I’m here with a little review of a really cute book that I’ve owned for a while but never talked about! ベルの読書日記, which the book writes as “Belle’s Library” but I feel is better translated as “Belle’s Reading Diary” is a collection of quotes from various classics alongside Belle’s commentary.

It doesn’t make sense to translate every page, so here are three pages of quotes and what they mean (this is also a translation exercise for me, since I’m doing it off-the-cuff):

Accompanying this quote from Don Quixote (quite frequently quoted in this book) is this comment from Belle: “Without freedom, one definitely cannot enjoy real happiness”

The comment for this next quote by Molière is a bit longer. Belle writes: “Isn’t it easy to judge people, picking out what’s different about them and finding disagreeable points that are common. But judging people does no good. As Monsieur Molière says, first, we have to look at ourselves. Although that’s a very difficult thing to do.”

Incidentally, whenever Belle refers to an author, she always says “Monsieur” or “Madame”

The last quote, from Shakespeare, comes with the longest comment of the three. Belle writes “In the books I’ve read, there has been a lot of things written about destiny. It’s true that bad things happen during the chance of fate – probably following some bad example. But what about making one’s own fate? As Monsieur Shakespeare says in the dark, let’s try making our own stars. I have many more things that I desire than what the world has prepared for me, at least, that’s what I repeatedly think.”

I hope this helped you “read” a little of this book! I find it to be delightful and easy to read – the commentaries go well with the quotes and the illustrations are delightful.