What You Are Looking for is in the Library

by Michiko Aoyama

With my finger poised above the screen, I tap b and brilliant pops up in the auto-predict, so I just select it and tap send. What I really meant to say, though, was bored.

“You managed to find employment, you go to work every day and you can feed yourself. That’s a fine achievement.”

“Life is one revelation after another. Things don’t always go to plan, no matter what your circumstances. But the flip side is all the unexpected, wonderful things that you could never have imagined happening. Ultimately it’s all for the best that many things don’t turn out the way we hoped. Try not to think of upset plans or schedules as personal failure or bad luck. If you can do that, then you can change, in your own self and in your life overall.”

“You may say that it was the book, but it’s how you read a book that is most valuable, rather than any power it might have itself.”

“There is no ‘why.’ It’s just the way things turned out. Isn’t it a good thing to want more great books in the world? I want to read them too.”

“This didn’t just come to you. It happened because you did something for yourself. You took action and that caused things to change around you.”

It was a reissue: proof that this book was beloved and still in demand. The knowledge warmed me. Books, too, could be reborn.

Meanwhile, the tiny black-and-white motif of a moon waxing and waning, which had been on the bottom right-hand corner of every even-numbered page in my edition, had been moved to the top in the new one. What was once below had risen higher—changing position but still the same. I, too, could change, and still be the same inside.

Below the words “river crabs” written prominently in red is a line in smaller black lettering that says, “For deep-frying! For pets!” For pets...? It is natural in the food section to expect that crabs would be sold for consumption, but when suddenly presented with the option of keeping them as a pet, instead, I don’t know what to think. Be eaten or be loved.

“If that’s how you think of it, then I have to say I’ve never sold a book that I wrote myself. But if I can sell a book that I think is good, then I’m happy. That’s why I’m really into the POP displays. Because the books I recommend feel a little bit like my own.” She takes a bite of tempura. “It isn’t enough just to have one person writing something. Other people need to be involved. Someone has to put the word out, and someone else is the intermediary with the public. Do you know how many people are involved from the time a manuscript is written until it reaches the reader? I’m proud to be a part of that process.”

“When I buy a book, I also become part of the process as a reader. People working in the book industry are not the only ones who make the publishing world go round; most of all it depends on the readers. Books belong to everybody: the creators, the sellers and the readers. That’s what society is all about I believe.”