NEWS

On Friday, January 13, 2023, APU invited a total of 10 people, including 6 scholars and writers who have served on the Yomiuri Shimbun book review committee as well as 5 reviewers from the book review site HONZ (one of them a member of both) to join a conference to introduce book recommendations for students.

President Deguchi was formerly a member of Yomiuri Shinbun’s book review committee in addition to being a guest reviewer on the HONZ site in which writers, editors, researchers, and all who love books introduce their own worthwhile recommendations. HONZ and Yomiuri Shinbun have held events separately in 2018 and 2019, respectively, but this time, they collaborated to bring APU students this conference.

At the event, reviewers brough their own recommendations and explained their appeal to the students. Book themes spanned from social issues and history to the human body and biology. The 12 items introduced included a range of works from essays to photo collections. The students encountered books they usually cannot get their hands on, including new publications that are not yet available in bookstores. Some attendees quickly headed to the library to search for the books in the database while others ordered them online, but all were eager to read. At the end of the conference, participants were allowed to converse freely, and students were able to gush about books with these literary professionals. One student said, “I always read the same kinds of books, but hearing different perspectives broadened my interests.”

Some of the works introduced were donated to the library. At the end of the event, President Deguchi, who participated as an observer, also introduced his own recommendations, and concluded with, "Everyone who participated, please read a lot of books."

Speakers（in alphabetical order）
Maho Adachi (Editor), Erika Azuma (Book reviewer), Ren Inaizumi (Journalist), Kaori Kawai (Journalist), Toru Nakano (Emeritus Professor, Osaka University), Kazuo Okanoya (Professor, Teikyo University), Katsuyuki Shimizu (Professor, Meiji University), Haruka Shiota (Editor), Asuka Tone (Yamato Transport Co., Ltd.), Shuichi Yasukawa (Adviser, Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd.)

For more about HONZ, please visit their website below:
https://honz.jp/

A detailed report of this event is also available to check from the same website as below (Japanese only).
APU Activity Report 1: https://honz.jp/articles/-/52832
APU Activity Report 2: https://honz.jp/articles/-/52882