What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama is a cute book following a few different protagonists as they go to the library in search of help in various aspects of their life. There, they all receive book recommendations by the reference librarian who seemingly has supernatural abilities to know just what books the protagonists need.

The book has some good quotes throughout and has overall nice writing. It takes on a slow pace as each character learns what they are looking for and how to apply what they learn to their own lives. It also shows how many different types of books and resources can be valuable, even if they are not commonly used by society at large, such as picture books. It does greatly exaggerate what librarians are able to do in regard to recommending books, as they can by no means solve your problems through a random book recommendation. But, it does show that asking for help can be incredibly beneficial no matter how scary it seems.

I do think it suffered from the audiobook a bit, as some of the speakers were a bit difficult to understand and one was very robotic, even at a faster speed. I would strongly recommend reading it physically instead. ( )

A set of loosely linked stories that were pleasant and somewhat inspiring. The characters portrayed all needed a jolt from their habitual lives. This is not the style of book that I prefer, but I picked it up because my career was in the library. ( )

Quite liked the book, a little too “neat” in terms of endings to some stories, and can we stop with the fat shaming? ( )

Es una historia que se cuenta a través de 5 usuarios de una biblioteca y como la bibliotecaria, Komachi, a través de sus recomendaciones de libros los ayuda a tener una nueva perspectiva de la vida y a re encontrase con ellos mismos. Muy recomendada. ( )

Library Inspirations
Review of the Doubleday hardcover edition (August 10, 2023) translated by Alison Watts from the Japanese language original お探し物は図書室まで [If you are looking for something, go to the library] (2020).

I was hoping for this to be more about libraries than it was. It is a series of short stories about various people who are at life changing points in their lives. Circumstances send them to their common local community library where a rather mysterious librarian gives them book recommendations and various bonus gifts. The books or gifts give them an inspiration to follow a new career path or new interest which ends up fulfilling their lives. I do like the overall theme that books and reading can inspire people but this felt more on the meet cute side.

Trivia and Link
I didn't look them all up, but the book about the field mice who find an egg, mentioned in the first story, is an actual children's book Guri and Gura (orig. 1963), so likely all or most of the other Japanese books mentioned are real as well. ( )