This is what happens when publicity-shy authors let someone talk them into doing something on the Internet. Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami's agent or publisher was probably going on and on about how it was important to have an "online presence" or whatever, resulting in Time magazine collecting questions for him from readers—via their website. Slog has pointed out some of the more intelligent questions, such as "ur gay right?" After the jump, the rest of the proof that user-generated content is utter crap:


  • "How would you own funeral be like?"
  • "When it is cool and drizzling rain, when time seems to congeal into something viscous, and you are feeling a little melancholy, perhaps remembering a day in your youth when the weather was similar, is there a certain record you might want to listen to?"
  • "Do you have any plans of launching a worldwide book signing?"
    Ask Novelist Haruki Murakami [Time]