Episodes
Monday Jul 09, 2012
Episode 84: Books Inspire Discovery
Monday Jul 09, 2012
Monday Jul 09, 2012
This is a lined notebook with seven signatures of five sheets each for 140 pages. It is A6 in size (pocketbook) and comes with a red ribbon bookmark. It has a lively blue flower/dragon fly book cloth cover and white endpapers. The more creative side of this notebook is in the margins. Marginal art, as it were. On each page at the top and bottom are words in Japanese and English. The pairs of words have something in common.
For example, one page has "garden (庭)" on the top margin and "chicken (鶏)" on the bottom margin. The connection between the two is the partial pronunciation. "Garden" in Japanese is pronounced "niwa" and "chicken" is pronounced "niwa-tori". (Literally, a garden bird.)
On another page at the top is "ugoku (動く)" and at the bottom is "hikoshi (引越し)". What's the connection? They both mean "move". The first one means move as in a book. The second one (hikoshi) means to move house.
On yet another page has "kimono" and "arrive". Here the connection is the kanji used in both words: 着. Kimono is 着物 (kimono) while arrive is 到着 (tochaku). Easy, right?
Why did I include words on a lined notebook? In this book's first outing, the cover attracted some attention. But after the person opened it, they became engrossed in reading it. Just four words per page but they learned something (either Japanese or English). After I pointed out there's a connection between the words at the top and bottom margins, they tried to find it. Content, in this case, provoked interest and discovery. And I think books should inspire discovery, don't you?
At the bottom we have three pictures of a Work In Progress: A is for Love/Y is for Dream which includes Japanese & English again. It is an Alphabet book but with Japanese words instead of English. A is ai which is love: 愛. Y is yume which is dream: 夢. In the middle are the strips of paper that will be the backing (instead of green). Each one is 110 cm long and about 155 mm wide. Some of the words are tossed on top.
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