Hi All,

Just thought I'd make a really general request for any people's favorite or suggested Japanese non-fiction reading. Of course, we all have our personal preferences in theme and topic but putting that aside I'm pretty open-minded and would be willing to try reading any books people thought were really great for whatever reasons.

Just in case it's not clear I'm primarily looking for books written by Japanese people in Japanese.

Thanks in advance,

k.

I really enjoyed the book 漢字と日本人 by 高島俊男. It is about the history of kanji in Japan. Now that may not sound very interesting, but the great thing about this book is that the author's distinct voice really come through, even if you're a non-native language learner: he is a cranky old man that likes to make fun of those he disagrees with. He also likes to go on tangents saying things like, "Excuse me while I get off topic again." This is fine because the tangents are often just as interesting as the main narrative! Anyway, it's a fun read and is good for putting the whole kanji thing in perspective after working so hard to study them.

「朝がつらい」がなくなる本
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%80%8C%E6%9C%...427&sr=8-1
http://www.bk1.jp/product/02781311

The author is a doctor or physician who's done research on the topic of sleep, and I think he wrote that he runs a clinic for sleep-deprived people. In the book he describes the importance of the quality of your sleep and compiles techniques for sleeping soundly and waking up feeling refreshed instead of grumpy and tired. Thus fighting the 「朝がつらい」.

It had been recommended on lifehacker.jp for a while, so I included it in my manga/light novel order on a whim because I find the topic interesting. I'm not reading it very frequently since after a long introduction it's basically just a compilation of tips, but I've read about a third of it and I don't find it to be much more difficult than light novels. But then I haven't read a regular novel for adults yet, so I don't know how big the difficulty gap is anyway.

Cool, thanks for the reco's guys.

I don't know if manga counts but I'm a big fan of historical manga... they're pretty interesting (bc japanese history is... at least I think) and the vocab is challenging as there are a lot of words you don't see when talking about present times. I like the 人物日本の歴史series quite a bit... the one on 西郷隆盛 was pretty awesome.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%89%E3%83%...01&sr=1-24

Two nonfiction books I'm reading right now

[Zgarbas]

I liked reading Murakami's underground. Basically it's a bunch of interviews that he took from various people who were affected by the 1995 gas attack. It was a pretty neat insight on how the average Japanese person starts his/her day and their work ethic.