村上春樹出新書

Recently Excite News reported the following:

村上春樹さんの長編小説「１Ｑ８４」の「ＢＯＯＫ３」（新潮社）が１６日、全国一斉に発売される。昨年５月に同時刊行された「ＢＯＯＫ１」「ＢＯＯＫ２」はこれまでに計２４４万部の大ヒット。今回もベストセラーになるのは確実で、午前０時から発売する書店も。約１年ぶりに「１Ｑ８４」フィーバーが再燃しそうだ。

　「１」「２」の初版はそれぞれ２０万部、１８万部。注文が殺到し、本が並ばない書店が続出した。このため、新潮社は「３」の初版部数を５０万部とした。 しかし、インターネット書店のアマゾンへの事前予約が８日までに約２万５０００部に達するなど、５０万部でも足りそうにない状況に。そこで、同社は早くも２０万部の増刷を決めた。 新刊本は通常、地域によって店頭に並ぶ時期がずれる。だが、今回は「全国平等にする」（同社広報宣伝部）。内容はもちろん、表紙のデザインさえ社内の担当者しか知らないほど、「秘密主義」を徹底。それが読者の関心を一層高める結果になっている. 東京都内の青山ブックセンター六本木店や「ＳＨＩＢＵＹＡ　ＴＳＵＴＡＹＡ」店などは午前０時から発売。三省堂書店神保町本店や丸善丸の内本店は、特設ブースを設けて午前７時から売り出す。

　"BOOK 3" of Haruki Murakami's novel "1Q84" (Shincho Company) would hit the market simultaneously throughout the country on the 16th. "BOOK 1" "BOOK 2" published simultaneously last May was a big hit with a total of 2.44 million copies so far. This time certainly it would also become the best-seller and the bookstore certainly would put it on the market at 0:00AM also. The "1Q84" fever seemed would be reignited after an interval of about one year.

The first edition of "1" and "2" had 200,000, and 180,000 copies respectively. The order kept pouring in, and the bookstores one after another had their books sold out. Therefore, Shincho Company made 500,000 copies of the first edition number of "3". However, even with as many as 500,000 copies would not seem to be suffice for the situation because the pre-order to the Amazon Internet Bookstore had reached up to about 25,000 by the eighth of this month. In response, the company already decided to reprint an additional 200,000 copies. Depending on the region, usually at the time when there was a new book, there would be a line up shift in the shop front. However, this time it "Make it equal in the whole country" (advertisement department of this company). It insisted on "Secrecy" in that even for the in-house person-in-charge he could only know just the design of the cover, not to mention its content. The result was that it increased readers' level of concern. The Roppongi Branch of the Aoyama Book Center in Tokyo and the "SHIBUYA TSUTAYA" shop would put the book on the market at 0:00AM. The Sanseido Bookstore Jinbocho headquarters and the Maruzen Marunouchi headquarters would market it at 7:00AM. at their specially installed booth.

Although I am not interested in the novel written by Haruki Murakami, I am still excited by the news that the novel is so popular in Japan. I understand that even in Hong Kong there are many people who love reading the novels written by Haruki Murakami.