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“Sushi & beyond” Michael Booth (2009) Review | He’s British, he’s composed
```
★★★★☆ A great and fun book. It's also nice that although very obviously he fell in love with the food, he's not religiously admiring everything. He's British, he's composed.
```
🔽 log 🔽
Sushi & Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking
Michael Booth, 2009
307 pages
Read 2024.4

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
A great and fun book for foodies who are into Japanese food.

Of course as a Japanese, it’s not like I didn’t know these things but I didn’t know them that deeply with all the facts, because, an average Japanese cannot have access to many things.

He travels around Japan with his wife and 2 small boys, though he’d spend a lot of time working, it is true that kids are passports to kindness from locals. So it’s both travel journal and food journal.

It’s also nice that although very obviously he fell in love with the food, he’s not religiously admiring everything. Or too geeky or too disgusted.
He knows he had access to special places and with privileges but he’s curious to know, see eat everything, what can he do? He went for it and sharing the story here.
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🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking (English)
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2026-02-21
“Carol” Patricia Highsmith, (1952) Review | Bittersweet love story
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★★★★☆ An unusual love story; a girl and a woman fall in love, they run away, but there's the tension you wouldn't expect from people in love. And it's bittersweet, as ever.
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Carol
Patricia Highsmith, 1952
The Price of Salt
307 pages
Read 2024.4

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The movie was with Cate Blanchette, I haven’t watched it yet so didn’t know the story much but i can see it’s a perfect casting.

It must have been a shock when it came out but not as much as it would have been if people knew it was written by her and not was pseudonymous.

I only recently read The Paying Guest by Sarah Waters so I cannot help myself comparing them but it’s not so obviously a suspense or mystery.
An unusual love story; they fall in love, they run away, but there’s the tension you wouldn’t expect from people in love.
Is it a dare? Is it more about a girl growing up to become a woman. Like there are many stories for boy becoming a man, this is one of those.
And it’s bittersweet, as ever.
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🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

The Price of Salt, or Carol 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Carol

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Carol (Italiano)
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2026-02-21

“The Legends of Tono” Kunio Yanagita, Natsuhiko Kyogoku, (2013) Review | Japanese legends

★★★★☆ Tono, a small area in Tohoku, is well known by Japanese for their memorable legends, thanks to this book. If you are interested in local or Japanese ghost and yokai stories, this is where you should begin your quest.

🔽 log 🔽
The Legends of Tono REMIX
Kunio Yanagida
Natsuhiko Kyogoku
Read 2024.4

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The original version by Kunio Yanagita was written in 1910, this version I read was "remixed" in 2013 by a mystery writer Natsuhiko Kyogoku.

Tono is in Tohoku region in the north of Japan, not far from the area destroyed by tsunami.
It's not a vast area geographically, but incredibly rich in folklores and probably the only village associated so strongly with their local legends, because of this book.
In other words, we must consider ourselves lucky that Tono's legends are preserved by the folklorist Yanagita, and can't help but wonder how many hundreds of thousands of local stories and legends have been wiped out in history, disappeared like they had never existed.

Even kids outside of Japan know words like "yokai" thanks to a popular anime, and if you are familiar, you recognise many "characters" or concepts in this book.
Monsters or ghost in the mountains, or by the river - you find similar themes in stories of the brothers Grimm, because it is universal.
Anything outside of your village is dangerous, so is any wider knowledge than what they give you.

It's not written to scare you, it's just a collection of the legends... but I admit it's pretty scary. It doesn't help the fact that I live in a countryside.

The original book was written in 1910, since then there have been many versions, including a manga by Shigeru Mizuki but this version I read was "remixed" by Kyogoku, using more modern Japanese language for today's readers.
When you think about it, Yanagita also collected folklores that were already pretty old then, so it's not unusual that it gets modernised or re-translated time to time, especially if what you are interested in is the actual stories from centuries ago and not the language of 100 years ago.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

The Legends of Tono

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The Legends of Tono

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
The Legends of Tono (English)

2026-02-20

“Representative men of Japan” Kanzo Uchimura, 1908 Review | A resistance from this Christian Japanese author
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★★★★☆ At the turn of the century the wave of Westernisation was unstoppable. This book was a resistance from this Christian Japanese author, to claim that Japan was also great. A bit too subjective but the real value of this book is the intention of the author.
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🔽 log 🔽
“Representative men of Japan” from Japan and the Japanese
Kanzo Uchimura, 1894 and 1908
Read 2024.4

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
It was originally written under the title of “Japan and the Japanese” in 1894, then released again as “Representative Men of Japan in 1908.
You get the idea how nationalistic the intention was.

At the turn of the century, the West has ruined Asia and the wave of Westernisation was unstoppable.
This book was a resistance from this Christian Japanese author, to claim that Japan was also great.

As it turns out, a lot in this book is subjective.
Each chapter starts off by introducing how Japan is doing in the particular field, and goes on to say how each man is great and Japanese are wonderful.
The first man in the book is Takamori Saigo, and the book goes a bit extreme to praise his idea that Japan should conquer Korea, Seikanron, which I felt uncomfortable, but then I read in the afterword that Uchimura soon later became anti-war so those comments were just left over from his older belief.
Today he is remembered as a pacifist (so it feels weird he had agreed on seikanron, but there you go people can change)

So, it is a bit too subjective and very specific to this particular period of time in Japan to actually learn any history of Japan or these Japanese men.
However what’s more important and interesting, indeed the value of this book, is the intention of the author, why he wrote it in this way, how he wished Japan to be equal to European powers and how that was the aim of many intellectuals from this period.
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Representative men of Japan

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Representative Men of Japan Kindle Edition

