Week 10: お探し物は図書室まで 📚📖 (Intermediate Book Club)

Join the Intermediate Book Club Here!
お探し物は図書室まで :books::open_book: home thread

Week 10

Week 10 Aug 2 2025
pages 145 - 157
kindle locations 1471 - 1603
End % 49 %
End phrase 終えないまま朝を迎えた。
Previous week Week 9
Next week Week 11

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle_the_explorer:

Proper Nouns

Name Reading Notes chapter week
森永 のぞみ もりなが のぞみ librarian’s assistant 1 2
小町 さゆり こまち さゆり the librarian 1 2
崎谷 夏美 さきたに なつみ this chapter´s narrator 3 9
双葉 ふたば Natsumi´s daughter 3 9
万有社 ばんゆうしゃ publisher, Natsumi´s employer 3 9
ミラ Mila, magazine for young women 3 9
修二 しゅうじ Natsumi´s husband 3 9
空の音社 そらのおとしゃ other publisher 3 9
メイプル書房 めいぷるしょぼう other publisher 3 9
星雲館 ? other publisher 3 9
じぇろっぷ misspelled ゲロブ (see below) 3 9
はだしのゲロブ children´s book 3 9
彼方 みづえ かなた みづえ novelist 3 9
月のとびら つきのとびら Natsumi’s extra book 3 10
石井 ゆかり いしい ゆかり author of the extra book 3 10
木澤 きざわ deputy editor-in-chief of Mira 3 10

Participation

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.
(Please feel free to update your status whenever you like!)

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished
  • I’m no longer reading the book
0 voters

If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!

4 Likes

I couldn’t find the children’s books, but the extra recommendation Natsumi gets is a real book:

4 Likes

Interesting! That was the one I assumed was a fictional book!

This was an interesting week. I like this character and I hope things are going the way I think they are going.

天 地 小口 - interesting that these can all be used to describe parts of a book.

憚られた - liked this kanji

懇意 - liked the first kanji in this word and then realised this is a word I once learned and have long since forgotten on WaniKani!

The meeting with 木澤さん was tough. This is the person that waltzed into your company and took your job, and now calls you to the door and gives you menial jobs to do. However, she has given the chance to meet みづえ先生 so things are looking up…

2 Likes

I just noticed that the author of 月のとびら (石井ゆかり) also wrote the 解説 for お探し物は図書室まで in my paperback edition.

3 Likes

BTW: Natsumi has been given the felt globe, which leaves two objects from the book cover for the last chapter. Will the narrator in chapter 4 be given the plane or the crab - or both?

EDIT: Oops, there are 2 chapters/stories left, so we will probably continue to have one object per story.

3 Likes

I like the flip from the first story. That story’s character asked for adult books, and got a children’s book as a bonus recommendation - this story’s character asked for children’s books, and got an adult book as a bonus.

This story’s character is the first one to receive what seems to be a more straightforward self help book. The other two had bonus book recommendations that changed their thinking in quite unpredictable ways.

Looking forward to finding out the role of the globe, it seems almost impossible to try and predict!

3 Likes

I’m not sure what’s the context here but 天地人 are the 三才. I’ve seen this pop up from time to time. 心 and 口 are something else though…

1 Like

They are obviously quite flexible words! The context was she was looking at a book in the library and examining the outside. They commented on the 天 (the top of the book), the 地 (bottom - of a package, book, etc.), and the 小口 (the cut ends of the pages).

2 Likes

Well look at that… I’m catching up…!

This week’s comments are all very interesting and I am glad they were shared.

Especially @Micki pointing out that 天 and 地 were book parts! I caught the 小口, but after staring long and hard at the book cover @2000kanji linked in the comment, I concluded the descriptions were of the deep blue heavens/space (天) and the earth (地) image. Very poetic way to describe book parts. And as this book is about books, I am happy to learn this kind of detail !

Here is a website with all the parts listed:

Also really neat to read from @pm215 that the 解説 (dust cover “blurb”) is by the author of the book Natsumi received. With the wool felt figures on the front, and the blurb, there are little clues to the story sprinkled all over the cover of the book. It is the same in translated books? It seems so thoughtfully put together.

Story-wise

when I read Komachi-san’s description to Natsumi that the biggest struggle you make in your life is when you are born, I wasn’t as moved by this encouragement? Partly because I remember nothing prior to the age of three…

2 Likes

Nice chapter! Looking forward to how it all settles down.

reply

That was how Natsumi saw it, but I wonder if it is even true. It might be so that Kizawa really wants to switch places and live by the schedule. Sometimes envy goes both ways :slight_smile:

3 Likes