Prologue
I am Motosuu Rano, 22 years of age.
I really, REALLY love books, and love them much more than a steady source of food.
I love being able to touch someone else’s knowledge through the written word, and even to bear witness to their delusions. From there on, being able to follow the writers thoughts is enough to make my heart dance and face break into a smile.
Reading a single volume filled with knowledge gives me a very accomplished feeling. Being able to see a completely unknown world, be it through fiction or the photo albums at the bookstore, can really help to broaden your horizons, don’t you think?
Even the old stories and fairy tales of different countries can really give you the sense of being able to glimpse at the customs and society of another place and time. Every single place and time has its own history and culture contained within it, and being able to peruse throughout it can really make you lose track of time.
Psychology, Religion, History, Geography, Education, Folkloristics, Mathematics, Physics, Geology, Chemistry, Biology, Art, Athletics, Language, and stories… I love books, which contain the massively piled up knowledge that humanity has obtained, from the bottom of my heart.
The bulky and unwieldy encyclopedias that continue forever,
The complete works of literature that contain every single volume,
The textbooks that look plain and simple at first glance, but are sophisticated within,
The magazines that contain colorful photographs throughout their pages,
The novels that contain difficult to understand expressions of writing,
The light novels that are thin and sparse of content, but sell many volumes,
The large picture books that all children love to read,
The manga that can be said to be a piece of culture that Japan can be proud of,
Even the doujinshi that amateurs put their heart and soul into,
Once I open up each one, they intoxicate me like the finest of wine.
After all of that, I love slowly breathing in the distinctive moldy and dusty air contained within a library archive filled with old books. All of those books, relics of a long gone past, are enough to make me writhe towards climax.
Of course, I also can’t get enough of the smell of new paper and ink, just imagining what sorts of new knowledge is written within fills me with joy.
I want to live my whole life completely surrounded by books.
If I could, I would live my whole life in a library built to not let books get sun damaged, but still allow ample ventilation.
Even if by my lifestyle for books I’m called creepy with my pale skin, being unhealthy and out of shape, and scolded for forgetting meals, I’ll never let go of my books!
If we are all going to die anyway, I would like to die by being buried with books. I think lying in bed getting buried by books is much better than dying peacefully on the floor.
… No, to be more exact, I thought that.
In fact, I just died getting buried by books during a massive earthquake!
Indeed, exactly as I had requested, what of it?
I just got my long cherished wish, but I can’t honestly say thank you to god. I just took the librarian exam, and in this age of scarce employment I was just hired as a librarian at a university library.
God, please hear my wish.
If possible, please reincarnate me.
I haven’t read nearly enough, even in the next life, I want to read more and more.
And I also want to be a librarian at a large library.
All day long, I want to live my life surrounded by books.
Of course, I know that a librarians job is not to read books. If I actually started seriously working, I wouldn’t be able to read books. Of course I know that.
Even still, if I took another job, I wouldn’t be able to spend nearly as much time surrounded by books. Just by being surrounded by books gives me happiness.
Just being able to breathe in the scent of paper and ink is enough to give you an entranced feeling, it’s the same for everyone, right?
Facilitating the transfer of knowledge by the written word, only humans have been able to accomplish this feat. Just by looking into history you can tell that they have continued this intellectual feat for thousands of years, this is enough to make anyones heart flutter, right?
Just being able to read books is enough.
Now please god, if you understand my desire, please reincarnate me right now.
Once I get reincarnated, I’ll be able to read books once again.