I'm still feeling the withdrawal symptoms from a fabulous escapade.

My next book buy, decided. I've always wanted to grab this title whenever I chance upon it at the bookstore but I often hesitate and a copy is placed back on the shelf. It won't happen the next time, as the excerpt below has convinced me.

"I'm looking for selfishness. Perfect selfishness. Like, say I tell you I want to eat strawberry shortbread. And you stop everything you're doing and run out and buy it for me. And you come back out of breath and get down on your knees and hold this strawberry shortbread out to me. And I say I don't want it any more and throw it out of the window. That's what I 'm looking for."

"I'm not sure that has anything to do with love," I said with some amazement.

"It does," she said. "You just don't know it. There are times in a girl's life when things like that are incredibly important."

"Things like throwing strawberry shortbread out of the window?"

"Exactly. And when I do it, I want the man to apologize to me. "Now I see, Midori. What a fool I've been! I should have known that you would lose your desire for strawberry shortbread. I have all the intelligence and sensitivity of a piece of donkey shit. To make it up to you, I'll go out and buy you something else. What would you like? Chocolate mousse? Cheesecake?"'

"So then what?"

"So then I'd give him all the love he deserves for what he's done."

"Sounds crazy to me."

"Well, to me, that's what love is. Not that anyone can understand me, though." Midori gave her head a little shake against my shoulder.

"For a certain kind of person, love begins from something tiny or silly. From something like that or it doesn't begin at all."

- Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

***

Some research...

The book title is actually a song from The Beatles and was apparently inspired by Lennon's extramarital flings. Ironically, he wrote it while he was on a holiday with his first wife, Cynthia. The song is often mentioned in the novel, and is the favourite song of one of the characters, Naoko.

I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me...
She showed me her room, isn't it good, norwegian wood?

She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere,
So I looked around and I noticed there wasn't a chair.

I sat on a rug, bidding my time, drinking her wine,
We talked until two and then she said, "It's time for bed"

She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh.
I told her I didn't and crawled off to sleep in the bath

And when I awoke, I was alone, this bird had flown

So I lit a fire, isn't it good, norwegian wood.