No Longer Human on I Am a Cat: “I picked Soseki's I Am a Cat from the bookshelf and gave it to her. [auto-translated]”
No Longer Human on Crime and Punishment: “Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky. It grazed a corner of my mind, and I gasped: what if Dostoevsky had not treated crime and punishment as synonyms, but set them side by side as antonyms? [auto-translated]”
The Setting Sun on A Sportsman's Sketches: “"What about Turgenev?" "He's an aristocrat. That's why I dislike him." "But A Sportsman's Sketches..." "Yes, that one is rather good, I admit." [auto-translated]”
The Setting Sun on Introduction to Political Economy: “In the room next to the parlor, I was reading Rosa Luxemburg's Introduction to Political Economy with a strange excitement. I had brought it from Naoji's room upstairs the other day. [auto-translated]”
The Setting Sun on Selected Works of Lenin: “Along with it I had also borrowed, without asking, the Selected Works of Lenin and Kautsky's The Social Revolution, and set them on my desk in the next room. [auto-translated]”
The Setting Sun on The Social Revolution: “I had also borrowed, without asking, Lenin's selected works and Kautsky's The Social Revolution, and set them on my desk in the next room. [auto-translated]”
Schoolgirl on Madame Curie: “Standing still in the same pose, I suddenly crave money. If I had ten yen it would do. Of all the books, I most want to read 'Madame Curie.' Then I find myself wishing that Mother will live a long life. [auto-translated]”
Schoolgirl on A Strange Tale from East of the River: “While I tend the bath, sitting on a mandarin-orange crate by the flickering coal fire, I finish my homework, and then reread 'A Strange Tale from East of the River.' What it describes is not ugly or dirty at all, but here and there I notice the author's affectation, and it feels old and uncertain. [auto-translated]”
Schoolgirl on Heart: “Tonight, after the massage, I read a little of 'Heart' to Mother as a bonus. Whenever I read it, I get the same feeling I had as a small child, and my own heart feels honest and clean. Mother cried, head bowed, at the parts about Enrico and Garrone. [auto-translated]”
Schoolgirl on Belle de Jour: “The other day I was reading Kessel's 'Belle de Jour' when Mother quietly took the book from me and glanced at the cover. She looked very gloomy but said nothing and handed it straight back, and I no longer felt like reading on. [auto-translated]”