Murakami -best writer on the planet?

Read his books and decide...he has taken short stories and novels to a whole new dimension (pun intended). I can't decide if his novels are better are his exquisite short stories - why choose? Thanks to the New Yorker for introducing this fabulous writer

read about him

And talking of the New Yorker, why can't everyone write as elegantly as its writers? Why can't Indian journalists spend more time on writing simple, elegant sentences and less on showy, pedestrian bilge? When, oh when, will India have a magazine halfway as good as the New Yorker or The Atlantic? Maybe with the blogging revolution finally finding its way here, we can see better writing at least on the web.

- srini anumolu