This Staff Picks corner isn’t organized by publisher or genre. It’s simply a place where I put the books I find myself wanting to hand to someone, right now.

When you spot a hand-lettered recommendation card at an independent bookstore, you catch a brief glimpse of the person who wrote it, their taste, their enthusiasm, something almost like their face. I’ve always wondered whether that same sense of a human presence could exist in a digital shelf. That’s what this corner is about.

You know how, when you visit a close friend’s home, you can’t help drifting over to their bookshelf to see what’s on it? I’d love for you to browse this space with that same easy curiosity. After all, what you see here is, in a way, a part of my own shelves.

This photograph was taken about eighty years ago, when my family ran a kashihonya (貸本屋), a rental bookshop, back in my hometown.

You can see the shop’s name on the sign above the entrance, and just beside the door, the characters for kashihonya are clearly visible. Books are lined up in front, and a poster advertising a manga sale is tacked to the wall.

A kashihonya occupied a space somewhere between a bookstore and a library. The business centered on lending out popular fiction and manga magazines at low prices. From what I’ve been told, it was a genuinely precious place for people who couldn’t always afford to buy books outright, somewhere they could still find stories, still find a little joy.

My grandmother used to say, “Lining up books is something like a prayer.”

She would choose and arrange each title with a quiet wish: May this book find its way to whoever needs it.

Time moves on, and the books I curate today are digital. But every time I sit down to choose a title, to think about which work to surface and how to present it, I hear my grandmother’s words again.

Whether you’re drawn in by a striking cover or searching with a very specific theme in mind, I hope this shelf becomes the place where you meet your next favorite work. There’s nothing that would make me happier.

About the Author

Kana

A manga reader who, together with her family, goes through 500+ titles a year. Conversations at home have been known to consist entirely of manga quotes. She has a soft spot for stories across all genres where the dialogue just clicks.