Coming Attractions

19 February, 2006

Mark Schilling, author of The Yakuza Movie Book, will talk about Yakuza Movies. His talk will be illustrated by movie clips.

Past Events

22 January 2006

Markuz Wernli-Saito, designer/photographer of Mirei Shigemori: Modernizing the Japanese Garden, illustrated the design process in his talk "Integrating Image & Word.” 

Throughout his talk Markuz deftly flicked between aptly chosen images and well chosen words.

Thanks to his smooth presentation, everyone present at the talk gained a deeper understanding of the thought that goes into the design and construction of an illustrated book.

Illustration below: Standing room only in Good Day Books when Markuz gave his talk.
Conan the Librarian Cogitates:

Books = Mind Mirrors
Just as books are mirrors of the mind, bookstores serve as thought seismographs.
Surely Casanova, my fellow librarian, would agree that “I couldn’t find anything,” is a sad statement.

Conversely, “You’ve got a great collection here!” is a pleasing affirmation that our careful evaluation work is not going unnoticed.  We now evaluate books every business day, so feel
free to bring your books any time!

Country named after books?!
Books are called hon in Japanese; Japan is Nihon. This doesn’t mean the country is called “two books.” However, it is the same Chinese character. The hon of Nihon means source or origin, for knowledge and wisdom come from books. Despite the phenomenal growth of “visualists” it will be a long, long time before a country is known as "Nimovie" or "Nianime."

Things we don’t have but have been asked about.

Aerial photographs of Tokyo in English, bagels, jobs, cheap drinks, washing machines, rooms to let, spaghetti, dictionaries of unidentified animals, comic books in Japanese, interior design books in Danish, Italian versions of Vogue magazine, or a Bridgestone Art Museum (Connecticut) catalogue. No one has asked yet, but we don’t have Batman in Bhutanese either!