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
--
```
2026-02-20

”Animal Farm” George Orwell, (1945) Review | Have we learned? No

★★★★☆ Classic of the classics. I knew more or less the content but was surprised how short it was. It's short, with clear messages, but have we learned? No.

🔽 log 🔽
Animal Farm
George Orwell, 1945
124 pages
Read 2024.4


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The classic. 
It's more or less as I expected but much shorter.

With a very clear and obvious message, it would be easy for even younger readers to understand. 
This edition had a lot of explanations like a textbook, which compares the characters with the historical figures.

Do we learn? No, we don't, we keep making the same mistakes.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Animal Farm: 75th Anniversary Edition

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Animal Farm: New Edition of Orwell's Brilliant Political Satire (Polygon Classics) 

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●

La fattoria degli animali (Italiano)

2026-02-20

“Gramsci’s Political Thoughts” Carlos Nelson Coutinho, (2012) Review | Fascist government couldn’t stop him
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★★★★☆ "We must prevent this brain from working for twenty years" but even after arrested by Fascist government, he didn't stop writing. A book about his life, from poverty in Sardinia, student life in Turin, exile in Russia, prison and death. 
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Gramsci's Political Thoughts
Carlos Nelson Coutinho, 2012
198 pages
Read in 2024.04
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🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
It follows his life from when he was a child, lost father early, poor, physical disability, scholarship to Turin, involvement in politics, forms Communist party, arrest, life in prison, non stop writing even in the prison, even with malnutrition and torture. His insistence on the power of workers.

Difficult read as I had little background to Gramsci, and naturally, it keeps referring to his Prison Notebooks, and of course no true knowledge in Marxism.
He’s a back-to-basic Marxist.

“We must prevent this brain from working for twenty years”
“Domination without leadership.
Dictatorship without hegemony”
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Gramsci's Political Thought (Historical Materialism)

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Gramsci's Political Thought: Historical Materialism, Volume 38

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
-
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2026-02-20

“Aphorisms of love and hate” Frederick Nietzsche (1878) Review | Something we’d all recognise

★★★★★ A very short book from Penguin (extract from Human, All Too Human) Everything here is something we'd all recognise but maybe not able to put into words. e.g. "Love must be learned, so must be hatred"

🔽 log 🔽
Aphorisms of love and hate
(Extract from "Human, All Too Human")
By Frederick Nietzsche, 1878
55 pages
Read 2024.5


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
A very short book from Penguin (extract from Human, All Too Human)
It contains short phrases, sometimes just a line, on a lot of points about human relations.
From revenge, pity, marriage, love to hatred, and to my big surprise it has a lot of humour. 

Everything here is something we'd all recognise but maybe not able to put into words.
"Love must be learned, so must be hatred" or "marriage will work if they don't live together" "Shared joy makes a friend" - if I were to underline all the interesting points, the whole book will be underlined. Now I want to read the actual book, one day soon.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

[(Aphorisms on Love and Hate)] [Author: Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche]

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Aphorisms on Love and Hate (Penguin Little Black Classics)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
ー

2026-02-20

“Klara and the Sun” Kazuo Ishiguro (2021) Review | Artificial Friends, are they friends?
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★★★★★ As always his stories are sad. Not too dramatic but subtly and surely sad. Artificial Friends; are they friends, or pets or toys? Surely not just things?
```
🔽 log 🔽
Klara and the sun
Kazuo Ishiguro, 2021
307 pages
Read 2024.5

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
As always his stories are sad. Not too dramatic but a bit sad.

Artificial Friends are there, maybe a bit like pets, puppies, except they are things, regardless of their intelligence.

A lot happens around her but we only see it from her point of view.
So we’re not able to see the intention behind the actions from human.
Are they selfish?
Maybe not so much, it’s just how things are, and for us how things will be soon.

She has her mission and asks the Sun for guidance and eventually in order to pursue she is willing to be violent simply because that is her mission.
So is she a threat? But really, it seems like she’s the only one to remain innocent, or “human”
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Klara and the Sun: A GMA Book Club Pick: A novel (Vintage International)

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Klara and the Sun: The Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year 

