My husband asked me if I wanted to go somewhere during the three-day holiday, and I simply replied, " Maybe we could take a walk through the secondhand bookstore district in Jinbocho." It had been six months since I last visited the district.
Old bookstores that displayed used pocket edition books, and those with old complete works of literature and technical books were everywhere.
I spotted a brand-new store that stood out among all those aged bookstores.
It had several bookshelves, and each seemed to have its owner. Every shelf had its owner's character, which seemed interesting.
One of them was occupied with all French books. It seemed helpful because I started learning French again after our stay in the country about thirty years ago.
One of the books attracted me by the cover design, and I browsed through it. It may be a little... no...rather difficult for me. However, it was just like love at first sight, and I purchased it for only 200 yen.
Entering the store, I remembered that one of the followers of the social media "note" for which I was writing articles said that she published the story she wrote and sold them on the shelf like the ones the store had.
I asked the clerk, and to my delight, her books were sold at the annex of the same store on Suzuran St. The store was just a stone's throw from there.
My friend from "note" had her shelf on the third floor of the bookstore. I remembered how enthusiastically she was talking about her book and her own space of books.
I purchased a Sci-Fi story with a vast and exciting theme.
I will seek any way to contact her and let her know my thoughts on the story.
The store also had a small corner where customers could have drinks and light food. The light was dim, and a lady with long hair was reading a book, seemingly the one she had bought at the bookshop.
After leaving the store, we strolled through the streets, looking at the old books and the first published work by well-known masterpiece writers of all time without any intention of purchasing any of them. We ended our book viewing tour by buying two books by W. Shakespeare for a special price.
My husband was exhausted by the time I had got the four dear books, so we decided to go home. I made a bow to come back without him next time.
By the way, I used to write articles about fond memories of our stay in France on "note." In doing so, my hope to relearn French became irresistible, and now, I go to the nearby language school to learn the language from the first stage.
My tutor is very friendly and always says, "Quoi de neuf?" meaning, "What's new?"
I talked about the French book that I bought in Jinbocho. The tutor asked what caused me to buy it.
I replied that I simply liked the cover design and thought the contents seemed interesting when I browsed through the book.
Well, I wanted to describe that I didn't just turn the pages but simply went roughly through them, so I used the word "leaf through" in English.
He was all ears to my clumsy French and finally said that the English word, leafing through, is equal to "feuilleter" in French. I felt like I was up in the air when I found the two languages' meanings in common.
He then introduced another key to decide on a book to read: la quatrième couverture. It means the last cover and the digest or extracts from the book or the author's introduction are written down on that cover. That's true.
The most impressive thing to me, however, was the expression itself. FYI, the front page is called "la première couverture" and the both have "la deuxième couverture" and "la troisième couverture".
When we were in France, e-books didn't exist, and the image of French people back then was paper books, beautiful cursive writings, and a love for correct grammar. True, they used slang, but pupils were strictly taught the proper grammar at school. My daughters always complained with tears in their eyes that their teacher was rigorous, saying, " Mom, our teacher flaps our hands with her ruler when we make grammatical errors!"
(My daughters, by the way, narrowly escaped being hit!)
Anyway, I cannot stop feeling the pride for the country, the language, and the proper ecriture of French people.
Speaking of books, I've heard that the book merchandise on the bank of the Seine River called Boquinistes was ordered to clear their stalls by the authorities in preparation for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic games this summer.
The Boquinistes fought against this. Then, President Macron released the executive order, stating there was no need to clear the stalls. (Nikkei Newspaper, February 25).
President Macron himself has visited the stalls and enjoys selecting books to read.
Isn't it an exciting episode to make us feel the French culture of books and literature?
The Title of the book I bought in Jinbochou is "Nymphéas Noirs" by Michel BUSSI.
This detective story seems beyond my French ability, but someday, I will read it to the end.
＊＊＊＊＊
英語学習のために、そして英語と日本語とで文章を綴ってみたいという昔からの想いを込めて、時々日本語の記事と同じものを英語でも書いてみます。
AI による翻訳は使わず、日本語の記事を自分の気持で少しだけアレンジしながら書いていますので、完全な翻訳ではありません。間違いもあると思います。悪しからず。
スペルチェッカーは使用しています。お時間があったら読んでいただければ嬉しいです。
.
