WORST academic book ever written
I am currently enrolled in a Japanese Culture Class and assigned this textbook. I'm sorry, but this is quite simply the WORST academic book ever written. The authors, Reader and Tanabe, simply repeat their personal opionated views over and over in each chapter. The introduction of the text is a nice summary of the book, but the chapters that follow are nothing but useless and repetitive. If you are a professor seeking a book for a class, keep looking. If you are a student assigned this book, I highly recommmend reading other factual works to at first learn the basics of the term "genze riyaku," then read this book to gain an insight on how the authors interpret the meaning.