I was once a huge fan of Murakami, but I did not enjoy 1Q84. At the time of first reading his novels, the reason I enjoyed them so much was how different they

I was once a huge fan of Murakami, but I did not enjoy 1Q84. At the time of first reading his novels, the reason I enjoyed them so much was how different they were to anything else I'd read. They felt like a lazy Sunday afternoon, except weird things keep happening. Sometimes those weird things feel sinister, sometimes not. You just sort of drift through the book, never quite grasping the entirety, but it is soothing enough that you don't care. However, once you've read a few, the forumula becomes more obvious and starts to lose its appeal. I started with Hard Boiled Wonderland, which I recommend, and another that I enjoyed was The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. But after that, it is probably enough.