Coming Attractions

28 January 2007

Peter Tasker, financial analyst, fund manager, and author of noir detective novels, will dish up a taste of ‘Hard-Boiled Japan’ when he kicks off our 2007 BOOKNOTES Lecture Series. To attend the talk, please purchase a copy of Dragon Dance from us.

BOOKCLUBS

On 21 January, BOOKCLUB members will discuss  Occidentalism by Ian Buruma & Avishai Margalit .  Members of our Non-Native Speakers’ group will discuss Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White on 14 January.  As you can see from the photo, the non-native group took time out from their enthusiastic discussion to wish every one a happy new year.

        Conan the Librarian says:

Strangest request of the month: Someone wanted a used copy of a book which hasn’t been published yet.  Sorry, our time machine is double parked in another century.

From the future to the past: the oldest book that came into the store last month was ‘Down the Road’ or ‘Reminiscences of a Gentleman Coachman’ published in 1875.
 
I’d rather read than bleed.

Reading opens the mind’s blinds.

Music is a sculptured slab of time, books are baskets of learning.

People often forget to check their books before they trade them in.  Here are just some of the things we have found inside books: money including Burmese kyat, Indonesian rupiah, and Laotian kip; used airplane, railway and movie tickets; tissues; love letters; notes; business cards; bank statements; condoms; toothpicks; photographs; post cards; book marks; pens; ice cream sticks and advertisements.

Have you heard of the random access information storage device

  which never crashes, instantly starts, instantly rewinds or fast forwards, never needs batteries or recharging, and preserves data integrity perfectly for at least fifty years, given moderate care?  Thieves don’t like them, and they still operate when they have been dropped or left in the rain. Of course you have: it’s the book. 

Book: an acronym for Box of Organized Knowledge?

Bookstores are gas stations for the mind.  Fill ‘er up!

Walking The Old Tokaido Road: Tokyo→Kyoto #1

On New Year’s Day we walked the first 16 kilometers from Nihonbashi to Kamata. We stopped at Sengakuji to see the temple of the 47 Ronin. The most shocking part of the walk was seeing the former execution grounds near Omori. The road’s total length is about 500 km. The walk may take us ten years to complete. Free route maps are available from the Transportation Bureau (3214-7424). T.K.