Cultivating with a Hundred Books: Reading Techniques to "Become Free"

When it comes to books, you should just read whatever you like, however you like.

That is true. However, I also believe there is no harm in having countless books on the theory of reading in the world. This is because reading about reading makes you want to read books. In fact, I have read many essays on reading and have been inspired by them. Shinzo Koizumi-sensei's "On Reading" (Iwanami Shinsho) is one of them.

At the request of my editor, I ended up publishing my own book on reading theory. If there is anything that distinguishes it from similar books, it is that every chapter is structured in two parts: Side A and Side B. For example, Chapter 1 is "Side A: Speed Reading Techniques / Side B: Slow Reading Manners." There are books in the world that preach the benefits of speed reading. There are also books that emphasize the harmful effects of speed reading and recommend slow, intensive reading.

Which one is correct?

Both are correct, and both are wrong. In the first place, if you cannot speed read, you likely cannot manage intensive reading either.

One more thing. This might be a characteristic, or perhaps a flaw, but throughout the entire book, there is a sense that I am muttering in a delirium. A young reader pointed out that because the author (me) is in a feverish state, the book is "full of things to nitpick."

Checking off a list of classical literature from top to bottom. Daring to read difficult books on philosophy, thought, mathematics, and other natural sciences. Throwing oneself into books in foreign languages (and several of them at that).

The tone in which I describe these things is high-pitched and excited. The person writing it has a perfectly normal face while preaching incredibly radical things. It's crazy. It's laughable.

That is what they say.

Indeed. Reading it back, I was appalled myself. However, if asked whether I would rewrite it if given the chance for a new edition, I would have to say no.

In this busy era, why do we go out of our way to buy paper books and read them in such a gloomy, tedious way, instead of surfing the net, asking ChatGPT, or watching explanatory YouTube videos?

It is to be alone. It is to get used to solitude. Then, why is it necessary to get used to solitude? That is...

See, there it goes again. The delirium is starting.

Cultivating with a Hundred Books: Reading Techniques to "Become Free"

Kotaro Kondo

CCC Media House

314 pages, 1,760 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.