagination are like parasites that transform the host, change form and continue to thrive. 

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When you are reading any of the Haruki Murakami books, you need to be ready for all the weird things that happen between the story. Also, the story of this book becomes a lot more hard to understand if you are reading it with a narrow mind. So, my suggestion is you have to stop questioning about the events in this book and simply go with the flow.

It is a 2002 Japanese novel which was translated in English by Philip Gabriel. It received the World Fantasy Award for 2006.

This is the first magical realism book that I've read. A lot more people misunderstand magical realism with fantasy which in my opinion is noy true. Fantasy genre revolves around the whole magical setting and the characters itself are sort of magical while in magical realism - as the name suggests - have perfectly normal characters but there is a hint of magic in them.

The one thing that I love about in this book is its writing style and how their is kind of poetry in them. Obviously, a lot of focus is spent on the details in any of Murakami's books and this book is no different. The lines itself  are so beautiful that you simply fall in love with them.

When I first met you, I felt kind of contradiction in you. You are seeking something but at the same time, you are running away from all you're worth.

To be honest, there is no point in telling you the story, because it'll not make sense to you anyway. Strange things always happen in this book like fish and leeches falling from the sky, a ghost of a girl comes but she is still alive and many more.

There are two protagonists in this book: Kafka Tamura who runs away from his home on his 15th birthday and Nakata, an old man who is sort of mentally weak and dumb and cannot read and write since a weird accident happens during his childhood but has an ability to talk with cats. It's amazing how their lives are connected to each other but they never meet in the story.The boy named Kafka is an introvert but meets some people with whom he feels connected like Oshima and Miss Saeki.

It's also great how this book talks a lot about books and music. Go and give it a try!!!

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