Summer Shorts: Haruki Murakami

First Light Books is hosting another session of Summer Shorts on Tuesday, August 11, this time centered on Haruki Murakami. If you've never been to one, the format is pretty straightforward: the group reads a short story together, silently and all at once, with the story unveiled only when you arrive. There's no preparation required, so you can just show up and dive in.

Murakami is a good fit for that kind of quiet, collective focus. Born in Kyoto and raised in Kobe by parents who taught Japanese literature, he got hooked on jazz as a teenager. He married against his parents' wishes and opened a bar in Tokyo called Peter Cat—named after his pet—which he and his wife ran for seven years. The writing started later: in 1978, while watching a batter hit a double at a baseball game, he felt he could write a novel and began that night, working after the bar closed.

That's the kind of background that puts his work in perspective—the jazz, the late nights running a bar, the sudden shift into writing. It's a nice thing to keep in mind while you're sitting there with a story in front of you. The Summer Shorts series is built around that same kind of low-pressure, shared experience: a room full of people reading the same thing at the same time, with nothing to do but read.

It's all happening at First Light Books, 4300 Speedway, Austin, TX 78751. There's happy hour pricing at the cafe, so you can grab a drink and settle in for the session.