I first desired to write a novel after experiencing a

Haruki Murakami

novel. My choice of the word experience isn't a typo, because until that point, I had read many books without ever feeling touched by the author from the other side. 

Usually reading felt like meeting in the middle. A public meeting, a conversation in a cafe or at the bar maybe. Non fiction authors gave me information and I learned. Novelists told me a story, and I listened, connecting their story to mine.

But as I reached the end of

Norwegian Wood

, I didn't feel like I was being told somebody else's story. It felt like Murakami had gone inside my head, read my secret diary which didn't exist, and wrote it down for me to read.