PRANYRR and RMBTYNYR

One of my many new year's resolutions this year was that I would periodically review the progress that I have made on these resolutions. In the past I always thought about these resolutions on only two weeks during the whole year. I considered these resolutions with a mixture of hope , pride, and foreboding during the first week of the year . During the last week of the year I almost always recalled these resolutions with a mixture of dissappointment, depression, self-loathing and deja vu. Thanks to my "periodically review all new year's resolutions resolution", (PRANYRR for short) this year is going to be different. Here it is only March and thanks to PRANYRR I am already experiencing feelings of dissappointment, depression, self-loathing and deja vu. Thanks to PRANYRR I have realized that I have made very little progress on my "read more books this year" new year's resolution. In order to remedy this situation I have now decided to post a photo of every book that I finish reading. Much as a big game hunter is pushed to hunt harder by the presence or absence of the preserved heads of bear,moose , lions etc. on his walls, I will be forced by my pride,vanity, and desire to show off to read more so that I may post more photos of more books. The first book here on display was written by Kido Okamoto who lived from 1872 to 1939. He wrote nearly 200 historical kabuki dramas, but is most famous today for his Hanshichi detective novels. A great reader of the then new Sherlock Holmes stories, Mr. Okamoto created the Detective Hanshichi character, the star of this book. Set in the late Edo period (1850s) in Tokyo, the short stories in this book reveal to the lucky reader a mysterious world of clandestine christians, informers, street stand cricket sellers( many people had pet crickets, they were valued for their "noise") acrobats, lords forced by the shogun to live in Tokyo for half of every year, retired geishas and many other fascinating characters. This book is especially interesting for someone who is living here in Tokyo because many of the Edo landmarks and neighborhoods mentioned in the book are still around.