Hätte nicht erwartet, dass ich das Buch doch so gerne mag. Eigentlich ist es eher ein Tagebuch einer Dame am Hofe des Kaiserpalastes, aber so detailreich geschrieben und immer wieder mit kleinen schönen Gedichten aufgewertet. Das Buch selbst war nicht lang, aber absolut lesenswert.

As this one is very short I've been trying to enjoy it slowly so that it takes longer to finish it. Generally speaking, it was indeed an interesting read. The biggest advantage of the book is the insight in former Japanese court life which had some surprises down pat. How wonderful must it have been to communicate through poems! It was very interestig to learn how meticulously everyone wrote them and what a great deal writing was. It was also quite astonishing to experience that people were not only formal but that the emperor, empress and their family also loved to laugh and sometimes tell stories to entertain everyone. Lady Shonagon, in particular, is constantly in awe of her superiors, never having a bad thought of anyone of them. For her, they appear to be godly, perfect incarnations of nobility. She also seems to strongly value beauty, searching for it in nature and in people around her. From our modern point of view, she sometimes seems to be very naive and exaggeratedly inclined towards worshipping but it also helps to understand people from her time period a little better. What I considered very amusing were some statements she made that still perfectly fit into our society. For example, I remember her talking about how annoying it is when you want to sleep and then midges start buzzing. I absolutely agree. Every time I read a familiar statement like this I was very glad to find out there are always things that do not change throughout centuries. Even if they are as inconvenient as midges. On the other hand, I must also say that I expected to learn more about those times and former traditions. Shonagon stays focused on very few things which is likely connected to her devoted bond with the court. For example, there are hardly any political topics to find in her records as well as you hear practically nothing about life outside the palace's walls. Her thoughts are running in circles around topics connected with everyday life or, rarely, with things she notices aside of it but still somehow connected to her surroundings. All in all, I would recommend to read it at least once to experience a real clash of cultures in your mind and read how it all was from the perspective of someone who was really there. This is why it is certainly a valuable piece of work: There are lots of books written [i]about[/i] former times but very few composed [i]in[/i] them.