It’s part of a more anti-intellectual movement in the United States, where the arts and humanities are frequently dismissed as “useless” because these people fail to understand that introspection, the creation of culture and the understanding of ourselves is in itself just as fundamental to human happiness and a fulfilling existence as the economy they’re so hellbent on defending.

If you have an amazon.jp account, you can also buy Japanese books for the kindle for a pretty low price. Though obviously Kindle books aren’t something you really own, so I prefer them for stuff I’m okay eventually losing.