Published By: Manilla
Pages: 176
Released On: 04/07/2024
Translated By: Eric Ozawa
In Tokyo, there is a neighbourhood with the highest number of bookstores in the world. It is called Jimbocho where book lovers can browse to their heart’s delight and where hunters of first editions or autographed copies prowl the bookcases.
The Morisaki bookshop, a small family-run shop, is so packed with books that barely five people can fit inside. Books crowd the shelves and invade every corner of the floor; when a customer arrives, the owner, Satoru, immediately pops out from behind the counter. Recently, his wife Momoko has joined him, and often, in her free time after work, their niece Takako also helps out.
For the first time, the girl does not feel lonely; she has new friends and new rituals to keep her company: the annual Jimbocho festival, the café around the corner, or an unexpected visitor. Because, as she has discovered, a bookstore is populated not by the characters contained in the books, but also by those who frequent it. And those stories create bonds. As a sign of gratitude, Takako gives her aunt and uncle a trip, promising to look after the shop while they are away. Everything seems to be going swimmingly, but then why is Satoru behaving so strangely? And what does that woman with the red umbrella want who has appeared at the end of the street? How many other stories, emotions, and treasures does the Morisaki bookshop hold?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Manilla for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I absolutely adored the first Morisaki Bookshop book and was overjoyed to hear there was a sequel and I was itching to get my hands on it.
I don’t like overly long books or overly short books. 300-400 pages is my sweet spot. Not that I don’t read longer or shorter books, but that’s where I am happiest. But this book made me conflicted. I loved the first one soooo much that going into this, I wished it was longer so I could spend more time in it. But it didn’t reach the heights of the first one (explanation coming below), and so I feel it might have been a bit too stretched thin if it was longer.
What I love about this book (and the first one) is the unashamed love for books and reading, and how books and bookshops can change us, whether we know we need it or not.
It’s not the most intense of books. There’s not really much of a plot. There’s also not a huge amount of character development either. But I don’t think that’s a really big problem here. It’s more about the feeling it gives you rather than what you’re actually reading.
I’d have liked a bit more of the bookshop if I’m honest. I am happy to plod along and just take it for what it is, but it felt a bit flat for a while sadly. For a book that’s called “…at the Morisaki Bookshop”, I expected more of the bookshop, but perhaps that’s been left in the first book.
It isn’t as good as the first one. No. That’s not right. It’s not worse than the first one. It’s just too similar. It doesn’t add much to it annoyingly, as I do believe I would have been happy to read more and more, and I’m about to contradict myself here given what I said at the start of this review, but it might have benefited from being longer. But it would need something extra. As it is, it’s the right length because otherwise it would be too flat and stretched out. But if it had been longer, then we might have had a chance to have more plot and more development, making it on the same level as the first one.
It does get going, things do happen (I won’t say what), but not till quite near the end. I know you needed this build up, but I think that if “the thing” had started a little earlier, it would have given us more time to get invested in it. As it is, “the thing” starts, happens, and it’s done, and you’re a bit bamboozled.
I felt the first book was a must read. This one is a pleasant read but I don’t think you’re missing too much if you just stick with the first.
I did enjoy it, it was pleasant, easy to read, quick to read, cosy, heartwarming, and very bookish, but overall it did feel somewhat flat, and a bit anticlimactic after the joy of the first one.
Books By Your Bedside 