This weekend and last (26-27 Oct & 03-04 Nov), the Kanda Used Book
Festival took over the main drag surrounding [1]Jimbocho Station.
The Kanda Used Book Festival is one of the largest annual events in
the Jimbocho district of Kanda-renowned as a town of used and
antique books. The organizers go further to claim it's the largest
event of its kind in the world.
For the festival, bookshelves are placed on the sidewalks of the
area's main street (Yasukuni Dori), creating a long corridor of
books that faces the local bookstores. In addition to the street
market, a variety of related events are scheduled during the
festival, including a Special Used Book Sale Fair (at the Tokyo Used
Book Kaikan underground hall)-featuring rare and valuable books-and
library seal workshops.
A delivery service is also available for purchased books, so you can
buy up lots without having to worry about carting your loot home.
(Via [2]tokyocheapo.com)
As my well documented (and commented upon) deficiencies with my
Japanese studies have no quick fix, I choose to look upon this as an
advantage: the number of English language books is limited so I won't
blow my whole month's budget on books I might not get around to reading
until the next Kanda festival.
And yet, I still managed to spend a healthy sum of ¥2200. But the
rewards …
* The Discourses and Manual, Vol. 1 by Epictetus
* Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy
* The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius, Translated by
George Long
* The Story of Old Japan by Joseph H. Longford
* Moral Essays, Vol. 3 by Seneca (Loeb Classical Library)
In all cases they are first editions and except for the Ogilvy and
Seneca tomes are over 90 years old. All are in remarkable shape for
their age, even the Epictetus one with the Japanese handwriting in it.
The author of those notes was both tidy and brief - the notes only
continue for about 10 pages.
All in all, I am pleased with my purchases. I could have gone down a
deep dive on Robert Lewis Stevenson, for example. The likelihood of
actually reading those was slim, so I wisely if begrudgingly resisted
purchasing them.
Also on:
[3]Twitter
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My original entry is here: [4]Kanda Used Book Festival. It posted Sun,
04 Nov 2018 06:54:03 +0000.
Filed under: books,
References
1.
https://tokyocheapo.com/place/jimbocho-station/
2.
https://tokyocheapo.com/events/kanda-used-book-festival/
3.
https://twitter.com/prjorgensen/status/1058976433689763841
4.
https://www.prjorgensen.com/?p=2225
