I read “What You Are Looking For Is in the Library” during one of the most emotionally tangled times of this year, just before I travelled to my home country. At that moment, I was really feeling the weight of stress and frustration: deadlines, emotional distance, and a huge uncertainty about where things were heading. You know those moments when the world keeps moving, but it feels like you’ve forgotten how to keep up? That was me.
When I picked up Michiko Aoyama’s book, I wasn’t expecting much. I wanted something light. What I got was something quietly profound.
The novel is structured around six people who find their lives changed after a visit to a library and an encounter with Sayuri Komachi, a librarian who hands out books that seem completely off — at first. These characters, all lost in different ways, find new directions, confidence, or hope through these interactions. But unlike them, I didn’t get a metaphorical book from a mysterious librarian. What I did get was a kind of warmth and affirmation I didn’t realize I needed.
What I loved most was how Aoyama’s characters never achieve flashy success or make radical life changes. Their growth is subtle, interior, and real. They choose slightly different paths, reconnect with forgotten dreams, or simply accept who they are with a little more grace. And perhaps that was the reflection I needed.
Notes#
- Jobs can be a clue to somebody’s character. A short-cut way of describing them. But only in a limited, stereotyped sort of way [….] All of a sudden my impression of him switches from gentle-mannered, nice guy to smart intellectual. See, even previous jobs have the power to influence your image of a person.
- In a world where you don’t know what will happen next, I just do what I can right now.
- If you don’t know what to do with an egg in the first place, you wouldn’t think of castella. She’s right. Now I get it. When they found the egg, they knew what it could be used for, because they already knew how to make castella.
- But I know that no matter where I work, the stress of human relations is not something I can easily escape.
- The kind of flotsam that mostly gets labelled as garbage. Yet from another perspective, these are treasures, and the beach is one vast foraging ground for finding such things.
- As long as you continue to say the words “one day”, the dream is not over. Maybe it will simply remain a beautiful dream. It may never come true. But that is one way to live, in my opinion. The days go by more happily when you have something to dream about. It’s not always a bad thing to have a dream, with no plan for ever carrying it out.’
- If ‘one day’ are magic words that keep a dream alive, what do I need to say to make it real? ‘But if you need to know what lies beyond the dream, you need to know.’
- A parallel career means having two careers that are complementary, with neither being secondary to the other.
- Ryo, let me ask, why do you want to open an antiques shop? Not just to be surrounded by antiques, surely – why open a shop?’
- Most of the time we humans only look at the flowers or fruit of a plant, because we live above ground. We switch our attention to below ground only when the roots have a particular interest for us, as in the case of sweet potatoes or carrots. Yet from a plant’s perspective, above ground and below ground are equally important and in perfect balance. Humans only see what suits them most, and make that their main focus, but for plants
- Yes, trust. Anything you do – borrowing money from a bank, commissioning a piece of work, sending or receiving a parcel, making a plan with friends, ordering food at a restaurant – all those things can only happen because of mutual trust on both sides.’
- No doubt the company believed their decision was for the best. But I didn’t want it to be easy. To me it was like being told I was no longer useful. I felt as if I had been pushed into a deep, black hole.
- whenever I feel happy or glad about something, I count my blessings and think to myself, Now, wasn’t that worth all the effort of being born?’
- Ms Komachi continued: ‘The good thing about felting is that you can start again halfway through. Even after your project begins to take shape, you can easily change direction along the way if you feel that you want to make something different after all.’
- In the world of astrology the moon signifies mothers, wives, incidents from childhood, emotions, the flesh, changes, and so on.
- Apparently the overlapping of the image of the swollen belly of a pregnant woman’s body with the moon is due to the fact that the menstrual cycle and the lunar cycle are in sync.
- The heart has two eyes to perceive that which is not visible to the eye. One is the ‘Sun Eye’, which sheds a bright light on our understanding of things from a rational and logical perspective. The other is the ‘Moon Eye’, which perceives things through instinct or emotion, in our imagination or dreams, such as seeing ghosts in the dark or entertaining a secret love. Both eyes exist in our hearts.
- If I put myself at the centre of everything, does that mean I always see myself as a victim? And why I always end up wondering why can’t people do things that work for me.
- You may say that it was the book, but it’s how you read a book that is most valuable, rather than any power it might have itself.’
- Creatures that adapt to their environment survive, while those that cannot adapt become extinct. That’s basically the idea.
- That’s why Darwin was scared about going public with his theory. Wallace wasn’t, though; Wallace just kept on writing and publishing.
- A magnificently preserved specimen. According to the caption, it’s called a Confuciusornis, and it lived in the Early Cretaceous period.
- A lot of people don’t like it, do they? They can’t stand pineapple in sweet and sour pork. But it never disappears, does it? Why is that?
- The majority may not accept something, but as long as there are some who do, the existence of that thing – whatever it may be – is protected.
- ‘Favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed.’
- I’m still searching. Searching for somewhere I can be accepted as I am. Just one place is all I need. Somewhere to be at peace.
- What did Wallace really think about Darwin? Did he genuinely regard Darwin as a ‘good friend’? Despite not receiving any glory for the theory of evolution?
- Perhaps my problem all along was not being in the right environment. One where I could make the most of myself.
- It is natural in the food section to expect that crabs would be sold for consumption, but when suddenly presented with the option of keeping them as a pet instead, I don’t know what to think. Be eaten or be loved.
- ‘Belonging is an ambiguous state, you know. Take this place, for example. We can both be in the same place, but having that sheet of glass between us makes us feel as if what is happening on the other side is irrelevant, doesn’t it? Remove the partition, however, and instantly you become part of the same world. Even though it is all one to begin with.’
Cover photo from penguin.com.au