10 Amazing Things You Didn't Know About Haruki Murakami

6. He Believes He Owns Around Ten Thousand Records (But Is Too Scared To Count)

Anyone who has read even a single Murakami novel will know just how enamoured the man is with music. Music permeates Murakami's stories like it's the very air his protagonist's breathe (like the repeated references to Leos Janacek's Sinfonietta in 1Q84). The title of one of Murakami's more recent publications in English, for example €“ Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage €“ is a reference to the Years Of Pilgrimage suite by the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. In fact, many of Murakami's novel titles are references to music, including South Of The Border, West Of The Sun and Norwegian Wood. When asked, then, how many records he thinks he owns, Murakami estimated around ten-thousand, but admitted he was slightly frightened to try and count.