“I think what matters far more with a book is how it affects you.” So far, I feel like I have read two very different sides of Japanese literature. There is the dark, unpredictable world that Murakami creates; which I absolutely love. And then there is this other side, one that feels warm, gentle and almost too cute to be real. And one thing I really admire about Japanese authors is the way they create such beautiful visuals with words. You can almost see the places they write about. Satoshi Yagisawa has this beautiful ability to notice the smallest, most ordinary things and somehow give them emotion and meaning. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop is a very light-hearted yet surprisingly profound book. The emotions are simple, but they are depicted so beautifully that somehow, they stay with you and leave you with this feeling of warmth. The story revolves around Takako, who goes through a painful breakup and almost shuts herself away from the world. She enters this kind of hiberna...