Yoko Ogawa Loves Finding Love at the Bookstore

What books are on your night stand?

Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” and Yasunari Kawabata’s “Palm-of-the-Hand Stories.”

Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?

In middle school, a teacher scolded me for reading while I was supposed to be weeding in the schoolyard during after-school cleanup time.

How have your reading tastes changed over time?

Since childhood, reading has been more than just a hobby for me. You might say that I can’t find meaning in life without books. Since becoming a writer, I’ve had more occasion to read for work than for my own enjoyment, but I can’t say that has caused me any distress at all. Even if a book isn’t suited to my personal taste, there is always something to be gained by reading it, always some light that it will shed on my life from an unexpected angle.

Describe your ideal reading experience.

Finishing early with whatever I had planned, I wander through town and come across a bookstore. I go in, with no intention of buying anything. Suddenly, my gaze meets the spine of a certain book. We exchange glances. I buy the book, go home and become completely absorbed. I’m filled with joy at the thought that this book has chosen me.

What’s the last great book you read?

“Primeval and Other Times,” by Olga Tokarczuk (translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones); “A Whole Life,”by Robert Seethaler (translated by Charlotte Collins); and “The Cremator,” by Ladislav Fuks (translated by Eva M. Kandler).

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Who are the Japanese writers overdue for translation into English?

If I could name only one, it would probably be Kenji Miyazawa. There may already be translations, but I feel that his dynamic appeal in works that move freely between historical periods and languages, between human beings and animals, between the Earth and the universe, should be more widely known.