dairyflat wrote:martinb wrote:Where in Japan are you?
Certainly am in Japan here with young kids.
My own reading has dropped off. Haven’t read a new book in the last year tbh. Read a weekly paper and online news.
Kanagawa, south of Tokyo.
There’s a real variety in libraries. You can tell who put their 80s dosh into books or in the case that directly affects me, foreign language books.
It’s also interesting- you seem to be able to join a lot of libraries not in your local town. One thing that is quite cool about Japan is the local community involvement with things.
I know you can borrow e-books in many NZ libraries for example. But I don’t know what else you can do online here, apart from renew books, cos it serves people with local literacy.
There’s this whole culture of sitting in a library or a cafe or family restaurant all day to study. There’s often rows of desks and queues for them at opening time. Some libraries are quite spartan, and only a few have big comfy arm chairs or sitting spaces I’ve seen in NZ.
To be honest, the analog in Japan was part of its charm. Self checkouts at my local supermarket have arrived since I got here. The libraries have old guys dressed up in good clothes, checking out newspapers to read in house, and many things that are receding quickly in New Zealand. Are there any broadsheets left?
Even since I’ve been here, too, the last Tsutaya’s have mostly rolled up. These were huge! Movie rentals, but also music rentals and you’d rent CDs and make mix tapes. Massive end of a cultural era.
Libraries are usually concrete floors, rather than carpet. Occasionally they or museums are in a private, more modern building and then they’re a little more comfortable.
But often the vibe can be exam hall with bookshelves for many parts.
There will be a little kids section. It’s often an elevated no shoes section with a wood floor or carpet. As well as books they also have big story cards to tell to kids. I think these used to be told in public for donations 80-100+ years ago and then an influx of newsprint lead to them becoming manga. But kindergartens and libraries still use the numbered cards in a frame these days. Story on the back, pictures on the front.
I’ve bought a bunch of books through the second hand stores, but mostly Grisham’s and easy reads and relatives sent me heavy worthy stuff, but I’ve hardly read any of them. Booklets of local birds, local histories…I think that was the last thing I made an effort to read was something about a local samurai family.
I find online really annoying as a library or an archive, particularly for movies. I wanted to show my kids some old musicals and they were really hard to get hold of. I think that should be alarming to anyone interested in the accessibility of our culture. And occasionally I use the internet archive, but they’re thinking of preservation, not necessarily an HD copy or ease of watching. Kind of like the period of the destruction of Greek and Roman libraries in medieval times, it feels like many things will be destroyed through neglect or ideology.
Preventing access online to things feels too easily done.
I guess as well most households here would have a version of a Switch. Study is highly valued and will be forever. There is a strong bookshop and library sector, but how valued personal reading is compared to games/phones/tablets as a hobby I’m not sure. Then there’s manga, which is popular but also looked down on, which perhaps doesn’t help. Perhaps reading is a class distinction even, when it wasn’t so much in either country, not so long ago.
Edit: and here’s me using the forum and avoiding reading on a wet Sunday morning. 😄
There’s a real variety in libraries. You can tell who put their 80s dosh into books or in the case that directly affects me, foreign language books.
It’s also interesting- you seem to be able to join a lot of libraries not in your local town. One thing that is quite cool about Japan is the local community involvement with things.
I know you can borrow e-books in many NZ libraries for example. But I don’t know what else you can do online here, apart from renew books, cos it serves people with local literacy.
There’s this whole culture of sitting in a library or a cafe or family restaurant all day to study. There’s often rows of desks and queues for them at opening time. Some libraries are quite spartan, and only a few have big comfy arm chairs or sitting spaces I’ve seen in NZ.
To be honest, the analog in Japan was part of its charm. Self checkouts at my local supermarket have arrived since I got here. The libraries have old guys dressed up in good clothes, checking out newspapers to read in house, and many things that are receding quickly in New Zealand. Are there any broadsheets left?
Even since I’ve been here, too, the last Tsutaya’s have mostly rolled up. These were huge! Movie rentals, but also music rentals and you’d rent CDs and make mix tapes. Massive end of a cultural era.
Libraries are usually concrete floors, rather than carpet. Occasionally they or museums are in a private, more modern building and then they’re a little more comfortable.
But often the vibe can be exam hall with bookshelves for many parts.
There will be a little kids section. It’s often an elevated no shoes section with a wood floor or carpet. As well as books they also have big story cards to tell to kids. I think these used to be told in public for donations 80-100+ years ago and then an influx of newsprint lead to them becoming manga. But kindergartens and libraries still use the numbered cards in a frame these days. Story on the back, pictures on the front.
I’ve bought a bunch of books through the second hand stores, but mostly Grisham’s and easy reads and relatives sent me heavy worthy stuff, but I’ve hardly read any of them. Booklets of local birds, local histories…I think that was the last thing I made an effort to read was something about a local samurai family.
I find online really annoying as a library or an archive, particularly for movies. I wanted to show my kids some old musicals and they were really hard to get hold of. I think that should be alarming to anyone interested in the accessibility of our culture. And occasionally I use the internet archive, but they’re thinking of preservation, not necessarily an HD copy or ease of watching. Kind of like the period of the destruction of Greek and Roman libraries in medieval times, it feels like many things will be destroyed through neglect or ideology.
Preventing access online to things feels too easily done.
I guess as well most households here would have a version of a Switch. Study is highly valued and will be forever. There is a strong bookshop and library sector, but how valued personal reading is compared to games/phones/tablets as a hobby I’m not sure. Then there’s manga, which is popular but also looked down on, which perhaps doesn’t help. Perhaps reading is a class distinction even, when it wasn’t so much in either country, not so long ago.
Edit: and here’s me using the forum and avoiding reading on a wet Sunday morning. 😄