I try to use the local bookstore as much as I can.
When I go to pick up my monthly magazine, I also buy books that catch my eye or check new volumes of the manga I read.
Sometimes I order books on the online service “e-hon” and choose store pickup.
I do this because I want to support the bookstore, even just a little.

People say that books do not sell well anymore.
My town is not very crowded, but the bookstore is still open.
Even when I do not plan to buy anything, the place I want to visit when I am tired, worried, or feeling low is always the bookstore.
It has helped me many times.

I finished reading Confessions by Kanae Minato.

It was the last copy in my usual bookstore.
The one I picked up was the 141st printing, published on April 22, 2025.
I had known about this book for a long time, but for some reason I never read it.
So I was surprised that so many people had read it.
In a time when e-books are common and paper books sell less, 141 printings is very rare.

The middle school students in the story looked very cruel, thoughtless, and without hope.
I wondered if a person without morality is simply immature.
But I once read that morality is learned in early childhood.
If that is true, maybe a person without morality stays that way even as an adult.

However, in my experience, middle school students are more complex and full of possibility.
Because they are immature, they can grow a lot.
When I think about my own middle school days, I can remember many moments when I lacked good judgment.
So I cannot believe that “everyone is hopeless,” like in the story.

Still, it is true that some people cannot understand each other at all.
If my own child were killed by a student I taught—
Would I really feel calm if I left everything to the justice system?
When I think about that, I can understand why Moriguchi could not leave it all to the law.

I know that revenge does not save anyone.
But sometimes the heart still wants revenge.
I cannot accept other people’s selfishness, yet I want my own selfishness to be forgiven.
Maybe this feeling is natural, because living is, in the end, a selfish activity.

What is “right”?
What is justice?
Should evil always be punished?
These questions stayed with me after finishing the book.

People make mistakes.
Even when we know this, we still believe that we will not make mistakes.
Confessions shows this dangerous part of human nature very clearly.