A reading club after my retirement

 

I was appointed vice-chair of the Ishikawa Prefecture Reading Club Liaison Council at its 2023 general meeting, and I am honored to be writing this humble editorial. I am a newcomer, having only been participating in the Nonoichi City 'Notsuyu(Wild dew)' Reading Club for around 10 years since I retired. I have never met the founder of the Nonoichi City Reading Club Liaison Council, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year, and I simply attend each reading group as a literary enthusiast.

I discovered the reading group while searching for a place to belong after retirement, and it was also my debut in the local area, as I had originally moved here from Kanazawa. The group was in decline at the time, so my joining was very well received, and I soon took over the reading club as representative from Mrs.Okuda. This automatically meant I also took on the roles of committee member on the Library Council and permanent director of the Cultural Association, which suddenly made me very busy. As a result, I have little interaction with the library or the city's Lifelong Learning Division, and my approach to reading and reading club activities may be unusual among a group of people who are all veterans of local reading club activities.

Looking back on my reading history, I realize that reading the complete works of world literature one volume at a time in my first year of high school is quite unique. Reading back then was a uniquely adolescent obsession, and I still look back on it fondly. I empathized with the protagonist, almost becoming one with him, and read with rapt attention. While it could be described as reliving the experience, it also affected my entrance exam studies, causing me to refuse to go to school for about ten days, which was quite a difficult experience. But those experiences shaped me, for better or worse, and I believe I've managed to make reading a habit even today.

As with all book clubs, the membership is mostly female. This is because women have better communication skills; men are not good at sharing their impressions and are not good at acknowledging differences and cooperating. I've acted as an advisor at a "book reading group" three times, and I feel that gender differences are evident in the impressions they give. Men tend to explain the text they've read and use descriptive language, while women tend to express their feelings in their own words. While the latter is a more appropriate comment, men are likely to want to add their own evaluations.

I strongly wish more men would participate in book clubs, but is there any need to improve the current system? With this in mind, I recently read Kobayashi Hideo's "On Reading," and I noticed that the criticism is from the reader's perspective. Critics have a somewhat arrogant image, but if you hold back a little and accept the criticism honestly, you can read more deeply and sometimes understand the issues better than the author writes. Once you realize that reading and understanding can sometimes take precedence over writing, you can read a novel and not just think it was interesting, and you can learn in a broader sense. I think that if people realize that this kind of learning is possible, the number of male members will increase.

Recently, I toured the Kitaro Nishida Memorial Museum as part of the Nonoichi Library Council. At the beginning of the tour, there were manga to familiarize people with philosophy, and there was an introduction to the philosophers who influenced Nishida. When I asked the curator if they had any Hegel works, he replied, "Yes, we do. Do you like him?" When I replied, "I've recently started to like him," she looked pleased. The curator was a woman. As a curator, she likely read Hegel. Apparently, Nishida Kitaro kept Hegel's works close by throughout his life. I bring this up because I feel that women tend to shy away from difficult books like philosophy, missing out on the experience of thinking. When one read a novel and there's something they don't understand, they try to research it for an answer, but I believe it's important to think before researching.

I fell in love with Hegel because I learned about Hegel's dialectics through the explanations of a scholar named Kato Naotake. Without that guide, I would remain completely lost. Conversely, with the right guide, understanding is possible.

A few years ago, Nonoichi hosted a talk show featuring Yuikawa Kei, who talked about climbing Mount Everest to write "Junko's Summit." I was impressed by his authorial spirit, as he decided that even though he had little experience in mountain climbing, he needed to climb Mount Everest in order to write Junko Tabei's novel. Reading is similar to mountain climbing. If you shy away from it because it's difficult, you'll never have the opportunity to read the Everest of novels. Unless you practice, even if it's just a little at a time, through challenging reading experiences, you'll never reach the pinnacle of reading. However, practice requires the right coach or teacher; without the help of a guide who meets your needs, it's impossible.

I'm part of a volunteer group called the "Tale of Genji Reading Club" in Nonoichi, and the other day we read up to the "Dragonfly" chapter. There are only two chapters left. It took four years, reading one chapter a month, with some months off. I'm feeling a sense of regret about ending it, as I'm losing track of Genji. As I mentioned at the beginning, next year marks the 40th anniversary of the Nonoichi City Reading Club Liaison Council. My friends and I are realizing that persistence is power.