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Klara e il Sole (Italiano)
```
2026-02-19

『良寛』松本市壽, 2009年感想 | 自然と人の間で今を生きた人禅僧

★★★★☆ ストレートに彼の伝記ではなく、彼の漢詩と和歌を通して考える禅僧の彼の人柄を伝える。托鉢そっちのけで近所の子供たちと遊んだ「今生きること」を実感して生きた人なんだろうな。

🔽 基本情報 🔽
良寛 旅と人生
松本市壽, 2009
274 ページ
2026.02 読了

🔽🔽 読書記録 🔽🔽

子供と手まりで遊ぶ姿が有名な江戸時代の禅僧、良寛。
この本はストレートに彼の伝記ではなく、彼が残した多くの漢詩と和歌を通して考える彼の人柄、生きざま、そして、なによりその人間臭さを伝える。

彼の人生のステップのそれぞれで書かれたものを一つ一つ現代語訳とともに解説。
和歌はもちろん漢詩については私は完全に無知なので枕詞の説明の箇所などは申し訳ないけど頭に入ってこない。
でも少しでもわかる人は2倍は楽しめます。

まめに手紙を残した人のようで誰かにあてた詩が多い。
人里離れて静粛な生活を送るも、その人懐こさから世話をする人や一筆書いてくれと寄ってくる人が多く、何重にも重なったその人柄が魅力。(重なる人柄で、矛盾、ではない)

一人だから自然の季節の動きも敏感に捉え、冬の足の寒さなどの自分の体感も、待ち人は無事だろうかという心境も書き残すし、こんなぼろい家ですがあなたと一緒に飲むお酒は美味しいですね、という暖かさに溢れてる。
その上、托鉢そっちのけで近所の子供たちと遊んだ、なんていう詩もあるほど、なんというか、今生きること実感して生きた人なんだろうなと伺える。

🔽 関連ページ 🔽
tag ; 仏教

🔽 買えるところ / あらすじ、詳細 🔽

●●● アマゾン ●●●

良寛 旅と人生 (角川ソフィア文庫―ビギナーズ・クラシックス 日本の古典)

●●● 楽天 ●●●
良寛 旅と人生 ビギナーズ・クラシックス　日本の古典 （角川ソフィア文庫） [ 松本　市壽 ]
価格：792円（税込、送料無料) (2026/2/19時点)

2026-02-19

『マイ仏教』みうらじゅん, 2011年感想 | 気軽に仏教もオッケー

★★★★★ 彼も特撮から仏像からの仏教への興味になったし、ポップな側面から気軽に仏教に興味を持つのもオッケーなのでは。「地獄ブームと後ろメタファー」の章には納得。私も何兆年も焼かれる地獄に行きたくない。

🔽 基本情報 🔽
マイ仏教
みうらじゅん, 2011年
192 ページ
2026.02 読了

🔽🔽 読書記録 🔽🔽

『日本仏教史』の知的なアドベンチャーから、マイ仏教という、個人の内側を覗くかのような本へ。

実際はみうらじゅん氐を詳しく知らないので失礼ながら彼の普段の活動も知らないのですが、仏教との関係でいうととても納得する点が多い。
ただ私はそこまでハマってはいないんですが。

「地獄ブームと後ろメタファー」の章には納得。
庶民をビビらせないと宗教の力は発揮できないですよ。
何兆年も焼かれる地獄に行きたくない、と思う人が増えれば自ずと効果が出てくる。
地獄の話は前の「日本仏教史」にも出てきたんですが、イタリアではダンテが有名で地獄のイメージが何世紀も受け継がれているのに日本でちょっと弱いので、ダンテに対抗してそこも勉強したい。

この本が出版されて十数年たち、彼のいうように、愛嬌のある僧侶もどんどん出てきた。
上から目線でないお坊さんのお陰で、ツイッター上でも仏教を身近に感じられるし、ポップだったりアングラな雰囲気のお坊さんの活動もアリになってきた。
彼だって特撮や怪獣などから仏像に渡って仏教そのものに興味を持つようになったし、そういうポップな側面から気軽に仏教に興味を持つのもオッケーなのでは。

今後も上下関係ではなく、同じ目線のお坊さんの活躍を期待。

🔽 関連ページ 🔽
タグ 仏教

🔽 買えるところ / あらすじ、詳細 🔽

●●● アマゾン ●●●

マイ仏教 (新潮新書 421) 

●●● 楽天 ●●●
マイ仏教 （新潮新書） [ みうら じゅん ]
価格：946円（税込、送料無料) (2026/2/19時点)

2026-02-19

“The Other Middle Passage” Ron Ramdin, (1994) Review | Another slave trade

★★★★★ Though the slavery from Africa was by then banned the labour was much needed in the Caribbean. Written by a friend who is a descendent. Slave trade has only changes the name.

🔽 log 🔽
The Other Middle Passage: 
Journal of a Voyage From Calcutta to Trinidad 1858
Ron Ramdin, 1994
62 pages
Read in 2020.06

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

Written by a friend, who himself is a descendent of the emigrant of Coolie Trade, the system established by Europe after abolishing the Slave Trade, though they are very similar.

The first part is written by Ron to introduce the background and go through the conditions of these journeys that the Indian emigrants had to make were.
He focuses on this particular ship that lost 124 lives out of 324 during the 108 day journey in 1858. 

Though the slavery from Africa was by then banned the labour was much needed in the Caribbean, so it continue to be a very important "trade", to eradicate the freedom from fellow human beings and the Europe solely focused on the profit.

And the second part is the actual journal and writing from his wife. Every day somebody died. 
Not a surprise for anyone, as the physical conditions and the distress made them prone to be sick and eventually die.
 
If you are interested in getting a copy, I might be able to help as they are not easily available.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

The Other Middle Passage: Journal of a Voyage from Calcutta to Trinidad, 1858

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The Other Middle Passage: Journal of a Voyage from Calcutta to Trinidad, 1858 (Coolie Odyssey)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
--

2026-02-19

“The hours” Michael Cunningham (1999) Review | A new Mrs. Dalloway
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★★★★☆ It's about 3 women, who want something else than what they have. Don't we all. I really should have read Mrs. Dalloway first.
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🔽 log 🔽
The Hours
Michael Cunningham, 1999
230 pages
Read 2024.5

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
I knew I had to read “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf first, but went ahead, which is my fault, I’m sure it’d have been much better if I knew the story first.

It’s about 3 women, who want something else than what they have.
It is normal to be not normal, to want to run away, turn away.

But as it shows in the case of Mrs Brown, it affects others, and the stories get tangled up.
Some hours are so significant in life. Small actions made in these hours will haunt you.
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Hours, The (Picador Modern Classics, 1)

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
THE HOURS: Michael Cunningham

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Le ore (Italiano)
```
2026-02-19
“Otherwise Pandemonium” Nick Hornby (2005) Review | My first Hornby
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★★★★☆ Small book of 2 short stories. 2 very different stories but I liked the second one with the mum. My first Nick Hornby.
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🔽 log 🔽
Otherwise pandemonium
Nick Hornby, 2005
64 pages
Read 2024.5

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
2 short stories.
I think it’s the first Nick Hornby book.
It’s entertaining, the first one is a bit of Sci-fi but I preferred the second one, “Not a star” where a mum finds out her son’s secret but the family is eventually alright and she actually appreciates the effects it brought.
Nice little stories.
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🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Otherwise Pandemonium (Pocket Penguins)

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Otherwise Pandemonium (Pocket Penguins)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
--
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2026-02-19
“Tokyo Redux” David Peace, (2021) Review | Catching “Shimoyama disease”
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★★★★☆ A fiction based on Japan's most mysterious unresolved case from 1949. Nostalgic and mysterious like Japan and hardboiled-cool like America. You too will catch "Shimoyama disease".
```
🔽 log 🔽
Tokyo Redux
David Peace, 2021
480 pages
Read 2024.5

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
What is “Shimoyama case”?
It’s a fiction based on Japan’s most mysterious unresolved case from 1949.

It’s full of masculine romanticism, throughout Japan’s Showa era, basen in Tokyo that everyone fantacises.

Nostalgic and mysterious like Japan and hardboiled-cool like America.

As they say, you catch “Shimoyama disease”.
The writer is not Japanese, but precisely because of that it is good and is such a page turner, I now need to find the other 2 of the trilogy.
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Tokyo redux 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Tokyo Redux

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Tokyo Redux (English)
```
2026-02-18
“Think Like an Anthropologist” Matthew Engelke (2017) Review | We are all different yet not that different
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★★★★★ I've always been interested in Anthropology and this is why. We are all different, but not because of biological difference or difference in capabilities.  So we're not that different.
```
🔽 log 🔽
Think Like an Anthropologist
Matthew Engelke 2017
368 pages
Read 2024.5

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
I’ve always been interested in Anthropology and this is why.
It is a study to look at the world from the native’s (or local’s) point of view or points of view.
We are all different, people in European city and in a small island in the Polynesia are different but not because of biological difference or difference in capabilities.
They’re certainly not “backwards” or “barbarian”.
If anything, I’d say colonialists were barbarian and backwards.

Starting with curiosity, move on to going there (most of the time) and live with the natives, think like them and rationalise like them, but always with critical eyes.

It’s different from psychology because it focuses more on the communal value and those thoughts might sound traditional, but we do not live without them.
We’re not that modern.
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

How to Think Like an Anthropologist

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Think Like an Anthropologist: Matthew Engelke

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
--
```
2026-02-18
“Storm in a Tea Cup, The physics of everyday life” Helen Czerski (2016) Review | Nothing is by chance
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★★★★☆ It really makes you feel small in this place full of orderly wonder. A book by a physicist, she shows you how you can apply physics in everyday life. Nothing is by chance.
```
🔽 log 🔽
Storm in a Tea Cup
The physics of everyday life
Helen Czerski 2016
282 pages
Read 2024.5

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
A book by a physicist, she shows you how you can apply physics in everyday life.

It really makes you feel small in this place full of orderly wonder.
As you stir a spoon in your tea, the liquid moves according to the law of physics, and nothing is by chance.

Though it is interesting to read, not that I understood all, and will ever be curious enough to try to understand more..
Happy to live in ignorance that I’m just a small creature in this vast wonderful world.
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life [Lingua inglese] 
```
2026-02-18

