 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another Top 5 Friday. Today we are talking about something near and dear to my heart, which is Japanese literature. I think I'm going to title this Japanese Literature Gateway Drugs. These are the books that I first read either from these authors or the first Japanese literature I read, period. One thing that I find that Japanese literature does, it's probably because of the translations. Let's get that straight. None of these books were actually written by the people who wrote them, which sounds funny, but all these books have been translated. None of them were translated by the author. But one of the things that a lot of stuff gets lost in translation, I hear, of course I don't know Japanese, but there's also the aspect that there's a lot of simplicity. And I like poignant simplicity. I like when a book is extremely deep, but on the surface it seems simple. And that seems to be what Japanese literature does the best. I think I articulated that properly. If you guys are fans of Japanese literature, I would love to hear from you down in the comments below. But for right now, we are going to jump into this. The first thing I want to talk about, Ryu Mitokami is a new favorite author of mine. I had only read the Miso, in the Miso Soup, which we're talking about today. But I'm currently reading Piercing and I'm loving it. The guy is disturbing. He's got some dark comedy going on. I really do like it. But in the Miso Soup was my first from him. And this made it onto my top five list of the most disturbing scenes. The reason for that is very simple. There's a scene in a restaurant with an ear. If you've ever read this book, that's what I'm talking about. It has stayed with me forever. Next up we're going to talk about two, I'm going to kind of interrupt myself here and talk about two books that I personally didn't care much for. But a lot of people recommend. I want to try and do this more often because I'm a big fan of differing opinions as long as you're not rude about it. But The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. I'm probably saying that wrong. You guys know how I do. I can't pronounce anything. So this one didn't work for me just because of the... Man, it's difficult to say why. I know it's Japanese culture, but the way they treat women just sucks. Let's see here. Next up is The Ring by Koji Suzuki. This is another one that was just... I think the best friend is a rapist. The best friend of the main character is a rapist, and they're still friends. That's like the whole reason why I didn't like it. If you can get past that, it's whatever. But those are two that I personally didn't like, but other people seem to love. As far as The Ring movie, I like The Ring. I like the American adaptation too. I don't really have a favorite as far as that goes. Next up we have, and this is important, that you get the right edition when you talk about that, but before you run off and grab this, listen up. So we have Battle Royale by Ko Koshin Takami. Okay, this one, you have to... If you're reading this in English, you have to get this version with this cover. This is the only version that I am recommending. Again, this is the only version that I am recommending. It seems that all of the other ones, it says a new translation by Nathan Collins. First off, thank you Nathan Collins. The original translation to this was terrible. I did a look inside when it was first out. I think it's still available too. I don't know if it's under contract or what, but it's still floating around out there. Do not get it. It is terrible. I don't know how things like that get published. I honestly don't. But this one is fantastic. If you're a fan of things like The Running Man or Hunger Games or whatever, definitely pick this book up. It is dark. It is twisted. It ends a little too neatly for my tastes, but that's... I mean, the entire tone of the book, this book is what, 700 pages long? Hang on, give me a second. 640 pages long. The entire tone of the book is dark, dark, and the tone of the ending does not fit whatsoever. It was jarring. Hang on, I got to make another stack. All right, so got those two. Next up, we talked about this in my review for Rukimitakami's Wind Slash Pinball. Rukimitakami's After Dark is probably the best gateway drug you can come across, and none of these are in order. I just want to throw this in the middle because even though I think it's the best one out of all of them, not many people are going to agree with that. But if you're going to read Minerkami, this is where you want to start. The main reason for it is it's under 300 pages. A lot of his stuff is around 300-400 pages. He does have huge ethics like 1Q84, the Wind Up Bird Chronicles. I think Kafka on the Shore is pretty big, and his new one, Killing Commentaries, long also. But if you really want to check him out in very short bits, he has loads of short story collections like The Elephant Vanishes, Men Without Women. There's a load of them. But if you want to try out his novels, this is a perfect place to start, it's just weird enough that if you can not stomach the weird, if you like the weird, you will like the weird in his other books. But it's not so over the top weird that it'll chase away your average reader. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. It's kind of like a labyrinth situation. Every single one of the books that I've read, except for Norwegian Wood, by Heruki Minerkami, kind of give me that labyrinth feel, that other world set in reality, kind of deal. Let me know if you like labyrinths. If I get anybody down there saying they hate labyrinths, I might have to block them. Just kidding, kidding. Next up, we have Natsukrinos out. This author is fantastic. There's some stuff in this book that I was shocked by. I'd love to see this turned into a television drama, like a miniseries event or something like that. Because it fits so well with the tone of a Netflix original special or an Amazon Prime original special. There are scenes in this, especially the ending that were so unforeseen. I had no idea they were coming. And the way the the ladies react to a certain situation, it's the whole plot of the book and I don't want to give anything away because I want you to enjoy it for yourself. But something happens and they have to clean it up. And the way the women in this book respond is priceless. This is also one of the inspirations. If you've read my own book, The Sound of Broken Ribs, this is one of the inspirations for that book. They have nothing to do with each other. Storylines aren't anywhere near the same. But you get into this one and you might feel the tonal quality. You might get where I got the inspiration for that book for. Last but not least, we have The Thief by Fumonori Nakamura. I hope that's right. I don't know. I can't Fumonori. Anyways, so this is The Thief. This is the one that made me fall in love with this author. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get into his newest book. Most of his books are around 150 to 250 pages. His newest one is 800. It's called Cult X and I haven't been able to get into it. I'm going to keep on trying, but I'm not doing a good job. But as far as introductions to an author, this book was fantastic. There's a sequel, prequel, periquel, whatever the heck it's called, called The Kingdom. It also ties into the boy in the woods. Something like that. But this book by itself is fantastic. I've also heard, and I forgot to bring this one out, I've also heard good things about a novel called Villain. It's got a great cover, but the problem with that is I can't remember the name of the author and I didn't bring the hard cover out, so I apologize. But those are my recommendations. I know Top 5 Friday kind of turned into a top eightish, but I want to do this on Top 5 Friday from here on. I'll give you five of my choices and then give you other options that other people like that maybe I don't like or that I downright hated. I really hated the woman in the dunes, but that's just me. So if you have a Top 5 list, Top 10, whatever Japanese literature that you'd like to share, please comment down below. But until next time, I am Benny, you've been you. This has been Top 5 Friday. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye.