Kojima says that going to a bookstore was a daily routine he did not…

“Every time our eyes met, I thought I had to buy something, and that, for me, was a science fiction book.”

Kojima keeps the purchase receipt inside nearly every book on his shelves. The receipt, printed with the store’s name and the date and time, brings back not only the book’s content but also what he experienced before going to the bookstore, where he read it, and the imprint the story left; even a boring book becomes associated with a memory he considers uniquely his.

“I say meet because books have faces. The cover, the title, the design, the bindings. There are moments when you feel a spark.”

“Every time I went, there were less and less books available. And then I realized it was because I was buying all the books.”

Kojima recalls that, as a child, he was the first to come home alone: turning on the lights was his duty and opening a book in solitude became his routine. He says books kept the feelings of isolation and loneliness from crushing him, and that after his father’s early death he found within books adults and teachers who served as guides and role models.