BOOKS

When a middle-aged man hears the Beatles song “Norwegian Wood,” he is transported back to his tumultuous university days in 1960s Tokyo. As a young student, Toru Watanabe navigates a love triangle between his introspective and emotionally fragile first love, Naoko, and the fiercely independent and vivacious Midori. Set against a backdrop of student unrest, the coming-of-age story is a nostalgic and poignant exploration of first love, loss, grief, and longing. 

Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is a classic Beat Generation novel chronicling the restless, cross-country travels of Sal Paradise and his charismatic, impulsive friend Dean Moriarty. In a quest for freedom and meaning, they roam America’s highways, fueled by jazz, drugs, and the intoxicating promise of authentic experience.