A review by emilykulzer
The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon

3.0

The Pillow Book is a unique, interesting read. The translation by Meredith McKinney is the one that I read. It provides a great Chronology and Introduction at the beginning to put the text into context. Although I would recommend reading the chronology, introduction and appendices first before the primary text as I often did not get some of the references Sei Shonagon was talking about. I found that turning to the back every time to find a note was a little tedious as there are quite a few. The text in itself is quite fascinating as it seems so modern. This book is almost like reading Sei Shonagon's Twitter feed as most of the passages are just random thoughts or lists. I would have to say that is what I liked most about this book but only gave it 3 stars because although it was interesting, it isn't a book I would probably read again.