[Feature: New Theory of Reading] <Reading Landscapes> Creating Places for Real Encounters with Books in the Search Era / Yoshitaka Haba

Amazon Japan was established in 2000, when I was a bookstore clerk at Aoyama Book Center. The internet was still in the dial-up era, but sales gradually began to decline. However, what I feared most was the decrease in the number of customers visiting the store.

I believe that a book "only becomes a book when someone other than the author opens it." It doesn't start until someone turns the pages. By being exposed to the eyes of others, heat gradually accumulates there, becoming a swirling energy. However, as the number of visitors decreased, bookstores gradually became "cold."

I thought that if people weren't coming to bookstores, I had no choice but to take books to where the people were, which led to my current job as a book director. After leaving Aoyama Book Center, I worked at the editing production company of Jiro Ishikawa, the former editor-in-chief of BRUTUS. In 2003, I handled the book selection for "TSUTAYA TOKYO ROPPONGI" (now Roppongi Tsutaya Books), and later founded my company in 2005. Recently, I have more work with public and corporate libraries than with bookstores. I have also worked on the bookshelves for the Kobe City Eye Center Hospital, a medical facility for the visually impaired. I am allowed to let books "seep out" into various locations.

There are two main things I consider in my work. First, since the world has become completely search-oriented, people only pick up books they already know. In response, I want to scatter opportunities to pick up unknown books throughout the world. Second, amidst the intense competition for time, including smartphones, I want to figure out how to get people to turn their attention to books that take time to read.

To achieve this, I want to be particular about how books are "presented" to the world. For example, if books selected for a public library are simply arranged according to the NDC (Nippon Decimal Classification), it will be difficult to attract modern people. First, I want to entice people toward books by being creative with the classification and the way signs are displayed.

Due to the new coronavirus, the opening on March 1st was postponed, but "Nakanoshima Children's Book Forest" has been completed. This is a cultural facility for children in Nakanoshima, Osaka, built by Tadao Ando through donations and gifted to Osaka City. Our company has become a joint designated manager, and as the creative director, I am selecting books and creating shelves using an original classification system rather than the NDC.

For example, right by the entrance, there is a sign that says "Let's Play with Nature," where there are books about the river flowing in front of us and the trees planted in Nakanoshima Park. Rather than writing a classification code like "481," displaying a sign like "For People Who Love Animals" will undoubtedly reach a child's heart more effectively. We are also making efforts to get people to pick up books by extracting passages from the text like aphorisms and displaying them as three-dimensional objects.

In the "Book Forest," there is a 17-meter-high empty cylindrical space. We use video works to project words from books or parts of picture books there, and then guide visitors by showing which floor and where that book is located. It is a facility that uses every possible method to encourage curiosity about books, getting children to pick them up and open the pages.

If a passage of words catches someone's heart, they will read the book. That introduction is vital. It's not just about placing books; it's about the intention behind gathering and arranging them. If that intention isn't communicated, people won't understand why the book is there or how we want them to pick it up. As a professional, I don't want to create a forced "Read this!" atmosphere, but rather a state where they find themselves reading before they even realize it.

Currently, I feel there is a lot of information and goods that are consumed and flow away for the sake of flow-type, temporary communication. People are cashing in or exchanging clothes on platforms like Mercari. However, I don't think humans can be satisfied with that alone. Things that form a part of yourself, things that pierce deeply into you and cannot be removed, cannot be easily handed over to the flow.

I believe paper books have the power to pierce a person's heart in that way. This is because once they are printed, they cannot be rewritten. Digital content can be rewritten at any time and has no end. Because paper books cannot be rewritten, they harbor a kind of obsession from the writers, editors, and everyone involved who wants to deliver something. That is why I think they easily pierce the human heart.

Nowadays, basically everything in the world is share-based. Social media is like that, and in games, everyone goes to defeat monsters together. However, a book can only be read by one person. I believe this necessity of falling into solitude is what enriches a person.

The reader somehow receives the soul of the words wrung out by the writer, and a one-on-one transfer of spirit occurs. That act seems very precious to me. Confronting the writer while deepening one's thoughts is extremely important in the AI era, where the meaning and value of being human are wavering. In that sense, I believe paper books are the media of the future. [Interview]