So apparently, while I was busy with life (new job, new family member, etc.), the next Haruhi book came out over a month ago. For those of you non-anime fans, 「涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱」 has been the hottest thing probably since Evangelion. Actually, you don’t have to be an anime fan because the stories originally come from novels.
I bought the latest volume: 「涼宮ハルヒの驚愕」, which has finally come out after 4 years of delay. So actually, I’m going to be reading the previous book again just so I can remember the story. To give you a taste of what the books are like, here’s the first sentence from the first volume. The sentence is so wordy it’s also the first paragraph. So that should give you an idea of the writing style.
サンタクロースをいつまで信じていたかなんてことは、たわいもない世間話にもならないくらいのどうでもいい話だが、それでも俺がいつまでサンタなどという想像上の赤服じーさんを信じていたかと言うと、これは確信を持って言えるが、最初から信じてなどいなかった。
The anime starts off the same way as well so you can hear the first couple lines of the book.
If you don’t happen to have a Japanese bookstore handy nearby, it looks like you can order it online. I haven’t tried ordering from the site myself so that’s for you to try.
I personally really enjoy the books. It has a nonlinear narrative, which I always like (my favorite novel is Catch-22) and it’s further complicated by the time traveling bits. Plus, with 11 books in the series so far (last one is split in 2), there’s plenty of reading material!
Difficulty: 4/5
My rating: 5/5
I actually just ordered a couple of the novels from this site. Judging from reviews they seem to be fine so I’m expecting my order to go fine as well.
The 「 涼宮ハルヒ 」 series has always been one of my favorites. The novels are going to be a bit challenging to read but you have to push yourself somewhere right?
Either way it is always nice to have actual reading material around the house.
Good luck! It is challenging but at the same time I’m learning a lot. Just learned 「春宵暁を覚えず」 and tons of new words.
I received the novels today. I’m only about four pages in and I have already learned so many new words! I feel once I’m done with just one of these novels my vocabulary will have increased ten fold.
Definitely going to enjoy these. As far as the site goes they definitely package their products well. It may take awhile to get to your address, but it’s coming from Hong Kong so it should be kind of expected.
That’s great to hear. The author definitely has an awesome vocabulary. I’m also learning tons of new words.