Books to read after travel

Reading "The Memoirs of Casanova"

An autobiography by an infamous Italian seducer from 18th Century

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During the travel, always books to read appear

This time in Kyoto;

"The Memoirs of Casanova"

"The Tale of Genji", translated by Tanizaki, that I'll receive tomorrow

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Why these 2 books?

I knew Casanova's name, but didn't know he wrote a memoir about his life

I bumped into this memoir in a second-hand bookshop in Kyoto and immediately realised this is the book I had to read

My key interest is not his hedonistic adventure & abundant romances, but how he described & depicted his lovers

Since I myself got involved in writing, my focus is "how to tell/write", rather than "what to tell/write"

His memoirs seemed a perfect reference for my 3rd books, and regretted I hadn't found it much earlier

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And about "The Tale of Genji"

Actually now Japanese can't read "The Tale of Genji" in original, since it's written in too old grammars & words

So some Japanese writers in 20th Century translated this 11th Century novel into modern Japanese, and one of them was Tanizaki

(if you read "The Tale of Genji" in a foreign language, 2 types of translations took place here. 1: Translation from old Japanese to modern Japanese. 2: Translation from modern Japanese to a foreign language)

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A lot of stories in "The Tale of Genji" took place in Kyoto, and this travel of mine in Kyoto was coloured by Tanizaki

Seems this is such a perfect combination 

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And lastly I have to write one excuse

From my last year's travel in Balkans, I got one book to read

"The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andrić

Balkan's most well-known writer & his most well-known work

I found this very old Japanese translated version in a local library last Dec, and started to read it

But back then I had many books to read, and I realised this Andrić's book wasn't the one to read in such a hectic hurry mood

So I postponed 

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Andrić's "The Bridge on the Drina" is long

Tanizaki's "The Tale of Genji" is even longer

Casanova's memoir is much longer

I wish I'll complete all of them before my next departure

which is....., very unlikely