“Lavish are the Dead, Prize Stock” Kenzaburo Oe (1958) Review | Confinement, hopelessness

★★★★★ The feeling of confinement, hopelessness, and the raw human connection that exists there. If you remove everything other than what you'd need to live today and maybe tomorrow, what kind of humanity are we left with? A strong message of anti-war and hatred towards hypocrites.

🔽 log 🔽
Lavish are the Dead, Prize Stock and other stories
Shisha no ogori, Shiiku
Kenzaburo Oe, 1958
死者の奢り 飼育
大江健三郎
Read 2024.05

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
I kind of avoided reading it because I knew it'd affect me strongly especially if I was unwell.
And it did.

Tragedies of a war obviously mean the death and physical injuries or destruction but it takes away people's spirits, scrape off anything that define us as human.

Lavish are the Dead is a story of a student who does a day job cleaning corpses at university, and how he connects with the bodies floating in a pool for preservation.
Stock Prize, which is probably more well known, tells a wartime story of a village and their "catch", a black American airman whom they found and kept. Fed like an animal by locals and their kids, he is kept in the village (Shiiku means "breeding") 
It's a short story full of racism, xenophobe, cruel innocence of kids, violence, and it makes you sick reading it, but, what's more disturbing is that, right or wrong, you as a reader do understand their point, too. 

Reading these stories, it feels like your world is becoming so small that it almost chokes you. 
Remove all the wonderful things about being human, like humanity, social interaction, fraternity or benevolence, and you face another human with the raw cold iron feeling - you're barely a human at this point.
Oe's message is clear, anti-war and anti-hypocrites, but he exposes our own hypocrisy while sending out that message.  

If you are not well mentally or physically, it's a book to avoid.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●
Catch and Other Stories (English and Japanese Edition)
(contains Catch a.k.a Stock Prize)

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
--
●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
--

2026-02-18

“The First Man” Albert Camus, (1994 /1960) Review | Half biography fully touching
```
★★★★★ Incomplete work published decades after his death in 1960. It's half his biography half a novel and is fully touching. 
```
🔽 log 🔽
The First Man
Albert Camus 1994 (1960)
Le Premier homme
282 pages
Read 2024.5

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
It’s the 70s American wild wild west hippy “comic” – not my cup of tea.
Incomplete work published decades after it was found at his death in 1960.
It’s half his biography half a novel and is truly touching.

It talks about the life in poverty in Algiers but it’s full of love for those he was close, his mother, grandmother, uncle, friend and teacher.
Without father and without tradition, split between France and Algeria, living in the poverty, there was nobody to rely on, nobody to teach him about life, other than how to survive in the poverty, until, he met his teacher at the elementary school.

How sometimes in life, people connected not by blood but pure love can raise you.
This section of the teacher is the most moving.
Then as he grows older, it abruptly ends where he is in love.
True, this could have been a masterpiece.
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

