Chapter 210

Afterword Hello, Mizuki Nomura here. The Book Girl series has found its way to the conclusion. The inspiration, in a continuation from the first volume, is Gide’s Strait Is the Gate. Gide called this work a “recit” (or story) and he broke it into “romans” (or novels). I wanted to give some attention to this facet, but I wasn’t able to touch on it in this volume. Also, it would be correct to say that the “scribe” of the title is a “novelist,” so since the author here includes the sense of “novelist,” I went with “scribe.” I hope you understand. The diary I used in the story was utterly oppressive from the very first page. Gide left behind a huge number of letters and diaries, but I was shocked plenty of times and thought, Should you really be writing about that?! I couldn’t tell how much was true, and as he toyed with my expectations, I got sucked in. If he’d lived in modern times, I’m convinced he would keep a shocking diary of every detail on his blog. I absolutely recommend those interested read it. It’s the kind of thing that can change your values. Now, at the very end, even unreliable Konoha was brave like a main character. Tohko and Nanase each made their own decisions, too. Even if something painful happens, every kid can be happy. Because the thing that comes after the end is a beginning! But for right now, I’m indulging in the lingering impression of an ending. Thank you to everyone who’s read this far. When we met up, my manager would always bring me a fat stack of questionnaire postcards and reading them made me feel excited and embarrassed and all sorts of other things. And a deep thank-you to those who wrote me letters and to those who talked about Book Girl on their websites. Every time I hear someone’s beautiful thoughts, it encourages me. At first, although I planned it out furiously, I was worried out of my mind about whether I could write these stories with my current skill level. As expected, every volume was an exercise in revision, revision, revision. All I can do is bow my head to my manager, who would engage me in long meetings every time. It was this editor, too, who first gave me a push and said, “Let’s write!” They brought everything they had to grappling with the series, and I believe Book Girl was a story I could only have written with this person. I was also thrilled to always get such marvelous drawings from our illustrator, Miho Takeoka. I’ve been begging her to put out a Book Girl art book for the longest time, and it finally looks like it might happen! Once they decide when it’s going to go on sale, I’ll let you know! The manga series has also started up. The artist is Rito Kohsaka. Tohko and Konoha look adorable in their kaleidoscope of expressions! The color is also translucent and gorgeous. It’s on sale the twenty-second of even-numbered months from GanGan Powered. I hope you’ll take a look! There’s one other thing I want to let you know about. I wrote a collaboration with School Scarecase in a collaborative short story collection that goes on sale in October. It also includes a collaboration I did with Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts that was published on the Internet. Plus it includes a collaboration on the Book Girl that Mr. Inoue of Baka and Test was gracious enough to write and sketches by Ms. Takeoka, so that makes it a must-see! I lobbied passionately for a _____ scene of Konoha, just so you know. Next up is a Book Girl short story collection. I’d love to write some humorous stories or maybe some make-out stories. All that’s left after that is side stories, but for those I’d want to write about “awesome, reliable Konoha.” Argh, but it feels like so much effort to write again. This volume came safely to its end, but I’d love it if we could talk a little longer and pretend it hadn’t. I’ll see you! Mizuki Nomura
July 7, 2008