You Never Know Until You Read a Book

Chapter 1: The Joy of Bookstores (11)

When you buy a book, there is no guarantee at the time of purchase that it will be "interesting" or "uninteresting," "useful" or "useless." Basically, you buy it based on the prediction that it "looks interesting" or "looks useful." And just because you like a book, it doesn't mean you will buy the same one repeatedly.

This may seem obvious, but it is actually quite unique. With food, you can have a taste test, and with cars, you can take them for a test drive before buying. With shampoo, you can keep buying the one that suits your hair type. Of course, you can browse through books in a store, but there are very few people who read a book from start to finish before buying it. Naturally, you might buy books by the same author or from the same label. However, except for gifts, you buy something different every time.

The same applies to the selling side; they must sell different, new things every day. Eighty thousand books are published annually. It is physically impossible to sell them after having read them all. In most cases, both the buyer and the seller buy or sell while imagining whether it looks interesting or uninteresting, useful or useless. This is also the joy of a bookstore.

Encounters with books are also like encounters with people—once in a lifetime. I try to buy books that catch my interest on the spot and take them home. Of course, since it's the same wherever you buy them, you could just note down the author's name and title and buy them online later, or buy them at a local bookstore. You could even borrow them from a library. However, that "feeling" you have at that moment when a book catches your interest will never come again. Compared to airfare or the cost of drinks, books are much cheaper, and contributing to the sales of the bookstore that introduced you to that book is a way to support that store. If you're going to buy a book anyway, buy it at a bookstore you like. I feel that this way of thinking is gradually spreading, especially among people who "love bookstores" and those who value the circulation of the local economy.

*Reprinted from "A Reader's Guide to Future Bookstores" (NHK Publishing), pp. 34-35