If a person who loves books and people works in a bookstore,

In fact, if you think about it, there aren't many cases where you turn what you love into a job.
It is so rare that there is even an expression called ‘the harmony of one’s hobby and one’s job.’
But there is one place where such people are found in particularly large numbers.
It's a bookstore.
Anyone who loves books has probably imagined at least once what it would be like to work in a bookstore, or what it would be like to open a bookstore.
《Bookstore Diary》 is a book for just such people.


"Bookstore Diary" is an essay about an unforgettable moment that the author, who loved books and people so much, encountered when he finally started working in a bookstore.
It tells the story of the diverse faces of customers who visit bookstores, the inside story of bookstores that is usually not well known, and everything surrounding the books that writers cherish and cherish.
As you read each episode, you come to agree with the idea that a bookstore is not simply a place to buy and sell books.
After all, we still need bookstores.

Regardless of whether they are selling or buying books, those who come to bookstores in person will each have their own reasons and desires.
Buying books online is faster and cheaper.
Perhaps we need a space where we can naturally and naturally stay in one place with strangers in various forms, and a sense of connection flows unconsciously.
--- p.11 From “People Who Go to Bookstores”

The first thing I do when I get to work is to organize the piles of books that customers left behind the day before.
Return the books piled up here and there to their original places.
As you move through the books, you can see traces of someone worrying about dieting on one day, someone about diabetes on another, most commonly about stocks and real estate, and someone about literacy on another day.
And when I'm organizing a place where someone has been worried, I often feel lonely.
It is the loneliness in the crowd that one feels amidst countless worries.
--- p.27 From “People Who Go to Bookstores”

I really didn't mind if the thousand won I gave never came back to me.
Instead, I hoped that this student, like today's moment, would later encounter a similar moment somewhere else, and not just pass it by, but recall that memory, and be able to extend a small helping hand to someone.
It was only a thousand won, and even if I had forgotten about it without returning it, no one would have noticed, but seeing the student come back to find it again on time somehow made me think it was worth it.
--- p.100 From “People Who Go to Bookstores”

Perhaps what I love more than the curation I wanted to do and what makes me more fulfilled is the stories between people connected by books.
What I really, really wanted to do was to walk around the bookshelves and among the customers, wearing a sash that said, "How may I help you?"
--- p.106 From "Reading the Bookstore"

But what if offline bookstores disappear?
If we just ordered the books we needed online and bookstores only stocked books that sold, wouldn't it just end up being a barren forest of paper?
Since books ultimately come from trees, bookstores become dense forests filled with books.
The safest forest in the world where you can find your way and find your dreams while strolling.
It is sad when forests, whether this forest or that forest, shrink and disappear.

--- p.135 From “Reading the Bookstore”

There are many more books that are placed in the corners of high, distant bookshelves, without even a moment to lie down on the nearby, low shelves.
Among them, there are times when I come across a book by a good author that I know, someone only I know.
Then I stroke the book again for a while and look at it for a long time, taking it to heart.
I hope it meets a discerning reader and is read, and I hope it sells and escapes the bookshelf.
--- p.145 From “Reading the Bookstore”

The best hobby I've developed while working at a bookstore is visiting bookstores.
Wherever I go, I visit local bookstores.
Even if it's a new place you've been to for the first time, if there's a place you really want to visit, it feels familiar somehow.
--- p.157 From "Bookstore Outside the Bookstore"

Knowing that I have a place to go when times are tough and that there is someone waiting for me gives me a reason to get through my day without falling apart.
A place where you can go without washing your hair, wearing the clothes you wear at home, and wearing slippers.
It's a blessing to have a bookstore right in front of my house where I can share a book and a cup of tea.
--- p.190 From "Bookstore Outside the Bookstore"

Perhaps reading a book ultimately means taking an interest in someone's story and listening to it.
Among them, aren't those who take the time to come to the bookstore the ones with a bit more active interest?
And I, who work in a bookstore, am a person who 'connects' readers.
Someone who connects that precious interest with the right book.
I quite like this self-appointed role.

--- p.198 From "Bookstore Outside the Bookstore"