Memories of the Summer Vacation Homework: 'Book Report'

When I was still a junior high school student,a book report for summer vacationwas assigned as homework.

At the time, there was a very bright classmate—let's call him I-kun—who was slumped over, saying,'Writing a book report is such a drag. Reading a book is a drag.'

So, I offered him some mischievous advice.

'If it's you,even without reading the book,,you could probably write a book report, couldn't you?'

He was startled, and he turned those eyes brimming with intelligence—a gaze that should have been fixed on the distant future—toward me, of all people.

Sorry, please stop that.

I looked away and continued with my mischievous advice.

This assignment is to'write a book report', and it doesn't say a word about'reading the whole book'. If it's about your impressions, you could just flip through it, read the afterword, and you'd be able toflesh out some 'impressions'.

Of course, I said this as a joke.

I thought I-kun would understand a joke like this.

Above all, I myself have never done such a thing.

As for my own summer vacation book reports, I remember reading things like the Kojiki orShinobu Orikuchi's 'The Book of the Dead'quite seriously.

But when September came and the results were revealed, I-kun, for some reason, took my words literally andcreated a book report without reading the book.

He is truly something. He is quite remarkable.

Then the second semester went by, autumn arrived, and I think it was just before winter.

In Japanese class, the teacher made a happy announcement.I-kun's book report(which he hadn't read)had been chosen as the best in the grade in a school-wide contest.He was going to advance to thecity-wide or perhaps Tokyo-widecontest next. Even though he hadn't read it.

Writing a report without reading the book and even winning a prize—that is something an ordinary person like me could never do. I-kun is truly something else.

I felt proud, so during the break, I went over toschool representative I-kunand called out to him.

Hey, that's great!

But for some reason, I-kun looked pale.

It was to the point where I wanted to stare intently at him, thinking, 'So this is what it means to be deathly pale.'

I-kun took me outside the classroom and said:

If they find out I didn't read it, I'm done for! It's all your fault!!

That is what he said.

For a moment, I was left with my mouth agape, completely bewildered by the situation.

Huh? I thought he would be happy about winning an award.

I feel like I left him there with a remark that, rather than reassuring him, only stoked his anxiety further, something like, 'Don't worry! I'll never tell anyone the truth that you didn't read it (lol).'

I don't know how far I-kun's 'unread' book report made it in any contests after that. It never really became a topic of conversation, so it seems it never received an evaluation higher than 'first in the grade' at our local middle school. In any case, it just faded away into obscurity before I knew it.

It is still a nostalgic summer memory.

There is only one thing I regret not saying to him when he was so deathly pale back then, and that is the following:

'You can just hurry up and read it now!!'

He could have just read it after the fact.

I thought he would have known that without being told, but perhaps I-kun hadn't realized it. I realize now, belatedly, that that might be exactly why he was so deathly pale.

I wonder how I-kun is doing.

By the way, I was on very good terms with my Japanese teacher, so I asked for their feedback on my masterpiece, 'A Book Report on the Kojiki'.

The only evaluation I got was a completely unexpected one: 'As always, your handwriting is messy and hard to read...'

Handwritten text is a formidable thing.

I don't remember if I replied with the joke, 'But I tried to make it look like an ancient document...' or not.

I-kun had an unread book report, and I had an unreadable book report.

This lack of alignment feels like the very essence of communication.

It is a rather pleasant summer memory.

Bonus - 3 Recommended Books for Book Reports

With that said, I would like to introduce three books that I personally think would be interesting to write a book report on.

3rd Place: Kyoka Izumi's "The Holy Man of Mount Koya"
I wonder if someone could actually walk this route and upload it to YouTube. It is a world I do not want to visit, but would like to see.

2nd Place: Riichi Yokomitsu's "The Fly"
I wonder if the key symbol is the compound eye.

1st Place: Taijun Takeda's "Luminous Moss"
Taijun Takeda is interesting. I do not think there are many authors who can depict ambiguity as such a muddy, dimly lit squirming of life.

Also 1st Place: Shinobu Orikuchi's "The Book of the Dead"

Furthermore, I sometimes receive requests asking, "seriously, please teach me how to write a book report," so I think I will publish one someday.

The End