Mitsuyo Kakuta (角田光代, 1967–) set her sights on becoming a writer from an early age. Her debut novel—Kōfuku na yūgi (A Blissful Pastime), written while she was a university student—received the Kaien Prize for New Writers in 1990. She has been working continuously as an author ever since, never having had to support herself with a separate job. Three nominations for the Akutagawa Prize serve as a measure of the promise with which she was regarded from early in her career. Then, at the encouragement of an editor, she shifted toward the entertainment end of the literary spectrum, where she garnered a much broader readership with works depicting the lives of women in her generation, from their mid-thirties to forties. After publishing two brilliant novels in 2002, Ekonomikaru paresu (Economical Palace) and Kūchū teien (Hanging Garden), she went on to win the Naoki Prize for the second half of 2004 with Woman on the Other Shore (tr. 2007). Her successes continued with The Eighth Day (tr. 2010), which received the 2007 Chūō Kōron Literary Prize and was made into a televised drama series as well as a movie; the book sold more than a million copies, vaulting her into the ranks of Japan's best-selling authors. In 2012 she added to her list of honors by earning the Shibata Renzaburō Award for her novel Kami no tsuki (Paper Moon), and the Izumi Kyōka Prize for her volume of short stories Kanata no ko (The Children Beyond).
Mitsuyo Kakuta is currently working on translating the Tale of Genji into modern Japanese. (source: BooksFromJapan.jp)
This is a cute collection of short stories with one supposed common thread, books. However, all of the stories seemed really one note to me and quite similar. Each was supposed to be about a different character, but they were all so similar I could imagine that the same person was the heroine in each story. It read a bit like a sappy ABC mini-series, but there were a few charming stories buried in the mix.
Language-wise I think this is an easy, approachable read for non-native readers of Japanese. The stories are short enough that one doesn't get frustrated, and the language is modern and very easy to understand.
a collection of short stories with the theme of books- i recommend but imo although some stories were amazing and reminded me of my love of books and bookstores, some were slightly eh. buttt it was super interesting to me to see how every scenario whatever character goes through, no matter how big/important or mundane, was all somehow related to the same core memory of a particular book or a book store they loved.
Books are what we bring everywhere. From another perspective, books travel by themselves and make people meet them, not the other way around. Books give people enjoyment and life experiences without needing to go anywhere physically.
This book is a truly touching and moving piece of work. I was deeply inspired by how it explores the influence of books on relationships. The writing is simple and easy to follow, yet its impact is profound and lasting!