Sorry for all the Haruki Murakami posts (well, not really), but he's quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. The good news is that by the time I've worked through his entire back catalog, his latest Kafka on the Shore, will be available in English.
And another quote, this time from Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World
For anyone not accustomed to this sort of thing, stepping on thirty-centimeter wide sections of slick rock crawling with leeches in the dark is an experience likely to be memorable.
So true.
I'd warn you to space out the Murakami. After reading "Wind Up Bird" I went on something of a Murakami bender, and read Hard Boilded, Sheep Chase, and South of the Border, and in rapid sucession some of his themes and characterizations go from being fascinating to being creepy. (in particular you start to wonder at his very very strange issues with women)
There are definite themes that reappear w/Murakami; I'm particularly thinking of the young girl/woman rescuing the emotionally repressed man in his 30s/40s. Some of this is touched on in his recent Paris Review interview, although most of it's not online.