“What’s new 🐱 pussycat?” Loving the T-shirt 😺🐈.

This video was made specifically for me. Just know that. Haha just kidding, gosh I really need to read all of them and all of Japanese fiction ever!! The Nakano Thrift Shop is such a brilliant book, I still think about it to this day, actually not really the plot so much but more of the atmosphere and it was definitely what intrigued me the most to pick up more Japenese fiction and branch out from just reading Haikus :D You know I'm super interested in starting with Jun'ichirō Tanizaki! I still remember you crying because of The Travelling Cat Chronicles :P Super glad I was part of that moment :D

Oh my goodness thank you so much for making this video! You recommended so many books I was interested in, and added them to my list :) Also the synopsis of the traveling cat novel reminds me of the Japanese manga and anime She and her cat by Makoto Shinaki!

The Nakano Thrift Shop sounds great! ooh great point about the way we use "character-driven." I probably use that descriptor interchangeably with "character-focused" most of the time, but there are occasionally books I specifically feel like 'this is a character-driven book with poorly drawn characters so it kind of has nothing going for it' lol. Like Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers 😬

I'm so glad you're making videos again. I love the way to talk about books!

I will admit to being distracted by your t-shirt, for it is positively awesome. I'm rather happy to hear about your favourite Japanese books. Admittedly, the only author I have read from this list is Murakami. I talked about buddy reading 1Q84 and imagine that I'll get to it one day. When I read David Mitchell, I feel as though I ought to like Murakami, and I don't know if it's a stylistic thing, but I have yet to leave one of his works feeling like I "got it". How did I forget about The Nakano Thrift Shop? A few years back I included that on a list of books to read. Thank thee for the reminder. I ought to improve my reading of Japanese literature - or any translated work for that matter. Sometimes, I believe I will never have all the time to read all the books I want to. (some prefer nettles sounds great)

That shirt was specifically chosen to target me, wasn't it?

I'd love you to read Manazuru and review it. I have nobody to talk to about this dreamy and strange book. I still don't fully understand it and I read it so slowly and with such care and attention paid. Argh. I don't even know how many stars out of 5 I'd give it, so infuriatingly strange is this novel. I'm in that demented sweet spot of suspecting I may love and hate it equally. I think if something haunts me and inspires such a constant return to it in my mind, triggering a lot of determined thinking it must mean I place true value on it. What do you think? Do you have any books that have caused a similar reaction?

Any suggestions for kids My son is starting Japanese language mostly motivated by manga and anime. Would be great to get him some other options

I think you may like the manga series called Plum Crazy