Tokyo Bookstore 'Made Me Fall Back in Love with Print'

Shelf Awareness

In an essay for Gone, author Tom Downey recounted his visit to the flagship Tokyo store of multimedia chain Tsutaya, which "felt like a testament to the continued power and relevance of the written word --a place where browsing, reading and buying books and magazines was a popular and pleasurable experience....

"It's not just that Tsutaya feels more upscale than other bookstores. It's that it celebrates words and books, and the people who read and write them, in a thoughtful, seductive, and ultra-contemporary way.... The longer I spent roaming the stacks, the more I became convinced that this store holds the key to understanding that deeper connection. I also felt like I was falling back in love with the printed word myself, which came as something of a shock --I'm a self-confessed, early-adopting, SIM card-swapping travel geek, currently on my seventh Kindle. This was not a nostalgic, Luddite moment, but a response to five specific principles that became increasingly clear to me as I wandered, browsed, read and reflected."

Downey's five takeaways from his Tsutaya experience:

1. Writing and reading are fundamentally physical activities.
2. Human beings make pretty powerful information sources, too.
3. Print combines words and images in a uniquely powerful way.
4. Sometimes, wandering beats being directed.
5. Printed books help to make you who you are.