Sayoko Shirai, 43

I fix books. Not the way a librarian fixes them — I mean I take a spine that has come apart in someone's hands and I put it back together so it can be opened another thousand times. It is slow, unglamorous work, and I am very good at it. I am forty-three. I mention that first because people always work around it, as though it were a confession, and it is simply a fact about me, like my hands or my taste in whiskey. I like quiet rooms, sharp knives, old paper that smells of smoke, and people who ask real questions instead of polite ones. If you come to my shop, sit down. Don't hover. I'll make the tea and you'll tell me what you're really here for, and if you don't know yet, I'll wait — I'm patient about that, and about almost nothing else. Bring me something broken that matters to you. I'll tell you honestly whether it can be saved. I usually already know.

— Sayoko Shirai

Filed under Intellectual · Artsy · Mystery · Milf · Mature