<The world spreading beyond 'books' about 'food' from all times and places> A groundbreaking paperback to obtain true health of 'body' and 'mind', Genichiro Takahashi's 'Taberu Hon Yomu Diet' goes on sale April 28!

Kawade Shobo Shinsha (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo / Representative Director Masaru Onodera) will publish Genichiro Takahashi's "Taberu Hon Yomu Diet" (Eating Books: A Reading Diet) (Kawade Shinsho) on April 28, 2026.

This book is a memoir carefully spelling out the trajectory of thoughts surrounding the "mind" and "body" that began with Mr. Takahashi's own diet, and is an unparalleled reading diary of eating "books (words)". It is a long-awaited book, adapted and revised from a popular serial "Reading Diet" on the Shueisha Academic Department website.

If you read through (eat through) this book, you will probably not only regain the health of your body but also obtain the health of your mind. Because that's what happened to me.

-- Genichiro Takahashi

* From the "Introduction" of this book; the boxed text below is also quoted from the same place.

I'm sorry, "body", I'm sorry, "mind". For neglecting you until now.

While writing "How We Age" (Asahi Shinsho), a hot-topic book tracing the "words of aging" left by predecessors, including the philosopher Shunsuke Tsurumi, right when he was deepening his thoughts on "aging," Mr. Takahashi had a certain worry.

One day, nearing the age of seventy, I suddenly realized. I was fat. I was shocked by the rapid fluctuation in my weight, which had hardly changed for nearly half a century. Or rather, I trembled at the gaze from my family saying, "Dad, you've gotten fat." And so, I started a "diet."

Starting the diet immediately, Mr. Takahashi realized: just how much his "body" had deteriorated.
And that the deterioration of the "body" is a symbol of all deterioration.

Humans are creatures that "eat." Because without it, the "body" dies.
At the same time, humans have a "mind." They have a "spirit." And the "mind" and "spirit" also "eat." What? "Words," of course. And when we stop eating "words," the "mind" and "spirit" also decline and die. That was the world I delved into.

I'm sorry, "body", I'm sorry, "mind". For neglecting you until now. Seeking a healthy "body" and "mind," Mr. Takahashi first went to a bookstore and threw himself into a mountain of books.

Eating order, sleep, cutting carbs, fasting... In the first month, he devoured 80 diet books, working hard on losing weight, while spending his days continuing to eat "words" in search of the rough stone that leads us to true health.

From old works like the medieval European discourse "The Method of No Disease" and Ekiken Kaibara's "Yojokun", to Jacques Attali's "History of Food", Karen Takizawa's "Karen's Kitchen", and even "Yukio Mishima's Collection of Sports Essays" and Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" -- what is the world he arrived at after confronting and deciphering "books" about "food" from all times and places?

If you don't want your family and those around you to think, "This guy is finished," or if you want to obtain true health of "body" and "mind," won't you join Mr. Takahashi in reading "words" and taking a "eating" journey?

Please savor this unprecedented book that also eats "books (words)".

*Author's note: You can also use this book as a "diet book".

Table of Contents

Introduction: Books are not meant to be "read." They are meant to be "eaten."

Part 1: It's Okay Not to Eat
The day my jeans didn't fit / Battle, begin / Don't eat / Edo period diet books / Hurrah for small meals! Hurrah for the elderly!

Part 2: Mitsuhide Akechi and the Ninja Diet
I tried everything / The "eating order diet" and young people / There are no obese ninjas / The long and winding road to becoming a ninja

Part 3: COVID, "Yojokun", and the "Analects"
Dieting under COVID / I never knew such a diet existed / The detention center diet / Have you read Ekiken Kaibara's "Yojokun"?

Part 4: Is it scientific, or is it love, that is the question...
Anarchy in the sleep / Is it scientific or not scientific, that is the question... / The diet of love

Part 5: The Story Called "Cooking"
"Cooking" and me / The story called "Cooking" / Reading Savarin's "The Physiology of Taste" during COVID self-restraint

Part 6: The Tragedy of a Gourmet Novelist
There are days like this / The utopia called convenience store found by a gourmet / Convenience Wonderland / The Meiji era's huge bestselling author

Part 7: Meat or vegetables, that is the question...
Kamakura vegetarian map / Days of battle / I quit eating meat because of "this" / Meat, begone!

Part 8: Don't Eat Meals
Oatmeal invasion / People who are "non-eating" / I stopped eating / Beyond "non-eating"

Part 9: In This Corner of the World
I went for a medical checkup / If you want to live long, grandma's wisdom / Return alive from diabetes / Early to bed, early to rise, together with the sun / Until you die / In this corner of the world

Part 10: Where did meals come from, what are meals, where are meals