Days At The Morisaki Bookshop
Ratings60
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings60
Average rating3.8
"Human beings are full of contradictions." Twenty-five-year-old Takako takes up residence for a few months in her uncle Satoru's second-hand bookshop in Jimbicho, Tokyo in the wake of her breakup with her cad of a boyfriend/ coworker and her subsequent resignation. Depressed and unemployed, Takako is glad for the room above the Morisaki Bookshop to hide from the rest of the world even though she doesn't quite enjoy reading. Surrounded by towering stacks of second-hand books and people who love reading, Takako eventually finds herself opening up to new experiences, making friends in the community, forging a bond with her uncle and finding joy, inspiration and hope in reading. The narrative is divided into two segments the first of which focuses on Takano's journey and the second segment, set a year later, revolves around her uncle and his wife Momoko whose sudden return five years after she left him has him seeking the answers to several unanswered questions. Her aunt's return and their evolving friendship also encourage Takako to reconsider her own priorities. "No matter where you go, or how many books you read, you still know nothing, you haven't seen anything. And that's life. We live our lives trying to find our way." Touching upon themes of family, friendship, new beginnings and most importantly the transformative power of books, this is a sweet, simple story that would appeal to book lovers and bibliophiles. I really liked the premise of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (translated by Eric Ozawa), and loved the descriptions of the Jimbocho Book Town (brought back some fond memories of College Street /"Boi Para" of Kolkata, India) and the literary references. The author also references the Kanda Used Book Festival, the largest annual event held in Kanda's Jimbocho secondhand book district that started in 1960. The narrative is evenly paced and compact but I thought the writing (or maybe the translation) was a tad choppy and lacking in depth. Though I didn't enjoy the second segment of the narrative as much as the first, overall I didn't dislike this short novel its totality"--
Featured Series
2 primary books森崎書店の日々(Days at the Morisaki Bookshop) is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2010 with contributions by Satoshi Yagisawa and Eric Ozawa.
Reviews with the most likes.
I really liked this book. It's a super easy read and has a relaxing, feel-good vibe.
I found the bookshop and the characters very charming and likeable. Would definitely read again, it's a good book to get back into reading with.
I listened to the audiobook version; the narration was good. I was hooked onto the story for the entire first half where Takako finds herself taken advantage of, she falls into a sad lull of life, she discovers the joy of reading, she discovers the happiness of meeting and interacting with people, and she discovers herself and her voice so much so that she is able to shout at her shitty boyfriend who was double timing her earlier. The second half of the book was slow and pointless that I suddenly found more interesting stuff to do than listen to the audiobook. It took me 4 days to finish a 4-hour book and I have earlier finished listening to 10-hour audiobooks in less than 2 days. Not a fan of the second half but the first story was cute.
2nd book in my ‘Japan context building books'. I picked it out randomly in Bangalore at Champace bookstore, because it had a Japanese theme that week (or month). Picked 4 random books. This is one of them.
I like this. It's very warm. The start of the book opened some scars and memories from one of my past relationships. It felt nice to be able to relate. Easy to read, comfortable with the pace.
Cute cover though. I will try to go to this particular neighborhood of second hand bookshops - Jimbocho neighborhood in Choyoda city.
Idk what to tell you. The writing was simple yet charming. The mc loved books just so out of nowhere imo. I'm lft reading to next book tho. Probably better than this one hopefully
