Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou:Volume 1 Afterword

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Afterword[edit]

Whenever I get off at an unfamiliar stop, I will often look for an antiquarian bookshop if time permits.

Once I find a signboard at the end of a shopping street or a crossing, I will randomly enter one, and then look up at the bookshelves that reach the ceiling.

I like the atmosphere unique only to old books, something newly published books lack. It feels like there is a thin membrane applied on them after they are passed down people’s hands—though of course, I really like the hard yet thin texture of newly printed pages.

There are vastly different treatments of books; amongst those are some who keep their books in neat condition, some who have the habit of using bookmarks, and some who have the habit of removing the wrapper. When reading through old books, my interests are not simply the contents of the books themselves, but also what kind of persons the previous owners were.


I did not know when it started, but I thought of writing a story involving old books. I set Kita-Kamakura as the stage because this peaceful land was similar to the ideal setting I wanted to write a long time ago.

On a side note, when writing this afterword, there is no antiquarian bookshop around the Kita-Kamakura station (as far as I know). Thus, there was no clear model behind the shop the protagonists work at, and I thought of it in my mind. I wrote this story with the idea that if this kind of shop were available during my High School years, I would definitely be a regular customer here.

However, the old books appearing in this work are real. These are all books I love, books I have memories of. I hope to write a story that can end up becoming like these books.

To all people involved in the making of this book, and to all who read on till this afterword, I humbly thank you.


En Mikami

References[edit]

  1. Sōseki Natsume (1909), Sōseki's Complete Collection Volume 8, And Then, Tokyo, Iwanami Shoten
  2. Shinya Yaguchi (1929), "Sōseki's Complete Collection of Stories, Tokyo: Seieisha
  3. Uchida Hyakken(1949), "Teacher Sōseki's Random Notes", Tokyo: Kawade Paperback
  4. Morita Sōhei (1967), Sōseki Natsume, Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō
  5. Kiyoshi Koyama (1955) Monument Gleaning + Saint Andersen, Japan: Shincho Paperback
  6. Kiyoshi Koyama (1969), Japan, Kiyoshi Koyama Complete Collection, Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō
  7. Jirō Konwa and Kenkichi Yoshida (1930), Modernology, Tokyo: Shunyodō Publishing
  8. Peter Dickinson (1975), Walking Dead. Translated and published in Tokyo: Sanrio SF Paperback, 1981, code 26-C
  9. S.N. Vinogradov and A.F. Kuzmin (1955), Introduction to Logic. Translated by Hisao Nishimura and Yoshio Nomura (1973), Tokyo: Aoki Paperback
  10. Osamu Dazai (1936), The Late Years, Tokyo: Sunagoya Bookstore
  11. Osamu Dazai (1989), Osamu Dazai's Complete Collection, First Edition, Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō
  12. Toshiyuki Kajiyama (1974), The Many Exploits of the Book Watchman Baron, Tokyo: Tōgen Company
  13. Tatsurō Dekune (2007), The Price of an Author, Tokyo: Kodansha


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