The First Man

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The First Man (Penguin Modern Classics)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Il primo uomo (Italiano)
```
2026-02-17

『日本仏教史』末木文美士, 1992年感想 | 仏陀の教えをローカライズ

★★★★★ 仏教はその時代その時代に形を変え、その都度「日本の仏教」として存在してきた。仏教と神道とキリスト教をも平然と受け入れる理由にも通じる日本の強み。思想を辿って知的アドベンチャー的な読書。

🔽 基本情報 🔽
日本仏教史
思想史としてのアプローチ
末木文美士, 1992
412 ページ
2026.02 読了

🔽🔽 読書記録 🔽🔽

日本にやってきた仏教が、どう「日本の仏教」になったのか。
とにかく脳みそ刺激されまくり。
裏表紙にもある通り、知的興奮に満ちた旅、そう、知的アドベンチャー。

偶然手に取った本が自分の想像以上に興味のど真ん中に命中することがある。
私は仏教に興味があるし、その考えで気分がふっと軽くなることがあるので本を読んだりするけど、祈ることもないし、どこまで信じるているかといわれたら答えに困る、だってたぶんそんなに信じてない、でも実家は仏教。

そんな典型的日本人である私が興味を持つ理由は正にこれ、ここにじっくりと紹介されている。

インドから、中国という強力でレベルの高いフィルターを通して日本にやってきた仏教が、オリジナル仏教とは違う形で受け入れられ生き残っている。
なぜ。

仏教はその時代その時代に形を変え、その都度「日本の仏教」として存在してきた。

貴族のために祈祷を中心とした仏教、先祖を大事にしてきた古代の日本人に合う葬式仏教、ルール重視の武士に好まれた仏教、来世の概念の薄い日本人に即座にいま浄土確定のコスパのいい仏教、そして神道と仏教がどちらも文化として存在する日本。

そういう観点から日本における仏教の江戸時代くらいまでの歴史を紹介するのがこの本。
仏教史に詳しくない私は次々と出てくる名前や文献に唸ってしまったけれど、知らなくても大丈夫、この本が重視するのは思想史であり仏教史の暗記じゃない。

終章で遠藤周作の『沈黙』が出てくるけど、日本という土地の特徴は結局はこれ。
(読んで最後に納得してもらうためここでは「これ」としか書きませんよ)
高度経済成長期の日本が既存のものを改善して発展した理由にも通じるし、仏教と神道とキリスト教をも平然と受け入れてイベント化する理由にも通じる。
漢文システムのお陰で後々好きなように解釈できたというのも、これに拍車をかける。
日本以外の国の人にはわかりづらいし国内外で批判だってされる。
でも私はこれは考えようによっては日本の強みだと思う。
仏陀の教えを「日本の仏教」に変えた強み。


その後の明治以降の日本の仏教の流れも気になる。

🔽 関連ページ 🔽
tag ; 仏教

🔽 買えるところ / あらすじ、詳細 🔽

●●● アマゾン ●●●

日本仏教史―思想史としてのアプローチ (新潮文庫)

●●● 楽天 ●●●
日本仏教史 思想史としてのアプローチ （新潮文庫　すー13-1　新潮文庫） [ 末木 文美士 ]
価格：880円（税込、送料無料) (2026/2/17時点)

2026-02-17

“Flowers for Algernon” Daniel Keyes (1966) Review | Forgiveness and salvations

★★★★★ What is happiness? I am certain he was happy when surrounded by all the wonders of the world and knowledge, but if life is a cycle, nothing is permanent. Forgiveness and salvations.

🔽 log 🔽
Flowers for Algernon 
Daniel Keyes, 1966
256 pages
Read in 2026.02

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

This book is too personal and can't help to think in my surrounding situation, but let's try not to be objective.

This book asks the big question, what is happiness?
As Charlie gets smarter, a girl at the bakery mentions the garden of Eden, that God doesn't want us to go beyond what's given to us, quite frankly, she's saying it's wrong to be smart.

Was he happy that he got a lot smarter than everyone around him, was it a good thing?
I think he was happy, to be surrounded by the wonders of the world, he absorbed all the knowledge that almost all of us cannot reach.
Then he struggles as he lose the super power, but like any of us who get old and old enough to go sinile, I don't think it's a bad thing to return to our simple selves, it's a cycle.
You gain something, you also eventually lose that something.

Knowledge is power, sometime too powerful and harmful if we only focus on the power, but like the cycle of life, knowledge in a person is temporary, and he understood it, he decided to live every stage fully.

It also made me thing of one's role in a community, and coming from the US where they focus on the individualism, it's even more interesting that he finds peach in the given role.

Then, at the end, was the mother a bad person?
Was she bad to wish he was "normal"? 
It's easy to say she was evil if you have been taught correctly at school, but if you have never experienced the desperation to realise that your child would never have "normal" conversations and "normal" work like other kids, you cannot dismiss her as bad.
She forgot to love her son, she was too focused on her unhappy self, the despair made her blind.

In the end, we are all selfish, but this book is a reminder that we always mean well and we don't want to hurt people around us, it's just it's difficult to juggle it all.
Glad that this book is full of salvations and forgiveness.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Flowers For Algernon

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Flowers For Algernon: A Modern Literary Classic

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Fiori per Algernon (italiano)

2026-02-17

『アルジャーノンに花束を』ダニエル・キイス, 1966年感想 | 救いに溢れて

★★★★★ 幸せとは何か。素晴らしい知識の中でチャーリーは幸せだったと思いたい。私たちは何かを得てもその何かを失うサイクルからは逃れられない。許しと救いに溢れたストーリー。

🔽 基本情報 🔽
アルジャーノンに花束を
ダニエル・キイス, 1966
Flowers for Algernon 
Daniel Keyes, 1966
2026.02 読了

🔽🔽 読書記録 🔽🔽

あまりにもチャーリイの障害が身近過ぎて客観的に感動できなかったところはある。
逆にいうと、だからこそ痛いほどよくわかるところもある。
なんというか、感動で涙は出ないけど、ただただ痛かった。

でもできるだけ客観的に。
小説の感想はいつもはできるだけ内容に触れないようにしているんですが、今回は少し内容に触れているので全く何も知りたくない人は読まないでください。

この本が問うことは「幸せとは何」というとてつもなく大きな問。

チャーリイの手術後すぐに、同僚の子が呟いた話にヒントがあるように思う。
神様は私たちが与えられたもの以上のものを得ようとすることを許さない。
彼女の考えでは、賢くなることは悪いこと。
チャーリイは果たして周りの誰よりも賢くなることで幸せになったのか、そして良いことだったのか。
世界中にあふれている素晴らしい知識を体いっぱい吸収できて彼はきっと、いや間違いなく幸せだったはず。
それでも超能力がなくなるように、もっと言うと年を取って誰もがそれぞれ呆けたり遅くなっていくかのように、生きていくうえで避けられないサイクルとして、何かを得ても人は必ずその何かを失う。

知識は力、たまに力が強すぎて害を及ぼすけれど、間違いなく失うものと思えれば、その山と谷をしっかりと自分のものにすればいい。
得て、失って。
広い目で見れば失うことだって、不幸と一言では言えない、そんなに狭い視野の話をしていない気がする。

失ったと思った友情も、いつか戻ってくるかもしれない。
人は大きな共同体、コミュニティの中での持ち場があるということも考えさせられる。
（特にアメリカのような超個人主義の中でそれぞれの共同体ということも）

そして、母親の存在。
母親は悪い人間だったのか、自分の息子が「普通」であることを望むのは悪いことか。
道徳の授業で差別はいけませんと教えられていると、他人ごとでは簡単に言える。
自分の息子は他の子と同じように会話したり仕事をしたりすることはないと絶望した母親には、そんな他人事は通じない。
それでもチャーリイのことを第一に考えることができればよかったのに、彼女は自分の不幸に集中するあまり息子のことを愛することを忘れていた。

みんな、自分が一番大切。
でも周囲の人間を傷つける気持ちもない、ただどちらもこなすのが難しいだけ。
許しと救いにあふれているストーリーで本当に良かった。

🔽 関連ページ 🔽
English review
“Flowers for Algernon” Daniel Keyes (1966) Review | Forgiveness and salvations

🔽 買えるところ / あらすじ、詳細 🔽

●●● アマゾン ●●●

アルジャーノンに花束を〔新版〕(ハヤカワ文庫NV)

●●● 楽天 ●●●
アルジャーノンに花束を新版 （ハヤカワ文庫） [ ダニエル・キイス ]
価格：1,320円（税込、送料無料) (2026/2/17時点)

2026-02-17

“The Sorrows of Young Werther” J W von Goethe, (1774) Review | self pity is full on
```
★★★★☆ A classic that everyone has heard of, and it is more than I imagined, full of sorrows yes but the self pity is full on. A universal feeling of despair we all feel at some point in life.
```
🔽 log 🔽
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774
Die Leiden des jungen Werthers
144 pages
Read 2024.5

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
A classic that everyone has heard of, and it is more than I imagined, full of sorrows yes but the self pity is full on.
Maybe it feels different if you read it when you’re young, or definitely if you read it in the 18th century.

This is the original version of all the sad love stories that came about since.
You’re in love, you misunderstand the affection, you suffer, you’re in love with your suffering and it is far stronger than yourself and you can’t take it any more.
A universal feeling of despair we all feel at some point in life.
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●
The Sorrows of Young Werther 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The Sorrows of Young Werther 

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
I dolori del giovane Werther (Italiano)
```
2026-02-17
“Chasing a blazing fire in the Himalayas” Anmol Mukhia, 2020 Review | History of Kalimpong’s Christianity
```
★★☆☆☆ It was interesting for the first half, exactly what I hoped, about Kalimpong and its history. Then, it gradually changes the tone and he starts to preach.  
```
🔽 log 🔽
Chasing a blazing fire in the Himalayas
A brief sketch of the (un)noticed Kalimpong Pentecostal revival
Anmol Mukhia, 2020
146 pages
Read 2024.5

