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ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 KADOKAWA コミカライズ #1
ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 1
就職浪人中の五浦大輔は、祖母の遺品の夏目漱石全集に書かれたサインの鑑定のために、ビブリア古書堂を訪れる。なりゆきで、入院中の店主の元を訪ねると、そこには高校のころ偶然見かけた美しい黒髪の女性・篠川栞子がいた。人見知りだが古書の知識は並大抵ではない栞子は、夏目漱石全集にまつわる謎を読み解き、大輔に語り始めた…。これは、栞子と奇妙な客人達が織り成す、“古書と秘密”の物語である――。
166 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 26, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 2, 2019
"Antiquarian Bookshop Biblia's Case Files" Volume 1, written by En Mikami, is a collection of short stories which follow the bibliophile Daisuke, who after a traumatic experience during childhood just can't bring himself to actually read books. He meets Shioriko Shinokawa, the female owner of the antiquarian bookshop Biblia, ends up working for her and assisting her in solving light mysteries always revolving around certain books, their owners and their history with said book.
This is a book for book lovers. The stories ooze the author's love for books; from the mood of the bookshop itself to Daisuke's strange love for books he is unable to read, and Shinokawa, a wall-flower book lover per definition. This is also why you'd want to read this series; if you come for the mystery cases, you will be disappointed. The solution of the cases (starting with books being stolen or brought to the bookshop) often rely on Shinokawa and her deductions regarding people's way to deal with books they like and "technical" knowledge about publishing, editions, editing etc. While it does make sense for her to know a lot about books, the second part of her deductions is always centered around human interactions, which is repeatedly names as something she doesn't have a lot of experience in. This makes her deductions often a bit unbelievable, on top of that comes that - other than her intuitions - there isn't that much evidence for her thesis at all. I'm a purist when it comes to deductions, I think Doyle's way of deduction is the way to go: analyse your surroundings and draw conclusions based on the facts available to you. I even frown at Christie's way of writing often, which is often based on human interactions and relationships to identify the murder, rather than hard, cold facts. Keeping this in mind, the deductions presented in this volume simply feel fabricated; you notice very much that Mikami isn't a mystery writer.
HOWEVER, as already mentioned, you don't want to read this book for the mystery, you want to come here for the books. Until now, "Inkheart" has always been my book for bibliophiles to recommend, but this novel really is a close second. Daisuke, as can be seen on one of the few illustrations in the novel, is a huge, muscular guy, more fitted to work as a bouncer than to handle books. He can't help but want to read them, but can't physically do so, because of the trauma that we see played out as a flashback in the first story. In this way, Daisuke's relationship to books is figuratively a human love relationship; unrequired love turns to longing, unfulfilled longing turns to pain. The relationship between Shinowaka and Daisuke is a peculiar one; she is very shy and is stuttering when talking about anything but books, Daisuke can't read books, thus needs someone to tell him about them (though in this day and age he might as well listen to an audiobook - somehow this is never mentioned in the book).
This book has a anime-esque illustration on its cover and is thus officially labeled a "Light Novel". Which, honestly, it really is not. Light Novels nowadays, although defined by its occasional illustrations, cover and publishing houses (for which Biblia all fits the bill), have an unofficial canon of items and plot points that make up a LN: teen-centered jokes, weird sexual relationships, protagonists in high school, romantic pairing. Biblia has non of that and can be treated as a weird in-between of LN and regular Japanese Literature: it is too mature to fit the Light Novel category but not deep and philosophically enough to be a part of the regular heavyweight Japanese literature.
I recommend it to everyone who really likes books and reading about them.
This is a book for book lovers. The stories ooze the author's love for books; from the mood of the bookshop itself to Daisuke's strange love for books he is unable to read, and Shinokawa, a wall-flower book lover per definition. This is also why you'd want to read this series; if you come for the mystery cases, you will be disappointed. The solution of the cases (starting with books being stolen or brought to the bookshop) often rely on Shinokawa and her deductions regarding people's way to deal with books they like and "technical" knowledge about publishing, editions, editing etc. While it does make sense for her to know a lot about books, the second part of her deductions is always centered around human interactions, which is repeatedly names as something she doesn't have a lot of experience in. This makes her deductions often a bit unbelievable, on top of that comes that - other than her intuitions - there isn't that much evidence for her thesis at all. I'm a purist when it comes to deductions, I think Doyle's way of deduction is the way to go: analyse your surroundings and draw conclusions based on the facts available to you. I even frown at Christie's way of writing often, which is often based on human interactions and relationships to identify the murder, rather than hard, cold facts. Keeping this in mind, the deductions presented in this volume simply feel fabricated; you notice very much that Mikami isn't a mystery writer.
HOWEVER, as already mentioned, you don't want to read this book for the mystery, you want to come here for the books. Until now, "Inkheart" has always been my book for bibliophiles to recommend, but this novel really is a close second. Daisuke, as can be seen on one of the few illustrations in the novel, is a huge, muscular guy, more fitted to work as a bouncer than to handle books. He can't help but want to read them, but can't physically do so, because of the trauma that we see played out as a flashback in the first story. In this way, Daisuke's relationship to books is figuratively a human love relationship; unrequired love turns to longing, unfulfilled longing turns to pain. The relationship between Shinowaka and Daisuke is a peculiar one; she is very shy and is stuttering when talking about anything but books, Daisuke can't read books, thus needs someone to tell him about them (though in this day and age he might as well listen to an audiobook - somehow this is never mentioned in the book).
This book has a anime-esque illustration on its cover and is thus officially labeled a "Light Novel". Which, honestly, it really is not. Light Novels nowadays, although defined by its occasional illustrations, cover and publishing houses (for which Biblia all fits the bill), have an unofficial canon of items and plot points that make up a LN: teen-centered jokes, weird sexual relationships, protagonists in high school, romantic pairing. Biblia has non of that and can be treated as a weird in-between of LN and regular Japanese Literature: it is too mature to fit the Light Novel category but not deep and philosophically enough to be a part of the regular heavyweight Japanese literature.
I recommend it to everyone who really likes books and reading about them.
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June 7, 2019It was a good read. Will read the next few books.
January 30, 2014
SO good. Can't wait to read the rest!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews