Why I have this book, if you are interested.
This picture is a mosaic. View large to read.
Top right: Chapter One.
Bottom right: Chapter Three. （このルビ、しびれる～。）
Top left: Publication Data
Bottom left: The auther's profile, looks very 1970s!
Indeed, how he looked thirty years ago in an "official" PR photo was why I bought this. This makes me AHGRRRRGHA (LOL).
I wish I were a better photorapher ... A 1973 Frederick Forsyth book (printed in 1984), Japanese edition.
Why I have this book, if you are interested.
As I wrote the other day, I really can't quit second-hand bookstores. The famous Book-Off (ブックオフ) is not traditional kind of used bookstores, and I don't like all the noise there (J-POP thingy: I can't concentrate), but they have huge "100 yen" shelves. They put every old, dusty book in there. So, BO's 100-yen shelves are treasure islands.
Today, I'm just back from one of the BO stores in Tokyo. With four 100 yen books. Thus, my books keep growing.
Anyway one of the find was this: Frederic Forsyth's classic novel, "The Day of the Jackal". Hardcover. Published by 角川春樹 （笑）. 昭和59年 (1984!), 33rd print, first print being in 1973. And 100 yen.
Yes, I have "The Day of the Jackal" Japanese edition's bunko (paperback). I've read it four or five times. (If you don't like F. Forsyth's political point of view, this novel is exceptional, 別格! And "Dogs of War" too. So just try!)
I knew it's nonsense to buy a book which I already have, already read. But the hardcover looks SOOOOOO classic! Hard-boiled! ゴルゴ13! And it was only 100 yen.
Thus, my books keep growing.
A few weeks back, I was looking at a bunko (paperbacks) shelf at a local, small, family-run bookstore. I often go to the store because they have a good selection of books - other bookstores in my area are too consumeristic to have Edward Said and other books that make me feel intellectual.
I was looking for a "The Secret of Google" sort of books needed in my work, when I found the "B・ジョンソン (B. Johnson)" book. I know one B. Johnson - Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, a British MP, a Tory, etc. The funny title, 「世界同時中継！ 朝まで生テロリスト？」 caught my eyes too. I couldn't find the right kind of my book, so I bought this. 1,000 yen is rather costly for an entertainment book, but this is Boris Johnson. I didn't know how long the store keeps it or it might not be very long until it gets in the usual out-of-print status. (I don't think this sells so well, and I know how publishers make decisions.) It was "now or never".
「朝まで生 something？」 is sort of in the Japanese pop culture, after a TV debate program, 「朝まで生テレビ」. It literally translates as "Live TV til Dawn", in which guest members do some debates from 01.00 til 05.00 (or something). I seldom see the program, as I don't like the host. Anyway the phrase 「朝まで生 something？」 is catchy enough.
The book is rich in details. I have just read the first 100 pages, and am sort of bored of the story but some details make me LOL. There will be a big move in the story in the next 100 pages, I hope. If Robert Altman were still alive, he'd do a clever job on this novel.
And 「世界同時中継！ 朝まで生テロリスト？」 translates: Live on Air World-Wide! Live Terrorist til Dawn? ... Looks seriously stupid for a title of a book. (Originally, as on the cover, "Seventy-Two Virgins".)
For this thread... 62 years ago, today, 16 February, the Battle began at Iwo Jima.
One one the reasons why I can't quit second hand book stores is, I can find something that I didn't or couldn't buy ages ago. This is one of these books, the Japanese 1981 edition of "Moraity and Architecture" by David Watkin (1977, Oxford University).
It was 1,500 yen or something in the 1990s, or possibly deleted, and I didn't have the money. Now I found it, only at 300 yen in Jinbo-cho.
The underline (in Japan it becomes sideline) was already in there. This is another joy of a second hand book. I can see what another person thought. I really like the emotional sideline here.
An impressive Levi's advert in the summer 2006. Found in my old memory card. The other side of the poster is here.
This "Dos and Don'ts" list is too familiar for us girls/woman in Japan, especially the "Wear a tight skirt to your job interview" line (in Jp, 面接にはタイトスカートで行きなさい).
Yes, this is my sort of Only in Japan pic; Westerners will find this quirky (only with translation, so I put a rough translation as notes). Girls - around the world, actually - may find this ironic and somewhat funny.
An impressive Levi's advert in the summer 2006. Found in my old memory card.
The other side of the poster is here.
