World Book Day

Yesterday was the World Book Day. I realised it only in the morning, reading about it in the paper. How could I have missed such an event? Anyway, in Sweden they encouraged people to go out an read a book. Show the surrounding that you are reading a physical book, and hopefully inspire others to read.

World Book Day

"World Book Day is a charity event held annually in the United Kingdom and Ireland on the first Thursday in March. On World Book Day, every child in full-time education in the UK and Ireland is provided with a voucher to be spent on books; the event was first celebrated in the United Kingdom in 1998.

The event is the local manifestation of the original, global World Book Day organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing, and copyright, and widely observed on 23 April. Organizers in the UK moved the observance to avoid clashes with Easter school holidays and with Saint George's Day. Book publishers in Ireland decided to bring World Book Day to Ireland a number of years later." (from Wikipedia)

This year it was difficult for me to go out and read, having been down with a food poisioning recently and having just recovered. It was the first day I felt up to something and I had already, before being ill, bought tickets to the Opera to see La Bohème by Puccini. Luckily, yesterday was the first day I felt "safe" to venture out.

Since I was going alone, I decided to bring a book to read while waiting for the opera. I sat down in the foyer and took up my book. I do hope that someone saw me reading and got inspired, but who knows? What did I read, you might wonder.

I brought with me a book by the great, Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, Thirst for Love.

"Yukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. he wrote countless short stories and thirty-three plays. Several films have been made from his novels, including The Sound of Waves; Enjo, which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion; and The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask and Thirst for Love and the short-story collections Death in Midsummer and Acts of Worship.

After Mishima conceived the idea of The Sea of Fertility tetralogy in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On November 25th, 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuka (ritual suicide) at the age of 45." (from the book)

I loved his book The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea with its sad, but very poetic story (my review under link). This novel seems to have another, unusual love story.

"After the early death of her philandering husband, Etsuko moves into her father-in-law's house, where she numbly submits to the old man's advances. But soon she finds herself in love with the young servant Saburo. Tormented by his indifference, yet invigorated by her desire, she makes her move, with catastrophic consequences."

I just had time to read the first chapter. Mishima's books are not for reading fast and skimming over the pages. He forces you to read every word, think about them, turn them around and glory in the beauty of them all.