In the shelf 37 across four forms
Finished this year 18 novels · films · albums
Currently reading 6 five at once is too many
Pathways open 6 two near closing
Salons attended 14 since spring '24
Marginalia 6· underlined passages
“A city is, perhaps, only the sum of its corridors : the bits between the rooms where the real work of a life is done.”
— From the dispatch · № 014
The shelf. All · 37 Reading · 6 Finished · 18 Saved · 13
Tap a spine to open
I Novels 14 of 14
Strange Weather in Tokyo Kawakami
Norwegian Wood Murakami
Tokyo Decadence Murakami R.
A Personal Matter Ōe
The Hour of the Star Lispector
Hopscotch Cortázar
Pedro Páramo Rulfo
South of the Border Murakami
Convenience Store Woman Murata
Lessons in Chemistry Garmus
Beloved Morrison
The Sympathizer Nguyen
The Empty Mirror v.d. Wetering
Notebook Krasznahorkai
II Films 12 of 12
In the Mood for Love Wong
Chungking Express Wong
Tokyo Story Ozu
Burning Lee CD
Perfect Blue Kon
Before Sunrise Linklater
Drive My Car Hamaguchi
The Spirit of the Beehive Erice
Days of Heaven Malick
Mother Bong
Roma Cuarón
All About Lily Chou-Chou Iwai
III Albums 7 of 7
Blue Mitchell
Pink Moon Drake
For Emma, Forever Ago Bon Iver
Stop Making Sense Demme
Yellow Submarine Sandwich Mitski
After the Gold Rush Young
Astral Weeks Morrison V.
IV Anime / Comics 4 of 4
Persepolis 2.0 Satrapi
Solanin Asano
Suzume Shinkai
20th Century Boys Urasawa
Pathways followed. 6 routes · ordered by progress
Reading log. Last 10 entries · 7 in salon
May 09 Strange Weather in Tokyo Salon Tokyo SlowSalon
May 07 Pink Moon Solo ListeningSolo · 28m
May 05 Hopscotch Salon Boom lettersSalon
May 02 Chungking Express Salon Hong Kong neonSalon · 2h 14m
Apr 30 The Hour of the Star Solo —Solo
Apr 28 Pink Moon Salon The long albumSalon
Apr 26 Norwegian Wood Solo —Solo · 3h
Apr 24 Hopscotch Salon Boom lettersSalon · 2h 02m
Apr 21 Strange Weather in Tokyo Salon Tokyo SlowSalon
Apr 17 In the Mood for Love Salon Hong Kong neonSalon
This year · in the room 256 days
Less More
Currently in chapter 4 of Strange Weather , paused 3 days ago . Last salon: Tokyo Slow, May 9. Longest stretch this year: 11 days in late March.
From the margins. 6 underlined passages · private to the shelf
In the Mood for Love · scene 18“He remembers those vanished years. Looking through a dusty windowpane.”
Underlined May 09 Strange Weather in Tokyo · page 53“The food does the emotional work. Every meal a confession .”
Underlined May 05 Pink Moon · side B, 0:34“The piano is alone in the room. We are the room .”
Underlined May 02 Hopscotch · ch. 7 · the kiss“Cortázar is not describing. He’s directing . An instruction manual for tenderness.”
Underlined Apr 24 The Hour of the Star · ch. 2“A flower in the rain, opening because no one is watching .”
Underlined Apr 21 Norwegian Wood · page 211“The corridor between two people who can almost, but not quite, traverse it.”
Underlined Apr 11 A shelf, kept quietly, in the corner of a larger room.
aravien.com/mira.a
An invitation to the room. Aravien · reader card Vol. III · № 14 May 2026
M
Mira Anand. @mira.a · London / Tokyo · since spring mmxxiv
Top five on the shelf
In the Mood for Love Film Strange Weather in Tokyo Novel Pink Moon Album Hopscotch Novel Norwegian Wood Novel “A city is, perhaps, only the sum of its corridors : the bits between the rooms where the real work of a life is done.”
Letters from the shelf. 3 dispatches
Letter № 01 · March 04, 2026
First .letter On the embarrassment of keeping a shelf in public , and why I am going to do it anyway, for the next year, here in this room.
Letter № 02 · April 09, 2026
On the .slow novel Why some books are read in sixteen sittings , and how that reading is a different act, with different weather, than the one we keep calling reading.
Letter № 03 · May 11, 2026
On the .corridor scene Why one minute of In the Mood for Love contains the whole grammar of the film — and why I keep returning to it, every spring, for the last six years.
All letters →