Our Man went deep undercover on Her Majesty's Secret Service into Kanda yesterday to do some recon on the corpse that is the bookselling business. Well, he can report back to GCHQ that the old dear is still twitching. (For those future students of history reading this born Anno Twitteri - think of Kanda as an early version of the iPhone. Bookshops were analog apps and books, of course, were non-audible podcasts).
Anyway, here's what the all-seeing i of his iPhone captured:
A book that used to be on his brother's shelf back in Blighty when Our Man was just His Mother's Infant:
A feminist book that was on his mother' shelf (though, she wouldn't have kept it in the same box as the other titles here. Degraded by Dogs and Replenishing Jennifer were not set texts at gender studies departments back in the '70s)
Our Man shouldn't have spent any of his college days on books like this:
and a lot more on this:
Highbrow
Middlebrow
Lowbrow
How about a $1,500 picture for Our Woman in Abiko?
Maybe not. Howabout a $450 Hitler etching?
Nein danke. Our Man will just settle for a little light reading instead:
6 comments:
Lawrence Block and Walter Mosely...definitely on my short list. I was actually a highbrow back in NY, either Barnes & Noble / Starbucks (when I should have been in a friggin library) I guess because I had a lower self-esteem or something, but now I'm firmly on the lowbrow. Thinks for the heads up...gotta get to Tokyo one of these days.
Loco
Yep. Yamanote line. Get off at Kanda station, take the North exit, walk 10 minutes up Yasakuni Dori and everything is on your left. Loads of coffee shops and some tempting looking lowbrow bars.
When I lived in Yokosuka I used to journey to Kanda once a month. To me, it was a great old-Japan feel to be surrounded by books and wizened old booksellers. After hanging out Akihabara it was such a contrast. But that was ten years ago.
The Black Swan I see.....enjoy! I certainly did!
You completely missed Meirinkan, the best bookstore of them all. Two floors of nothing but math and science, mostly in English and Japanese.
I've been there twice, both times with my wife so she could stop me from spending too much at the place. I was this close to getting the first edition Japanese translation of Knuth's Art of Computer Programming I-III, but good sense - and a kick in the shins from my wife - prevailed. Still with I'd bought them though.
S1 Yes, just the right mix of deep and shallow.
JM Maths and science are two languages Our Man never learnt so good.
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