Students of literature often find themselves among old books in the dark reaches of a library. But Harvard University student Peter Bernard has taken another tack, spending most days for the past two months combing the antiquated works at a 106-year-old bookstore in Tokyo's Kanda Jinbocho district.
Bernard, 20, from Massachusetts, is not searching for old books to purchase but instead is serving as a summer intern, hoping to learn how Isseido Booksellers runs its business. Rather than taking the usual intern path at a conventional business, it was either a bookstore or a publishing house for Bernard.
"Students tend to observe books and literature from the scholastic points of view, but I wanted to obtain a new perspective toward literature," said Bernard, who has finished his second year at Harvard. "I wanted to learn how they are marketed, as well as the relationship between books and readers."