Staying One Step Ahead as a Reader

There is a problem that haunts people who make reading their hobby for life.
How do you get your hands on new books?
How a person handles this problem measures their cultivation as a reader.

There are three main ways to procure books.
One is bookstores. Most bookstores carry a full range of genres, and you can get the latest trending titles. Also, you basically can't go wrong with them. If it's a bookstore of a certain size in the city, you can usually find the book you want. Most people get their books at bookstores.

However, purchasing at bookstores has drawbacks regarding financial issues and storage methods.
Nowadays, even a paperback costs around 1,000 yen if it's new, and a hardcover will exceed 3,000 yen. For a regular employee at a small-to-medium enterprise like me, five books a month is the limit. Also, the biggest problem is how to store the multiplying books. If you buy at a pace of 30 books every six months, your small bookshelf will fill up in no time. The sight of them stacked flat on the floor is truly pathetic.

What solves that storage problem is e-books. With this, you don't have to worry about the floor collapsing. I think the digitization of books is a reading revolution that all readers should rejoice over.
However, I have yet to enjoy the benefits of this revolution. Even though I work for a company that claims to be an IT-advanced enterprise, I am a pure analog person. I find myself wanting to flip through paper books, not a smartphone.

And the third way is the library. I cycle through trends between bookstores and libraries. By the time I get tired of bookstores, I start going to the library, and when I get dissatisfied with the library, I start going to bookstores almost every day.
I am currently in a library phase, and the good thing about libraries is that they solve both the financial and storage problems that were the drawbacks of bookstore purchases all at once. I cannot thank the local government enough for providing such a wonderful facility.

However, libraries do not satisfy the desire to own books.

Some might say, 'Well, if you read a book at the library and like it, why not just buy it at a bookstore?' but that is quite difficult. The first time you read a book is sacred. There is only one moment when a book truly shakes your heart. At that moment, whether or not it is your own book is an extremely important issue.
However, for me right now, I cannot avoid the financial issue, so going to the local library is my weekend routine.

Recently, I learned from Takeshi Okazaki's 'Introduction to the Way of Used Books' that there is another deep world to books. When I hear 'used books,' I get the impression of cheap books that some stranger has read and worn out, with dirty covers. Of course, I knew of the existence of used books, but they were never an option for procuring books.

However, according to the author, used books have a unique kind of fun and way of being savored that is completely different from buying new books.

In this book, he introduces how to tour Jimbocho, famous for its used book district, and the characteristics of the bookstores, including the personalities of the owners. I hadn't been to Jimbocho since I moved to Tokyo. After reading this book, I wanted to peek into the world of used books, which is like a deep forest.
I am not good at doing things alone, so a week after reading this book—that is, yesterday—I bowed my head to my wife and headed to Jimbocho under the guise of a date.

When I exited the Jimbocho station exit closest to the used book district, I immediately saw many used bookstores lined up along the main street, displaying signs with very old-fashioned lettering. I stopped in my tracks. I was surprised that such a unique culture was alive and well in a small town sandwiched between the Imperial Palace and Akihabara.

The book also gave strict advice on the etiquette for entering used bookstores. Since it said to pay attention to my attire, I wore a plaid shirt and jeans, and I gave my wife the unreasonable task of dressing like a literary girl.

I was quite hesitant, but I made up my mind and entered the shop closest to the station where I could see people coming and going. The inside of the store was packed with old-fashioned Japanese paper books that looked like they belonged in a museum on shelves integrated into the walls, and used books with labels like 'So-and-so Complete Works' were stacked up to waist height on the floor.
The fragrant, unique smell of used books filled the store. The owner just glanced at us once, said nothing, and lowered his gaze to a book called a catalog on the desk in the back.

After walking around the store once, we left.
Having caught a glimpse of an adult world I didn't know yet, my heart rate was up a little.

I had been advised by the book to go to Jimbocho with at least one desired book in mind, so I consulted with my wife and decided that our target this time would be a book bound by the dyeing craftsman Keisuke Serizawa.

This makes it fun, like a treasure hunt.

With the whole store filled with used books, the two of us searched with our eyes peeled. It wasn't easy to find.

It must have been around the seventh store. It was when an atmosphere of some resignation was drifting between the two of us. I opened my eyes wide.

I found a magnificent, yet cute book with a reddish-orange binding that looked like Serizawa's unique stencil-dyeing pattern on the upper part of the shelf.
When I picked it up, I was convinced it was the one. When I carefully opened the book, 'Binding by Keisuke Serizawa' was verified. In the quiet store, my wife tapped my shoulder and was thrilled.

That book was 'Book Traffic' by Sakichi Yagi, produced in 1975, and it was a valuable book limited to 1,000 copies, also housed in the National Crafts Museum. Moreover, it was a bargain at 2,500 yen. It was my first experience of having my heart soar this much just from buying a book.

In the end, that day I bought a total of four other books, including hardcovers and paperbacks by Masuji Ibuse and Hyakken Uchida.

My backpack was already stuffed with about six hardcovers I had borrowed from the library I stopped by just before heading to Jimbocho.

The backpack was bulging like a turtle's shell, but because it was a satisfying catch, I headed home with a light step.