Photo/Illutration A Tokyo bookstore is crowded with people browsing in 1958 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A secondhand bookstore that never tolerates patrons who don’t handle books with care is featured in Makoto Shiina’s essay titled “Saraba Kokubunji Shoten no Obaba” (Farewell, Kokubunji Bookstore Granny).

The store owner, Granny, keeps a close eye on every customer browsing her wares, and she sharply reprimands anyone who roughly turns the pages.

Should someone dare plop their bag on a book, she would let out a thunderous roar of rage that could raise the dead.

Small wonder that her store got few patrons, which actually enabled Shiina to browse leisurely.

But that, he wrote, was at the cost of “fighting a bad case of nerves and getting psyched up before entering the store.” 

Every customer should be allowed to examine their book before buying it, provided they do so with care.

I recalled this fierce Granny when I was surprised by a newspaper report about the Kodansha publishing company starting to sell its “bunko” paperbacks shrink wrapped in plastic film.

Manga books are commonly sold in this manner, and some people welcome it for protecting the copies from damage or getting soiled, the report said. Other people, however, are miffed that they can’t even take a peek inside the covers.

Kodansha’s reason for doing this is that since the government is requiring every book to show its tax-inclusive price from April, the publisher intends to stick a price label on the film.

I hope this will be a stopgap measure, but I worry it may become accepted as a permanent custom over time.

With manga books, shrink wrapping had become standard before anyone knew it.

Browsing in a bookstore is like trying on new clothes. Just like putting on an outfit that caught your fancy to see how it fits, you pick up a book, look at the table of contents and sample a few lines to make sure that’s the book you want to read.

In the case of Kodansha’s bunko paperbacks, analyses by literary critics at the end of the paperback versions are a helpful and reliable source of information, like advice from a seasoned bookstore clerk.

Come to think of it, I can’t count the number of times those analyses led me to explore totally new authors and themes.

I hope Kodansha will end the shrink wrapping early. And I beg other publishers not to even start it.
 
--The Asahi Shimbun, April 21

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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