NABC Store Manager's Diary — August 7, 2026 (Fri)

It's hot again today. In that heat, Kotomi-san, who helps with the ZINE, visited the shop. She went out of her way to bring the invoice for the ZINE that was delivered the other day. When I said an email would have been fine, she said, 'I wanted to meet and talk' ❤️ Thank you! A woman was intently looking at the books on the sales floor. When I spoke to her, she said she had read the article in the Yomiuri Shimbun — thanks to 'Bookstores, hooray'. But actually, she said she had heard my reading at an event at TOUTENBOOKSTORE in Kanayama a few years ago (!) and that it was the first time as an adult to have someone read to her; she was so moved she almost cried. When I checked photos — because I had done picture-book events several times at TOUTEN with my librarian colleague Ohashi during my librarian days — it seemed to have been the event on February 5, 2022. Has it already been four years? My face was pictured in the Yomiuri article, and that's how she knew I was at the current shop and came to see me. I'm truly grateful. We talked about various things, like the Momochihama library, the authors read there, and the Booksellers Award, and had a lively conversation. After she left, a young woman who had been listening to that conversation eagerly asked about the Booksellers Award. When we talked, she said she's a third-year high school student who reads a lot of novels and had read many of the Booksellers Award nominated works — I was surprised. There's a library near her home and she's been using it since she was little. She said she'd like to work part-time at a bookstore when she becomes a university student.