ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 (1) ~栞子さんと奇妙な客人たち~

Goura, a young man who is constitutionally unable to read books, visits a secondhand bookstore to get an old family book assessed. The store’s beautiful but shy owner, Shinokawa, gives him an estimate of the value. Not only that, she reveals a hidden story behind the book’s history, and hires Goura to work at the shop. This is about the stories behind the old books brought in by people from all walks of life. It’s a series, but this first volume can be read as a stand-alone.

It’s written in the first person, from the perspective of a young man. There’s occasional N2 and N1 grammar. Once in a while, there’s a quote from one of the old books, and these can be much more difficult. I did not fully understand those quotes, but I didn’t feel like this impacted my enjoyment or ability to follow the overall plot.

I think this book/series is a good next step after having read a few children’s books to get a handle on the common vocabulary/patterns that appear in every novel. Since the first 3 volumes also come as Tsubasa Bunko editions with furigana, it can help bridge the awkward gap when you’re ready to graduate from children’s books but find that most grownup books have a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary as you leave the school life setting. I thought it was noticeably easier than 怪盗探偵山猫, another mystery book series about grownups with a Tsubasa Bunko edition, as it has fewer unique words and fewer N1 grammar expressions.