I’ve now finished this book, so I guess some final thoughts on it (in bullet point form because if I wait til I feel like writing something more expansive it’ll never happen):
- Overall, I enjoyed reading this – it was, for me, not a super difficult read, and it had a variety of historical nuggets about reading in Japan
- The earlier chapters (on Meiji and Taisho) and the ending chapters (where the author focuses more on her argument about why reading has declined) were better than the middle parts, which I felt leant a little too heavily on “let’s talk about some titles on the bestseller list for the decade”
- I got more out of the chapters where the discussion included books I’d read, or at least heard of – I could tie the author’s opinions in with my own memories of reading
- In the end, I didn’t really buy the author’s argument about why working people read less. Parts of it I agree with, but parts I don’t
- “We should try not to have a society where people devote themselves entirely to work” is just common sense…
