Book Details
Author: Satoshi Yagisawa
Translated: Eric Ozawa
Originally Written in: Japanese
Buying Link: Buy from Amazon
Plot: What it is About
A 25-year-old Takako has just experienced her worst breakup in love. The person she was going out with has revealed that he’s going to get married to one of their colleagues.
Unable to cope with the pain and grief, she resigns from her job and shuts herself in her room. Months pass by, and her health only gets worse.
That’s when a call from her uncle Satoru, whom she met only in her childhood and hasn’t seen since, changes her life for the better.
She reluctantly moves to the second floor of his generational bookshop—the Morisaki Bookshop—that sells second-hand specialty books in Jimbocho, since she’s already running out of money and her uncle had offered to let her help him run his bookstore in exchange for a free stay.
At first, things weren’t going that well. She finds her uncle annoying and life at the bookshop strange. Plus, she’s not able to come out of her depression.
One midnight, unable to sleep, she picks up a random book she finds lying around and starts reading. She falls so in love with reading that she picks up one book after another.
That’s when she realizes that reading is helping her come out of her shell.
Meanwhile, she discovers a coffee shop in the neighborhood thanks to her uncle, where she finds new friends—Tomo and Tanaka—and meets a new person: Wada.
Things take an interesting turn when her estranged aunt Momoko returns to her husband Satoru after five years, and her uncle asks her to find out what has happened to her.
As she and Momoko go on a girls-only trip, she discovers what Momoko had gone through, and she helps her uncle and aunt make up with each other.
As the book ends, Takako is now a happier person with her newfound passion for reading, along with new friends and her family.
Opinion: How was it?
Funnily enough, I started reading this book when I was in a similar situation to Takako—bored, depressed, and not sure what to do next.
I used to read a lot of books before; it was a nice way for me to enjoy my time. But somewhere down the line, I drifted away, and because of some bad choices in books, I had lost my interest.
But when I first picked this one up from Amazon, I wanted to start reading again and wanted something that was light-hearted and fun.
This book perfectly fit my expectations.
I watch anime as well, and somehow the tone and the setting made me feel as if I was really watching the characters talk in my mind. It was so good!
There is a good amount of humor as well, particularly the banter between Takako and her uncle Satoru, with Sabu, who’s a regular at the bookshop, and other characters. They’re lively, quirky, and fun.
At its core, this journey of Takako expresses how life goes on, how reading as a habit can help us come to terms with ourselves, and how life becomes better as time goes on!
Would I recommend this book?
Absolutely! This rekindled my joy of reading, and I have already ordered a couple more titles, ready to read!
