some thoughts on books, reading and writing
Recently, I've been on a bit of a "literature trip." Reading books, listening or watching commentary on books, thinking about writing...
It started with me re-listening to some old Shriekcast episodes, which made me remember how much I liked Harry Potter in my teens and think about how there hasn't been a book that has provided me with the same kind of feeling (while reading). From there, I started thinking about how I would write a book that plays in a similar space or has a similar atmosphere without being a blatant copy.
In the past, I used to write quite a bit. Around late elementary school age, when asked about what I wanted to do as a "grown-up", my answer would always be "story writer (novelist)." But that writing hobby slowly disappeared around my mid-teens. As a kid, I just enjoyed the act of coming up with stuff and writing it down, but as I grew up, I became aware of my lack of skill and grew frustrated with what / how I wrote. All the way throughout my 20s, whenever I tried writing stories, I always ended up feeling like I didn't have anything meaningful to say, or not enough "life experience" to produce something actually interesting (yet). I also always had trouble with plotting things out or thinking about the stories that I wanted to write from a more structural standpoint.
But recently, I'm sensing a change. I want to try writing stories again.
Aside from that, I've been looking at a lot of book- and writing-related content on the internet. One YouTube channel that I've been really enjoying is The Book Leo. Another interesting source of discovery has been r/booksthatfeellikethis, where people post pictures and ask for book recommendations with matching vibes. Naturally, my reading list has been growing quite a lot. There are certain book titles that keep popping in the threads and videos that I click on, and they're at the top of my list right now:
- Piranesi (Susanna Clarke - also Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell)
- The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro)
- The Magicians (Lev Grossman)
- A Psalm for the Wild-Build (Becky Chambers)
The problem that I'm facing right now that most of these are books from "overseas." It's not like I can't get them in Tokyo, but the prices for English-language books here tend to be a bit ridiculous. So I have to make my picks carefully, or get them from somewhere else. Some of the bigger libraries have foreign-language books, but usually only the famous ones or classics.
Unlike writing, I never really stopped reading. I started reading Japanese books for practice in university and then, at some point, transitioned into just reading them for fun. For Japanese books, though, I barely interact with any sort of online content or community. Aside from the impressions I get when I visit bookstores, I have pretty much no idea what the latest "hot" / bestselling / controversial Japanese books or authors are; and that feels nice in its own way. It's a nice little quiet corner of my life that I can retreat to.