OK, OK one of the most anticipated books of the year is IQ84 by Haruki Murakami. OK, OK any self-respecting bookshop should be hosting an event to mark this very special occasion. And we wanted to, but our events programme was packed and it’s the start of term and, and, and.
But thanks to the enthusiasm of two of our favourite authors – MG Harris and Dan Holloway we have made the right decision, indeed the only decision, to host an event. Time is tight and the details are sketchy but the event will happen and and it will be fantastic for any Murakami fan. Promise!
Here’s what we know so far – Books 1 and 2 are published on Tuesday 18th October, we will have a very special price on the day of publication and will also offer a deal for pre-ordering Book 3 which publishes on the 25th. We cannot host the evening on the 18th as we already have a spectacular event in the shop that night – This is Oxford. So we are inviting you to the shop on the evening of Thursday 20th October where we will celebrate all things Murakami. MG Harris will be mixing cocktails, jazz will be on tap, anyone in attendance will be invited to give a short reading of their favourite passage from any Murakami book and there will be spot prizes in an ad hoc quiz. We will have the entire backlist on 342 in the shop.
A rather special feature is that we have agreed with Random House that we will take some video of readings and fan messages and that these will be sent on to the man himself!
No doubt there will be more – rumours already circulating on Twitter that Dan will cook some suitably Wind Up Bird-ish spaghetti..!
What could possibly go wrong? We have set up an Event on our Facebook site – it would help enormously if you could let us know if you are coming along here
Broad Conversation 
Yay!!! You guys are absolutely amazing! And it would be fabulous to have some videos/thoughts left on scraps of paper for people to say how they discovered Murakami (it always seems to be something unusual, as befits his worlds). It could form a little ni-store/on-blog exhibition called “What We Talk About When We Talk About Murakami” or something
Thanks Dan – you’re not too shabby yourself, mate
Only the coolest bookshop in the land would organise such a fab event! Love all these ideas. Ordering the cocktail supplies asap!
And only the coolest customers and authors allow us to do what we do (and make us do brilliant things that we weren’t planning to!)
Excited!