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
It was interesting for the first half, exactly what I hoped. (Though I didn’t really know when I bought it)
It actually talks about the history and the background of the Christianity in Kalimpong and the area.
Then, it gradually changes the tone and he starts to preach.
The conclusion chapter has nothing to do with Kalimpong but just how to be a good Christian.
Not what it says on the tin, I skipped through towards the end.
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●
Chasing A Blazing Fire In The Himalayas

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Chasing A Blazing Fire In The Himalayas

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
--
```
2026-02-17

“The French art of tea” Mariage Frères (2006) Review | History and catalogue

★★★☆☆ A bit of history, tradition and geography of tea. Interesting aspect from French to see what they value in tea. Then the rest is their catalogue with brief explanations. Full on Orientalism.

🔽 log 🔽
The French art of tea
Mariage Frères, 2006
L’Art Français du Thé
104 pages
Read 2024.6


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
Just a bit of history, tradition and geography of tea, which sometimes is incorrect (like, we use chunky steel pot for tea) but interesting aspect from French to see what they value in tea, that is, its colonial history and its fanciness. (Box of tea can be carried by native youths because the road is narrow and steep, etc.)
Full on Orientalism.
I do buy the tea but their selling point is the fanciness and Orientalism so maybe that's just how it is.

Then the rest is their catalogue with brief explanations.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

The French Art of Tea

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The French Art of Tea

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
The French Art of Tea

2026-02-17

“The Silk Roads” Peter Frankopan (2015) Review | History book that changed my history

★★★★★+♥️ This got me interested in history. How the Middle East had a wonderful history and traditions, and how Europe has always been greedy. Frankopan is so serious that it's funny.

🔽 log 🔽
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
Peter Frankopan, 2015
657 pages
Read 2024.6


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
An epic. 
This got me interested in history, a lot more than before, it has that charm, it doesn't just give you knowledge, it is entertaining.

It is a book about the whole history of the silk roads (plural, because it's not just one road) but surprisingly it's not boring, it is very entertaining and exciting as a book, like a big intertwined story.
It illustrates the magnificent and rich history of the Middle East, and how greedy Europe has been using the religion as an excuse, and how Europe faded and in came the US, the new Empire, with its selfish democracy as their weapon. 

And after reading this, you know why the Middle East being rich is not a new thing, it's not merely the quick money as the West wants to portrait it.
They have a looong history, long and rich.

Maybe it's just the end of the European and American empires, and could be just the return of the Silk Roads.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (Bloomsbury Paperbacks)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Le vie della seta. Una nuova storia del mondo (Italiano)

2026-02-17

“The incendiaries” R. O. Kwon (2018) Review | A bit of punk, a lot of cult love story
```
★★★☆☆ He follows the mysterious beautiful Korean girl. The dark and raw story about youth and there's a bit of punk a bit of cult. The writing style is refreshing.
```
🔽 log 🔽
The incendiaries
R. O. Kwon, 2018
214 pages
Read 2024.6

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The dark and raw story about youth and there’s a bit of punk that leads to cult and terrorism, but everything seems to light and superficial, thus, contemporary.

It’s new in style, a bit like reading a poem and it’s refreshing.
But it lacked depth, you can’t go deep into the characters, neither the girl or the boy, so it doesn’t make you feel lost in the story.
But maybe that’s the point, and I didn’t get it.
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

The Incendiaries

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The Incendiaries

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Gli incendiari (Italiano)
```
2026-02-17

“Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen (1813) Review | How to humiliate a rich guy and marry him

★★★★★ How to humiliate a rich guy and to marry him in the end. What a girl. It's such a classic that it's difficult to find a love story that's not influenced by this.

🔽 log 🔽
Pride and Prejudice 
Jane Austen, 1813
367 pages
Read 2025.01

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The classic of the classics.
The story is well known, but it is true the humour in the dialogues makes this the “best loved book”
So very English, both in the lifestyle and humour.
The characters are lively, the story simple but curious and anyone can easily engage with it.
It’s so iconic that it’s now difficult to find any love story that has no reference to this book.
I should also watch the movies properly one day.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Pride and Prejudice (Penguin Classics) Paperback

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●

Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen (Penguin Clothbound Classics) Hardcover – Illustrated

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●

Pride and Prejudice Paperback – English edition


Orgoglio e pregiudizio - Paperback

2026-02-16

“Robinson Crusoe” Daniel Defoe (1719) Review | Classic of classics
```
★★★★☆ Classic of classics. Mr. Crusoe is so English. He's tidy, proud and concerned, and determined to make this barbarian land his home (English style home, of course) 
```
🔽 log 🔽
Robinson Crusoe
The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe, 1719
384 pages
Read 2024.6

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
This was a period I was reading as many “classics” as possible, and here it is.

It’s amazing how English the protagonist is.
He’s so well organised and no compromise to make the island his (English style) home, and he doesn’t hide to show how proud he is.

This is supposed to be one of the first story written as if it was a biography in spoken English, and indeed many thought it was a biography, a diary.
Because of the historical background you cannot get away from the discriminations but within the boundary he made a sincere friend of Friday.
Today’s reader would be uncomfortable, and when recommended to kids I hope there’s a note mentioning it.

