Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi – Review and Thoughts
The third installment of the series Before the Coffee Gets Cold, set in a cafe in Tokyo where customers can travel back in time.
This got a little repetitive between chapters where Kawaguchi explained/re-summarized some of the characters and stories from the previous chapters again, so that seemed to make it a bit longer. It was good to repeat the gist of Tales from the Cafe and some of the backstories of the new characters – but a couple of times would have been fine, not where it got a bit annoying after the third time where I was just like “yes, okay, I remember that from the last 2 times; do we have to keep going over this?”
Still, a wonderful and heartwarming book and a series that is so heartfelt and cozy but also very philosophical and thought-provoking at the same time.
“‘Nobody gets to be a manga artist just by wanting to be one.’”
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Kawaguchi knows that any career, really anything that you want, takes hard work – which kind of seems like rare knowledge for people to have nowadays. People just expect to want something a little, put in a couple years of work, and boom – it’s all good, you’ve got your goals and career accomplished. Life doesn’t hand you anything, and everyone struggles with something. Even if you see a person who you think is completely successful, they’re still struggling with something internally and most likely externally as well. Perceived success doesn’t mean life is going to stop being rough.
“‘If it were just a matter of traveling back to the past, anyone could do it. But this cafe chooses people…by its rules…and some people hear those rules and give up. But those people who are resolved to go back, despite the rules, have a reason for doing so. It doesn’t matter what the reason is. If there is someone they must see, or someone they should see…even if the present reality won’t change…then, that’s all that matters.’”
“‘If it were just a matter of traveling back to the past, anyone could do it. But this cafe chooses people…by its rules…and some people hear those rules and give up. But those people who are resolved to go back, despite the rules, have a reason for doing so. It doesn’t matter what the reason is. If there is someone they must see, or someone they should see…even if the present reality won’t change…then, that’s all that matters.’”
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
That somewhat connects to what I was discussing above, and a lot of what David Goggins says. The people who really want it will work for it, and the ones who don’t, will give up. It all just depends on how badly you want it and how hard you’re willing to work for it.
“Bad timing sometimes causes life to skew off in a different direction.”
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
I wonder if it’s fate, or what it is that develops from our decisions. How can we even know? It’s so unknown. I guess that’s why some people believe in a higher power (or several) because at least that’s some kind of answer to these huge, scathing questions.
Read on.
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