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I don’t remember when I read a book for pleasure, on paper, all the way through. I’ve been reading RPG books and manga on my tablet, and some e-books. But with things quieting down in our lives, I had time to simply sit down and read again. I used to be a voracious reader, but somewhere along the line I just… stopped. I did create a little reading nook — we now have enough space that I can put a chair in a spot without TV or computers. The chesterfield chair is on it’s way, I’m using a rattan chair we still had standing around until it arrives.

When I was re-arranging the books in the bookcases to sort things out (we had dumped books to quickly empty boxes but had not really sorted them out) I came across a book I bought in a bookstore in Greenwich when we visited there in 2017, but I had never gotten started in it. It was the first two parts of The Tale of Shikanoko, based on old Japanese legends.

Somewhere halfway the first part I was gripped, but of course the second part was nowhere to be found these days — in the end I bought a set of four from a second-hand bookstore in the Netherlands.

The thing that I dislike about “historical” stories is the way that men of power casually enact violence against those of less privilege — including sexual violence. This series is no exception, because even though it’s fantasy, it’s based on historical novels. But it’s not the main focus of the story, and it never gets gratuitous — though there are some seriously unpleasant people. Almost everyone who has bad plans with others gets a bad ending, so there is poetic justice there.

I’m not sure if I’d recommend it. I found it fascinating, but if you’re not a weeb or otherwise interested in Japanese history, I would not recommend it.

Crossposted from my blog. Comment here or at the original post.