Book Girl and the Famished Spirit (24 page)

Hello, Mizuki Nomura here. This is the second installment of the
Book Girl
series. It was a pretty tough delivery this time around, and I even went to my editor in tears to ask if I could change the story partway through. But I’m so, so glad that it all came together all right in the end. I’ve loved
Wuthering Heights
—the inspiration this time around—since I was little, and I wish I could have delved into Emily Brontë in the story a little more. She’s chock-full of delectable episodes! Like the pretend world she had when she was a child or her relationship to her older sister Charlotte. The poetry collection the three sisters published together is steamy, too. I recommend both her biography and her poetry.

Thank you so much to the illustrator Miho Takeoka for her enchantingly beautiful drawings! When I saw the sketches, Hotaru and Ryuto were exactly the way I imagined them!

In the initial draft, Kurosaki was all-out creepy and felt more like gothic horror. He was really scary, but I changed his description so I asked if he could move in a less, uh… terrifying direction, and he got way more beautiful. But I’m glad there was a hint of the horror Kurosaki still! Seeing five or six of the horror Kurosakis
all lined up with different hairstyles was quite a spectacle. It’s too bad I can’t share them with all of you.

I received many responses to the first story,
Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime
, and it was extremely encouraging. I also got to see the reader response cards. Some people put their own stamps on the cards, but you don’t need to do that for Famitsu books! The page count went up in this book, so the price did, too. To all the students out there: I’m sorry! Thank you very much for buying this book! I still have a ton of assignments to get through, so until next time. See you!

Mizuki Nomura

July 24, 2006

I’m very happy to see you once again. This is Volume 2. It is blue. I painted and I painted, but it stayed blue…

This sketch is of Kurosaki and Kayano by request of my manager (who was endlessly helpful again). Have a guide to the numbers while you’re at it.

I’ll see you again in the next book.

Miho Takeoka

BOOK GIRL AND THE FAMISHED SPIRIT

MIZUKI NOMURA

Translation by Karen McGillicuddy

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Bungakushoujo to uekawaku ghost

©2006 Mizuki Nomura. All rights reserved.

First published in Japan in 2006 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION ENTERBRAIN

English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION ENTERBRAIN

through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

English translation © 2011 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Cover design by Kirk Benshoff

Cover © 2010 Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Yen Press

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

www.HachetteBookGroup.com

www.YenPress.com

Yen Press is an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Yen Press name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

First ebook edition: December 2012

ISBN 978-0-316-24594-4

E3