Whether you like it or not, you’d have to conclude that it is a great story, written 300 years ago, and still read today.
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Robinson Crusoe: The Original 1719 Edition (A Daniel Defoe Classic Novel) 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Robinson Crusoe

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Le avventure di Robinson Crusoe (Italiano)
```
2026-02-15

“Midlife” Kieran Setiya (2017) Review | Could it have been better? Probably not.

★★★★☆ It's not a usual self help book, it's not easy to read, a quite demanding guide which forces its readers to familiarise with the philosophical thinking. Overall, enjoy life, guys.

🔽 log 🔽
Midlife crisis 
A philosophical guide
Kieran Setiya, 2017
186 pages
Read 2024.6


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
It's not a usual self help book, it's not easy to read, a quite demanding guide which forces its readers to familiarise with the philosophical thinking.
So the midlife crisis is real, and inevitable, but you can live with it by changing HOW you think about your life. "What I could have had" is usually not better than what you've got.
But it does give practical guide, like how diverting your focus away from results and goals, from actions that have ending, but turn to actions for actions' sake and enjoy them.

And of course what is self help without Buddhism and meditation.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Midlife: A Philosophical Guide

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Midlife: A Philosophical Guide

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Midlife: A Philosophical Guide

2026-02-15

“Ten Italian Folktales” Italo Calvino (1956) Review | Misfortunes and cruelties
```
★★★☆☆ Extracts of a bigger collection of the folktales, "Fiabe italiane" written originally in 1956. A lot of misfortunes and a fair amount of cruelties, just like any folktales. Need to read the main book one day.
```
🔽 log 🔽
Ten Italian Folktales
Italo Calvino, 1956
Fiabe italiane
96 pages
Read 2024.6

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

Extracts of a bigger collection of the folktales, “Fiabe italiane” written originally in 1956.

They are short and some have moral teaching, like the last one Jump into my sack.
But the rest are tales and some just justify rapes, like sleeping with an unconscious queen and he becomes a king…

A lot of misfortunes and a fair amount of cruelty, just like any folktales.
```
 
```
🔽 Where to buy 🔽
```
●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Ten Italian Folktales (Penguin 60s S.) 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Ten Italian Folktales Paperback

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Fiabe italiane (Italiano)
```
2026-02-15
“The Prince” Niccolò Machiavelli (1532) Review | Focus, be cruel, rule
★★★☆☆ A “quintessentially Renaissance man”. This is a guidebook on how to be a good ruler in 1500s Italy. Focus, be cruel, rule. Scary this is still loved by many.
🔽 log 🔽
The Prince
Niccolò Machiavelli, 1532
Il principe
128 pages
Read 2024.11

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

Alma classics, a version that was translated and published in 2009

So this is a guidebook on how to be a good ruler in 1500s Italy.
It has many connotations but clearly it is wrong to try to apply this to all leaders or all societies.

It does recommend to focus on the ruling and go cruel, but it was probably what was needed back then.
And the words are straightforward, and references a lot to the history especially the Roman empire.
And gives practical advices on how to behave.
As they say, a quintessentially Renaissance man.
```
🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

The Prince | Niccolò Machiavelli

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The Prince: Niccolo Machiavelli

