I quite enjoyed this one, whilst I do see what people mean when they say that this book criticises certain styles of reading, I must also say there’s definitely truth said in this book.

Chapter 1

In the first chapter, we encounter a man who has read 57622 books, and, in the terms of the book, ‘imprisons’ his books. He reads them once, and then puts them back on the shelf, to be locked up and never to be opened again, completely obsessed with constantly reading new stories and dismisses the idea of ever returning to one. This very much critiques the types of readers that buy books purely for showcase and to seem powerful, as well as those that seem to be rushing through them. Historically, having a huge personal library equals power and education, and that is probably a part of what’s going on with so many suddenly having a dream of having a thousand books. Rintaro, our main character, manages to make get the man out of this almost trance like state he’s in, and gets him to realise that what’s he’s doing is wrong and that he doesn’t truly love books, which is where the more judgemental part comes in, because even if you are this type of reader, you still love books.

Chapter 2

I must say that chapter two was probably my favorite. A new character has joined Tiger the tabby and Rintaro, Sayo. Shes Rintaro’s classmate and has been brining him his homework in the shop, and has now been involved in this journey. In chapter two we meet a man who is very obsessed with his research, his research being, that books should be summarised into 1-2 sentences, so we all can read more books quicker. Instead of reading 1 book in 2 weeks, we could ‘read’ 12 books in 1 day with these summaries, he’s blasting Beethoven on a cassette player, so he can avoid hearing things he doesn’t like. This reminds me of a video I once saw with a girl who used an AI program to summarise books into 10 minute reads, so she could read 100+ books a year. And I must say, I completely agree with what Rintaro decides to do here, he walks over to the cassette player and presses the fast-forward button, and makes the argument that if you quicken the process, you won’t get the full experience, you won’t get the best part, you won’t get the feelings and emotions, and makes the man see that what he’s doing is, in fact, like fast-forwarding music. I don’t really have any critique for this chapter, as I honestly completely agree with the majority, you do not ‘read’ a book by its summary, you’re reading a summary. and we as a society have become so rushed that many of us can’t even read a full book.

Chapter 3

In this chapter, Sayo, Rintaro and Tiger needs to confront the book sellers. But as the president of the company dislikes cats, tabby cannot join and Sayo and Rintaro must do this alone. They meet with the president of a book publishing company, called “worlds best books” that is very much a critique of the totally capitalist fast-fashion system that books have become. They sell what society wants, and nothing else. If a book doesn’t sell, if it doesn’t profit, it’s worthless. society wants ‘short and sexy books’, not ‘long and meaningful’ stories. So that’s what they’re selling. Rintaro makes the argument that they don’t truly love books, because they refuse to publish the ones they don’t like, and manages to convince the president to publish a different variety of books, not that they shouldn’t publish ‘short and sexy’ stories, but that they shouldn’t only publish that, as people are different and everyone should have options.

I’m not going to cover the 4th chapter, as I find the first 3 to be the most meaningful. Again, I see how some could take this as being a judgemental and superior approach to reading, but I’ve seen that’s only a very tiny bit of the 1st chapter. This book definitely made me think for a bit, because there’s a lot of truth to it. I loved it and it was an easy and enjoyable read.

But just a reminder: however you choose to read is totally fine 💙 and don’t let anyone tell you what you should, or shouldn’t read. How you should, or shouldn’t read, etc. some people see reading as purely educational, some people see it as a way to escape, some people see it as a mix. Everyone sees it differently, and that’s okay 🙂‍↕️