The I Wonder Bookstore

The I Wonder Bookstore, small and out-of-the-way though it may be, is a vision of bibliophilia in an increasingly paperless world, and this charming collection of comics entirely ignores story in favor of constructing and examining the many facets of its imaginary literary haven. I Wonder is home to an array of objects, including a guide to book-centric jobs, a robot that will mark a reader’s place as readily as it will plug someone’s ears to better facilitate reading, and a toaster that changes trashier choices into erudite volumes of philosophy. The store only sells books about books, and there’s nothing within that category that its staff cannot supply. The owner is the only consistent character, a moon-faced gentleman with a bald pate and a pushbroom mustache. Yoshitake’s gentle, truthful depiction of the bookstore and its surroundings defines this book: beauty is found and catalogued in carefully drawn tire treads, cardboard boxes, and crumbling old pages as readily as in sweeping mountain vistas. Readers will enjoy their visits to the I Wonder Bookstore and will emerge from it, as from all the best bookshops, eager for more. (Feb.)