About Saikawa Goto’s Relationship with Books

Nice to meet you. I’m Saikawa Goto. Thank you for coming to my blog “Lushiluna”.

If you came directly to this page, please also take a look at the entire profile article.

In this article, I will write about my past experiences with books.

From Elementary School to High School

I have been reading books since I was in elementary school. At that time, I was reading the “ZUKKOKE SANNINGUMI” series (a famous children’s book series in Japan).

I don’t remember exactly why I started reading books, but my mother was a person who read books. However, the books she read were by Nishimura Kyotaro and Yamamura Misa (mystery writers popular with older readers), so I wasn’t reading my parent’s books.

I remember that I was reading books during school breaks “to spend calm”. During my student years, I had a strong sense of not fitting in with my surroundings and was afraid of being seen as “lonely”, so there was a sense of convenience in showing that “I am not alone. I just like reading books”.

If I had been good at communicating with others since childhood, I might not have lived a life of reading books.

Even in junior high and high school, I only read works by specific authors. I think I had a rather biased reading, without reading what is called “masterpieces and classics”.

College Days

During my first year of college, I don’t remember if I read any books or not, but I think I probably didn’t. It wasn’t until my second year of college that I started reading a wide variety of books. I don’t remember what sparked my interest, but one day during my second year of college, I suddenly went to BOOK OFF (a Japanese used bookstore chain) and bought a large number of books.

Among the books I bought at BOOK OFF was “Journey Under the Midnight Sun” by Higashino Keigo.

I didn’t even know about the author named Higashino Keigo, but I was attracted by the cover and picked up the book. I was shocked by “Journey Under the Midnight Sun” and became obsessed with reading novels from there. Thanks to Higashino Keigo, my interests expanded and I started looking for books to read.

For a while after that, I continued to read only novels.

Working as a Bookstore Clerk

After dropping out of college and going through a period of uncertainty, I started working as a bookstore clerk. Luckily, I was able to become the paperback book section person in charge after only six months of part-time work.

Since I had only been reading novels, I pushed them hard in the store. However, when the previous person in charge resigned, I was entrusted with other sections besides novels. This was the beginning of my reading other books besides novels.

Originally, I was a science major and attended a science faculty in college, so I think I had read some books on mathematics and physics. However, I had few opportunities to read books in the so-called non-fiction genre, such as social, economic, and crime books.

If I hadn’t become the person in charge of that, I might not have had the chance to read non-fiction books. Looking back, I think it was a great opportunity.

How Reading Books and Its Habits Changed Over Time

I feel that the way of reading books has changed over time.

When I was a second-year university student who just started reading novels, I think I read them just because they were interesting. At that time, reading books was probably the only hobby I had.

During my period of social withdrawal, I probably wasn’t in a mental state where I could read books very well (to be honest, I don’t remember much about that time), but if I was reading books during that time, I think I relied on them to somehow support my mind and body.

After becoming a bookstore clerk, I started reading books from the perspective of “how to sell this book.” Around this time, I feel like reading books stopped being a hobby.

Also, I think it was after I started working as a bookstore clerk, I started a blog to write my book reviews (not Lushiluna, a different blog I made for free), and I developed a habit of “always writing a review after reading a book.” This is still the case today, and for me, the process of writing a review is part of reading a book.

By writing my thoughts after reading a book, I feel that my “ability to articulate my thoughts” has greatly improved. Also, Reading a book from the perspective of “how to sell the book” has also helped me to think about what aspects of the book should be converted and emphasized to attract what kind of people. I feel that this “ability to articulate” and “conversion skill” have been helpful in other aspects of my life as well.

I have spent most of my life reading books and writing my thoughts about them. If I hadn’t read books, I wouldn’t know what kind of life I would have lived. To this day, I have encountered very few things that I am passionate about, and I don’t feel like I can say that I am passionate about reading, but I feel certain that it is something that has helped me survive this long.