In my bag: an illustrated Sleep by Murakami

Amsterdam based publisher Atlas has been so kind to put a goodbye present in my bag! Now what’s better then visiting the beach in your new hometown Brighton with an illustrated copy of Murakami’s Sleep wrapped into your towel with your trunks and favourite British crisps?

Swimming was nice, crisps were delicious and the Dutch translation to the short Murakami story is great. This disturbing story about a woman thinking over her life is beautifully illustrated by Kat Menschik. This particular edition is only available to the Dutch, German and French market… helaas! I hope Vintage & Knopf will do an English version soon so all of you can enjoy this combination of Murakami’s words & Menschik’s drawings.

Booktunes HTML5 player

From now on Booktunes uses a HTML5 player. All visitors using an iPad or iPhone – and our futuristic friends at P-Edge HQ who threw out Flash a long time ago – can now listen to our online audio content without any problems.

Good, since we plan to make all Booktunes Soundtracks available for online listening. Check our new player on the Inspired by Murakami Page and listen the complete After Dark soundtrack here.

Music inspired by Words

A few weeks back I came across a band called Raisa. Can’t remember where but their music grabbed me.. just like they have been tackled by the words of Murakami.

Raisa made an album inspired by Murakami’s Sleeping Willow, Sleeping Woman. Reason enough for me to finally put some work in the ‘inpired by…’ pages I’ve been thinking about for some time now.

So, after starting off wit Mr. Mura again, I am wondering what other inspiring writers’ words have been put into songs by ambitious artists. Are you a musician that tinkles a tune after reading a novel?

Download Raisa’s El caso es salir de aqui for fee and enjoy their music. And of course let me know if you have ever made a tune inspired by a book.