June 10, 2024: Too Small to Read （小さすぎて読めない）

I am now trying to improve my vision. I, by chance, found a good way to do so. It was when I read an old book that I found the way. The other day, I borrowed it from a library, the one about black humour by the Japanese writer Takashi Atoda. I was surprised to see how small the letters were. They were so small that my head span, and I could not recognise each letter. It was as if I was looking at another type of character. So, I closed the book at once to stop reading it. The letters were less than half the size of those in today's books. During my college years, I used to read a lot of books. At that time, I did not care for the print size at all and had no problem reading them without glasses. But now I was aware that I had read these books with those small print. If I would now have to read books with such small print, I would never do or enjoy reading. Or I would have to rely on e-books.
So, I was going to return it to the library the next day. But the next morning, before I returned it, I happened to open the book. Then, I saw the small print in sharp focus. I managed to recognise them much more clearly than the day before. So, now, I open the book every day to get my eyes used to the print. And I expect to be able to begin reading the book in a few days. It is also supposed to help me to improve my eyesight. And it will give me a good result when I have an eyesight test in September.
In addition, the book allows me to enjoy at least twice as much as today’s books. It has very small prints so that it has more words in a page than today’s books.

　ただいま視力の改善中です。偶然、良い方法を見つけました。古い本を読んだときに気付いたのです。先日、図書館で、阿刀田高さんのブラックユーモアに関する本を借りました。ところが、その本の文字の小ささに驚きました。あまりの小ささに頭がくらくらし、文字を認識できませんでした。まるで別の種類の文字を見ているようでした。それで、読むのをやめ、すぐに本を閉じました。文字の大きさが今の本の半分以下だったのです。大学時代はよく本を読みました。文字の大きさなどまったく気にせず、眼鏡なしでも問題なく読めました。でも、今になって、そんな小さな文字で本を読んでいたことを思い知らされました。もし今、こんな小さな字の本を読まなければならないとしたら、読書をしないだろうし、楽しめません。あるいは電子書籍に頼らざるを得なくなるでしょう。
　なので、翌日図書館に返却するつもりでした。ところが、翌朝、返す前にたまたま本を開いたところ、小さな文字にピントが合ったのです。前日よりもずっとはっきりと認識することができたのです。なので、今は本を開いて、目を活字に慣らしています。数日もすれば、本を読み始められそうです。この本は、視力向上にも役立つはずです。9月の視力検査でも、良い結果が出ると期待しています。
　加えて、この本は今の本より2倍おいしいです。字がとても小さいので、今の本より1ページの文字数が多いのです。