A pillow book?

More than anything, A Pillow Book is a collection of articulated observations. It is thus a form of selection thus of evaluation.

The Pillow Book establishes taste.

The Pillow Book is based on the making of lists. Lists such as "Things That Are Beautiful in Paintings" and/or "Things That Are Not Beautiful in Paintings," "Adorable Things" and "Things That Are Hateful" (example "when you're almost asleep and a mosquito appears announcing himself in a reedy voice." ).

- Cynthia Korzekwa

I must admit, I've always been curious about these “pillow books” that keep popping up here on FictionPress. After reading some of them, I then realized that most people had no clue what a pillow book really was.

Having some prior knowledge myself, I then decided to delve even deeper and discovered that the original pillow books were written by and for concubines in geisha houses regarding sexual techniques.

Sei Shonagon, a lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Court (Kyoto, Japan) wrote the most famous pillow book of all time. Her book is a collection of observations made at that time and she freely expressed her opinions and ideas.

So, taking inspiration from Sei-san, I'm going to try my hand at a pillow book as well. I will keep it true to it's original format – list-like, but I'm sure you'll find some rambling in there as well.

Please enjoy.