More Days At The Morisaki Bookshop

More Days At The Morisaki Bookshop brings us back to the Morisaki Bookshop in Tokyo’s famous Jimbocho Book District (which by the way is a real place). Here we see the return of Takako & her Uncle Satoru, her Aunt Momoko & other returning characters such as Wada, Tomo & Takano. New characters also show up one of them being an odd elderly man who wears the same ragged mouse colored sweater & another who collects books solely for the official stamps with the author’s personal seal. We see these characters experience both the highs and lows of life.

Writing, One Favorite Passage, Its Meaning & Why We Read

Author Isabelle Allende says, You can tell the deepest truths with the lies of fiction. This quote by Isabelle Allende applies well to More Days At The Morisaki Bookshop, with relatable characters that are like us and those we know. While all the characters grow, Takako does the most growth. Takako learns to open her heart and stop bottling her feelings up. There is another passage regarding Takako & Uncle Satoru and this time, she must help him. As much as I want to talk about all 3 passages from the book, I will only talk about one because if I talk about all 3 and how I relate to them it will turn into a book report.

“Thank you for crying over me.” Momoko said. “When you’re sad, don’t try to hold it in. It’s okay to cry a lot. The tears are there because you’ve got to go on living. You’re going on living, which means there’ll be more things to cry about. They’ll come at you from all sides. So don’t try to hide from the sadness. When it comes, cry it out. It’s better to keep moving forward with that sadness; that’s what it means to live.

I did get teary eyed at that scene especially because like Takako, for the longest time I had to bottle my feelings up around certain people. I had to wait until I was either alone or around people who I felt comfortable with so I could cry. It takes special people in our lives to remind us of that bottling emotions up are not healthy and letting tears fall is part of being human. Theres sad tears, happy tears, and it’s normal to get teary eyed when it comes to books, movies & television because it means we relate to those stories and it’s a reminder we aren’t alone.

I also liked how the book talks about why we read & enjoy the deeper meanings truly wonderful books tell us. We read to enjoy and escape inside another world, we also read to understand the world we live in. Stories, the truly meaningful ones remind us that while there’s a lot of sorrow & ugliness in the world, there’s also a lot of joy and beauty in it too.

Overall

Thank you, Satoshi Yagisawa, for writing this wonderful book, I hope there are many other adventures in the Morisaki Bookshop in future books. Thank you, Eric Ozawa, for translating it from Japanese to English for us.