Welcome to our library

Giorgia and Bradley from The Haiku Project open the doors to their library

Yes, you’ve heard us. We are welcoming you all to our library!

Until a year ago, Brad and I owned enough books to consider ours a library. After moving together into a studio flat, we had to sell and donate 300+ books to be able to fit in our flat. However, I kept every single book from what I call my “Japanese books collection.” This comprehensive collection includes some of the books that inspired (and continue to inspire) The Haiku Project’s workshops, my research on haiku and wellbeing, books about Japanese culture, and some of the best fiction ever published by Japanese authors.

This is the reading list you were waiting for!

This suggested reading list is organised and presented in alphabetical order of author’s surnames. Italian editions of books are not included in this list. If there are any Italian speakers who are interested in our Italian titles, please feel free to get in touch with us at thehaikuproject22@gmail.com and we will send you a list of titles.

Kōbō Abe, Secret Rendezvous

Kōbō Abe, The Ruined Map

Kōbō Abe, The Woman in the Dunes

Bashō, On Love and Barley - Haiku of Bashō

Ruth Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword

Liza Dalby, Geisha

Liza Dalby, The Tale of Murasaki

Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human

Shusaku Endo, Foreign Studies

H. García & F. Miralles, Ichigo Ichie

H. García & F. Miralles, Ikigai

Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

John Hersey, Hiroshima

Herman Hesse, Rosshalde

William J. Higginson & Penny Harter, The Haiku Handbook

Igort, Japanese Notebooks (1, 2, and 3)

Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World

Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant

Mineko Iwasaki, Geisha of Gion

Okakura Kakuzō, The Book of Tea (edited by Gian Carlo Calza)

Yasunari Kawabata, Beauty and Sadness

Yasunari Kawabata, Dandelions

Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country

Yasunari Kawabata, Thousand Cranes

Yasunari Kawabata, The Master of Go

Beth Kempton, The Way of the Fearless Writer

Beth Kempton, Wabi Sabi

Judy Kendall, Joy Change

Jack Kerouac, Book of Haikus

Alex Kerr, Another Kyoto

Alex Kerr, Lost Japan

Fosco Maraini, Japanese Hours

Fosco Maraini, Secret Tibet

Sayo Masuda, Autobiography of a Geisha

A. Luu & I. Matsuba, Ikebana Unbound

Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

Yukio Mishima, Life For Sale

Yukio Mishima, Star

Yukio Mishima, The Frolic of the Beasts

Yukio Mishima, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea

Yukio Mishima, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

Yukio Mishima, Thirst For Love

Ochikubo Monogatari, The Tale of the Lady Ochikubo

Noriko Morishita, The Wisdom of Tea

Van Morris, The Nobility of Failure

Murakami, First Person Singular

Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Kenzaburo Oe, Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness

Kenzaburo Oe, The Silent Cry

A.S. Pate, Ningyō

Penguin Great Ideas, Writing from the Zen Masters

Penguin Collection, New Writing in Japan

A.L. Sadler, The Japanese Tea Ceremony

Natsume Sōseki, Kokoro

Natsume Sōseki, Kusamakura

Natsume Sōseki, Mon

Natsume Sōseki, The Gate

Daisetz T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture

Rie Takeda, Shodo

Junichirō Tanizaki, Diary of a Mad Old Man

Junichirō Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows

Junichirō Tanizaki, Quicksand

The British Museum Collection, Haiku Animals

Yūko Tsushima, Child of Fortune

Arthur Waley (translator), The Tale of Genji

Joseph K. Yamagiwa (translator), The Okagami

Soetsu Yanagi, The Beauty of Everyday Things