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Il principe
```
2026-02-15

“Amsterdam” Ian McEwan (1998) Review | So dark so English

★★★☆☆ Two middle aged men who had loved a same woman, and their friendship, if you can call them “friends”. So dark so English.

🔽 log 🔽
Amsterdam 
Ian McEwan, 1998
224 pages
Read 2024.6


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
I think I got it from someone, that's why I had it in Japanese.
Not a long story, of 2 middle aged men who had loved a same woman, and their friendship, if you can call them "friends".
So dark and so English.

It'd have been different if I read it in English, so it's my fault I put less stars.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Amsterdam: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner)

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Amsterdam: Ian McEwan

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Amsterdam (Italiano)

2026-02-15

“A season in hell” Arthur Rimbaud (1873) Review | Pure and genius

★★★★☆ He wrote it after the hellish travel with his lover, a self destructive man, a full of self pity and frustrations. True you should read this while drunk and preferably in the night.

🔽 log 🔽
A season in hell
Arthur Rimbaud, 1873
Une saison en enfer
96 pages
Read 2024.6


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
A poem of youth in pain. It's true you should read this while drunk and preferably in the night. 
Not in the Mediterranean summer daytime.

He wrote it after the hellish travel with his lover, a self destructive man, and this is as the title suggests, a full of self pity and frustrations.

Would have felt differently if read in different occasions for sure.

Penguin classic 60, this version translated in 1962.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

A Season in Hell & The Drunken Boat

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
A Season In Hell

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Una stagione all'inferno

2026-02-15

『きよしこ』重松清, 2002年感想 | 力強いメッセージ

★★★★☆ どもりのせいで殻に閉じ籠ってってしまう。笑い者にされ可哀想と思われ、それでも大人になっていく。小さくまとまっているように見えて力強いメッセージを送っている。

🔽 基本情報 🔽
きよしこ
重松清, 2002
291 ページ
2020.06 読了

🔽🔽 読書記録 🔽🔽

著者のどもりをテーマにした彼の経験を元にしたストーリー。
笑い者にされ、可哀想と思われ、それでも大人になっていく。

どもりのせいで意見を言えず殻に閉じ困ってしまう、こういうことはどもりを持つ本人じゃないと分からないし、逆に同じ境遇の人は皆感じてることだと思う。

小さくまとまっているように見えて力強いメッセージを送っている。

🔽 関連ページ 🔽
tag

🔽 買えるところ / あらすじ、詳細 🔽

●●● アマゾン ●●●

きよしこ (新潮文庫)

●●● 楽天 ●●●
きよしこ （新潮文庫） [ 重松 清 ]
価格：693円（税込、送料無料) (2026/2/15時点)

2026-02-15

『The Other Middle Passage』ロン・ラムディン, 1994年感想 | 奴隷制度は名前を変えるだけ

★★★★★ いわゆる奴隷制度がなくなっても、当時のカリブ海では全く人手が足らない状態で、アフリカではなく今度はインドから過酷な状況下の労働に人々を輸送。その子孫の友人の著作。

🔽 基本情報 🔽
The Other Middle Passage: 
Journal of a Voyage From Calcutta to Trinidad 1858
ロン・ラムディン, 1994
Ron Ramdin, 1994
62 ページ
2020.06 読了

🔽🔽 読書記録 🔽🔽

インド系トリニダード人の友人の著作。
インドから西インド諸島、カリブ海地域に送られたクーリー貿易(苦力貿易)といわれる新しい形の奴隷制度のついて。

冒頭は輸送された労働者のコンディションについて、特に一つの船の状況を詳しく書いている。
1858年に出向したその船は、108日かかった輸送で324人中124人が死亡。

奴隷制度がなくなっても、当時のカリブ海ではサトウキビなどの栽培で全く人手が足らない状態になり、アフリカではなくインドから自由を奪って過酷な状況下の労働のためだけに人々を輸送。

後半になるとその船内の様子や船長の奥さんの日記などによって当時の状況が詳しく書かれている。
といっても、つまりは病気になって当たり前の環境で毎日人が病気になり、毎日人が死んでいく様子が綴られる。

友人の彼も、クーリーとして送られて来た人の子孫で、白人の下に黒人、その下にインド人がいるという子供時代を過ごす。
日本ではこの本は手に入りにくいので、もし興味があればご連絡ください。

🔽 関連ページ 🔽
English review
“The Other Middle Passage” Ron Ramdin, (1994) Review | Another slave trade
tag 植民地主義　インド

🔽 買えるところ / あらすじ、詳細 🔽

●●● アマゾン ●●●

The Other Middle Passage: Journal of a Voyage From Calcutta to Trinidad 1858

●●● 楽天 ●●●
--

2026-02-15

“Numero Zero” Umberto Eco, (2015) Review | A warning to the Italian society today.
★★★★☆ Eco’s 7th and last novel. Book about the journalism of our time – conspiracy theories and fake news. A warning to the Italian society today.

🔽 log 🔽
Numero Zero
Umberto Eco, 2015
208 pages
Read 2024.6

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
Book about the journalism of our time – conspiracy theories and fake news.
Eco’s 7th and last novel.
It’s not ask mind provoking as his other classics but nice and short-ish.

We live in the world where nothing can be trusted to be real, and real can be fabricated.
A warning to the Italian society today.

It’d have been more fun if I knew more about the modern Italian history around Mussolini time.
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🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Numero Zero

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Numero Zero

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Numero zero (Italiano)
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2026-02-15

“Wild Soul” Ryosuke Kakine, (2006) Review | Let the revenge begin from Brazil

★★★★★ After WW2, 40,000 Japanese people crossed the ocean to Brazil to start better lives promised by Japanese government. Instead, they lived and died at the bottom of the society and jungle. Let the revenge begin.

🔽 log 🔽
(Wild Soul)
Ryosuke Kakine, 2006
ワイルド•ソウル
垣根涼介 2006
1040 pages (512 + 528)
Read 2024.6
(Not available in English)


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
1000+ pages in Japanese, but it's nonstop explosion of excitement that you can't put the book down.

After the second world war, Japanese government encouraged people in villages to move to Brazil, assuring them they would have land and work guaranteed.
Instead the 40,000 people were left in the amazon forest to survive alone.
Those who did survive and escape, lived at the bottom of various south American towns and cities.

That's the first book, then, we move on to the second book where they start their revenge.

Today's Japan, you meet 3 wild men, their faces look like Japanese but their eyes are dangerously bright; they have one mission, one target, the Japanese government.

You spent one chunk of a book following their horrible lives so you are 100% on the side of these men, and you've also learned that this really was how many of those Japanese lived in Brazil.

The book also reminds you how small we are in the huge endless nature of the amazon, one person is nothing. The nature would easily swallow you.
Yet, we still live, we still regret the actions we did in the past, we still love.

It's an epic and 1000 pages full of drama, action and love. A must read (if it becomes available in English!)

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Wild Soul [1] [In Japanese Language]

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
--

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
--

2026-02-15

“Afterlives” Abdulrazak Gurnah (2020) Review | A beautiful story told in a cruel and violent environment

★★★★★ A beautiful story told in a cruel and violent environment; war and colonisation. They must cling to little happiness or sadness that are their own. By a Nobel prize winner.

🔽 log 🔽
Afterlives
Abdulrazak Gurnah, 2020
288 pages
Read 2024.7


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
A beautiful story told in a cruel and violent environment; war and colonisation. 

It's a reminder that people's loves get messed up by the external horrible business of war, like African lives affected by wars that are happening in Europe, "nothing to do with us" 
But importantly, their lives can continue they can have little happiness or sadness that are their own, they must cling to them.
And a little magical and personal relationships with the coloniser and colonised makes the story hopeful, despite the violence that's surrounding them.

BY THE WINNER OF THE 2021 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Afterlives: A Novel 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Afterlives: By the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Afterlives: By the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021

2026-02-15

“White Teeth” Zadie Smith, (2000) Review | Love letter to London

★★★★★ Love letter to London that’s disappearing. We all have different opinions, skin colour, age, roots, culture, education, faith, or lack of any or all of it, but we try to survive this thing called life as a community.

🔽 log 🔽
White Teeth
Zadie Smith, 2000
464 pages
Read 2024.7


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The most talked about book ever since I arrived in London, for over 2 decades now.
And only now reading it.
Somehow I thought it be more, coarse or rough, but it was surprisingly heart warming and this really is the London I loved, the mess and how Londoners coped.

But I lived mostly in Islington, more clearly a Turkish area, but it is what you'd seen even in 2003 when I arrived, then slowly disappeared, or put under the carpet.

We all have different opinions, skin colour, age, roots, culture, education, faith, or lack of any or all of it, and it's ok you are not the same, or not in agreement, but we try to survive this thing called life as a community. 
The struggle to survive as a community, as a component of something big and messy, it's the fun, it's worth it.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

White Teeth: A Novel

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
White Teeth: The iconic, award-winning modern classic celebrates its 25th anniversary

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Denti bianchi (Italiano)

2026-02-15

“The spy who came in from the cold” John Le Carré (1963) Review | The classic spy novel. Stylish
★★★★☆ It’s stone cold and stylish and stylised, but has the human struggle of the protagonist. And of course clever.

🔽 log 🔽
The spy who came in from the cold
John Le Carré, 1963
464 pages
Read 2024.7

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
So this is the famous spy book.
And I admit I have almost zero interest in this genre it didn’t draw me into it as much as it should or could but it was a good story that you van easily imagine it being made into films.

It’s stone cold and stylish and stylised, but has the human struggle of the protagonist. And of course clever.
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🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold: A George Smiley Novel (George Smiley, 3) 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold: John le Carré: 61 (Penguin Essentials, 61)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
La spia che venne dal freddo (Italiano)
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2026-02-15