Books on sale

I decided to put some of the books we read, or not because they from our point of view not so good or we do not like them or simply I NEED some space on my shelf on sale....

Actually I have been selling two up to four books in a month for the last two years. Not much work putting them on amazon. Today I am wondering I will be able to sell the Japanese mangas, too. Let's try. Still there more new books arriving so I need space for them :)

My boss approved my three weeks off in May.... so now I hope I can travel somewhere this time, well compared to last year, anything can be better!!!
First next Saturday I will go to Berlin again and I am really looking forward to this visit. Berlin, Berlin....

Today's reading

Being sick means spending time at my couch... ohhhh... okay no Tokyo ... no fun at all? No, I will flee the couch tonight ..  I am reading The Bride's Kimono by Sujata Massey. It is my first book of her series about Rei Shimura. So let's see how it will be. Different to the Japanese and Chinese literature I am reading, but I heard it is good. I have just finished reading a book by Zhang Jie, a Chinese female writer.

And I have found a book I have not managed to set free yet. It is registered on bookcrossing and I will set it free and watch how it's journey continues.... The  BCID is 352-4685483. :)

Today's catch. New books from our town library for me:

Starting reading

2009 China was guest of honor at Frankfurt Book Fair. It was really a bust for Chinese literature and suddenly you could find more books being published in Germany, even our library bought some. So, I can read some books I do not have in my collection.,yet  :)

Music is what saves my days

Mole listening pearls is my favourite music label and I am longing for nearly every new record. Nujazz, downbeat and electronic upcoming music streams best when they are complied by Minus 8. This CD came today. Science Fiction Jazz. This time volume twelve which is so pleasant soulful with a bit of soul and funk and I love it. I am loving it :) This compilation feels the air tonight and I hope my neighbours don't mind me listing to the record out on my balcony. This music is some kind danceable... cool.  Tonight it is not so warm anymore but the fresh and humid breeze outside makes me feel so good thinking about Ibiza and hot summer nights. I am realy looking forward to my next holidays. I will listen to good music, read some good books and be in Bali :)
I am still with Japanese fiction... Kawabata made me dream and sometimes cry, Tanizaki, Ogawa , Kirino, Mishima, Togawa and Soseki and now Inoue. and Kawakami .... Looking back in time I wish I could talk about the books with Ru again. It was such a good time exchanging our views and feeling being touched deep inside by the words of the writers and poets. Sometimes I think it made my fly... fly... even higher and I miss it

and there it is again the sound of Tokyo Counterpoint

What you're reading?

Today at my fovourite Packstation...
(Packstation: kind of automated booths for self-service collection of parcels and oversize letters)
As Deutsche Post says the major market for the increasing number of Packstations are time-poor professionals ohhh they are so right and that's the reason I have been their customer for five years now...

thanx to a private bookseller and Packstation I got today
Yasushi Inoue's
Death of a tea master
or
honkakubo ibun

I will tell you about the book soon...

Life

Okay, okay! J was begging me to continue writing my blog and to write in English…
well, J – YOU WON! You won because I am writing and you won ‘coz I am writing in English …
It is weird writing what I am thinking about on an official website everyone can read … J says my life is so vivid sometimes there so many things happening and I should share it. J you are right and you are too far away to call you and tell you everything everyday.

I am working, my boss went on holiday and left me with a bunch of things to do and prepare, so work is what I do at daytime.

Football occupies everyone in Germany at the moment. We are so proud to host the World Cup. Does football occupy me so much? Oh well, it does, a bit. There are different flags hanging out of the windows across the city. Not only German flags but also of all other nations participating in the Cup. The view I like most is the Canadian flag hanging outside my neighbour's window…. Just trying to recall Canada’s football team playing. Well, I think my neighbour is probably a proud Canadian, wishing their team would be so good as the German team! Living with my parents I would spend much more time watching football on TV with my father, but since he is so far away it is not so funny and exciting. I watch the games only sometimes and mostly read the articles in the papers the next day. Well, you know today is the fist day there is no game. Football-free evening, everyone is asking what to do? Well, watch a movie, go out to a beer garden and drink a beer without screaming and waiting for a goal. What I will do? Well, visit a friend or finish that fabulous book I am reading at the moment.

I am reading a book by Junichiro Tanizaki, a famous Japanese writer, Naomi. The book is a bout a man, Joji-san, who is fascinated and finally obsessed with a girl. She is half his age (14) and looks a bit Eurasian. Joji being fascinated by her looks takes her in his house, gives her lessons in English and music, learns how to dance Western style with her. He wants her to become a perfect woman and wife to him. As long as she stays with him he tolerates everything she does, even her having other men. The book was written in the early 20ies and it is still fascinating, the plot could be set today. Yes, you have the Japanese fascination for the West on the one side, but on the other side there is this story of Joji, poor and helpless and Naomi, who is a cruel and somehow evil creature. Tanizaki is brilliant and at the end who would you hate more the man trying to create a woman he is dreaming of or the girl, who tries to live the life she wants?
Have to finish the book soon.