Two books to break the reading slump

I have not been reading as actively as I used to and you could call it a potential reading slump but I guess it was more to do with not finding the right book. So I read two. One was so good that I only wanted to read it again and again, and the other one was actually so mediocre that I had to immediately pick up a good book after, hence effectively breaking out of my slump. The former was this enchanting little book called Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami. The latter- Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Japanese writer named Toshikazu Kawaguchi. I will very briefly put in my thoughts on both of these books below.

Strange Weather in Tokyo- In this book Kawakami spins a tale of modern love in Tokyo between a young woman and her former school teacher, in a very poignant, warm, and funny way. The story is lovely and the dream-like prose is nothing short of magic. It’s interspersed with great dialogue, delicious food, and sometimes awkward but always endearing conversations between the two central characters. It’s a very small, airy book and I adore it so much. The writing style is immaculate and I will highly recommend this to anyone and everyone!

Before the Coffee Gets Cold- While the premise is very interesting and unique- a coffee shop where you can time travel for a bit- the entire book is alright at best. It was a good book to get me out of my reading hiatus as it was very easy to read and it was not a lengthy book as well. When I get stuck, I mostly start by reading essays on topics I enjoy or short stories. Since this was a relatively short book, I thought I would try to break my slump with this. And it did work because now I want to read more books but with better, more engaging storylines. There are four stories in this book connected by a strange, little basement coffee shop and the special service provided there. The only connection between the stories is the cafe so this can actually be called a little anthology of sorts with a connecting factor. I have of course read the English translation so I can’t comment much on the writing. But the translation is very simple, sometimes too simple actually and the prose almost reads like a young adult novel. It gets tedious and I was really tempted to just abandon it mid-way multiple times but powered through. Did not like it.