We are really enjoying the promise of Spring offered by all of the trees currently blossoming outside our office, so we have devoted this issue of The Avid Reader to Japan, where the hanami (blossom viewing) parties have just begun.

Taschen has a beautiful new release featuring Utagawa Hiroshige's renowned 'pictures of a floating world', and we have picked out six more of our favourite books from Japanese authors, artists and architects. We have also sifted through our millions of wonderful listings, and found a stunning, full colour, antique map of Yokohama Bay that we are quite excited to share with you.

In Shelf Talk this month: 85-year-old WWII veteran Charles Dills has spent decades searching for a long-lost, cherished edition of a childhood favourite. Can you help him track it down?

• All copies of this title
• More books on Hiroshige

Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
by Melanie Trede and Lorenz Bichler

What could be more enticing than pictures of a floating word?

We are big fans of Taschen at AbeBooks, and this new release from the renowned art book publisher does not disappoint. With typical brilliance in graphic presentation, Hiroshige's famous prints are laid out in arresting size and each is paired with a detailed and engaging description.

Utagawa Hiroshige was one of the leading artists of the Ukiyo-e tradition. This boldly colourful genre of woodblock printing was popular among the wealthy and playful Tokyo merchant classes that emerged at the beginning of the 17th century. The name translates to the delightful phrase above - a somewhat cheeky reference to Buddhism's philosophy of the sorrowful world. We feel the name is more than appropriate: an art book as beautifully absorbing as this has no difficulty carrying us off to far away places.

Japanese Literature Selections

Japanese Art/Architecture Selections

Opening of Yokohama Bay
by Yoshikazu Ichikawa
Available for: £2148.74

As well as books, AbeBooks has some unbelievable ephemera, such as this rare colour map of Yokohama Bay, hand-printed using hand-carved blocks in 1859.

See the full listing description.

Browse more antiquarian maps.

Books mean different things to different people. Take 85-year-old Charles Dills – a retired professor of chemistry who lives in San Luis Obispo, California. He was once a World War II fighter pilot who flew 94 missions over Italy, Corsica and Southern France, and he comes from a family "that has an uncommon fetish about books."

Charles was orphaned at the age of 14 in the middle of the Great Depression and he has a single quest thanks to lingering memories from his childhood of growing up in North Dakota more than 70 years ago. He is trying to find a very particular edition of a book called ‘Stung Again’. It’s a joke book with a yellow, green and black cover, and the illustration of a bee in flight. Charles has bought a couple of copies from AbeBooks but they are not the one he wants. The copies available on our site were all published in 1908.

"On the cover, I remember the bee is bigger, more dynamic and more boldly coloured with yellow and black," said Charles, who has scoured the Internet and contacted the Library of Congress about the book but without joy. "I’ve spent 10, 20, 30 years looking for this edition."

The original book was lost long ago – Charles has no possessions at all from when he became an orphan. It’s a book of good, clean old-fashioned jokes they don’t tell anymore.

To most people, this is just another long forgotten book consigned to history, but Charles remembers handling the book. It has special meaning to him because the book played a role in a practical joke where his mom, a small 5-foot-2 lady born in Norway, was locked into a locker. She managed to escape and placed the book inside the locker before her captors returned.... ensuring the joke was on them when they opened the door. "She got a big laugh," said Charles. "It would mean a lot to me to find that book."

It’s odd how a book can just stick in your mind. A book can hold a moment in time like few other things. To Charles, that book shows how his parents larked around – something that was completely taken for granted at the time but you cannot have those moments back when they’re gone.

At AbeBooks, we hear a lot of stories like this – someone trying to find a book from their childhood that was lost over the decades. Buyers often contact our customer support department to thank AbeBooks and the booksellers because they have been reunited with an old favourite from the past. It is one of the best things about being in this business.

Are you able to help Charles? Do you have a copy of Stung Again with the larger, bolder bee or some useful information? If you can help, email me at media@abebooks.com.

We would also love to hear about your experiences of being reunited with a book from the past that held special memories. Tell us your book hunting tales.

More words about books have been scattered on Reading Copy, the AbeBooks Blog.

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