My bookshelf has many items which have been waiting years for me to read. One I can delete from the list is "
Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami. I'd never heard of him, but now I'm tempted to seek out more from him. This is a sad story, full of sex and suicide, but with the lovely elegant autumn winter tones I'd expect of Japanese culture. I also couldn't put the name to a Beatles tune, but after a little Googling I discovered not only that I recognised it ("dah, dah-dah-dah, dah" with that neat sitar-sounding descending passage) but that they're
making a movie of it. I think it would be a slow, painful thing to sit through.