Episode 9

"A Book about Life, Death, and Rebirth" is episode 9 in Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san. It aired December 3rd, 2018.

A customer requests a new book, claiming she can't find it anywhere. Honda-san looks it up in the database to see that he can't even try to make an order of it. Various customers pour in asking about the same book, but all were denied.

Okitsune complains that the shelves are too full, and there is nowhere to put the new arrivals. Fullface and her agree that there are too many new manga being released.

The bookstore staff are troubled with deathbed books. Deathbed books are ones that don't sell in a particular store and must be shipped back to free up space. Staff can choose to keep it, but they won't have room for new arrivals. Koomote-san struggles with selling the books in her section, and has to return all of them. There is no telling when her books will sell again.

Revived books are books that were previously deathbed or out-of-print books that return to popularity. Honda-san uses a book about ebola as an example. It was originally published 20 years ago, but went out-of-print for some time. It returned to popularity during the ebola outbreak in 2014, and introduced people to more books about diseases.

Books have a cycle of life, according to Honda-san. Life when released, deathbed when not selling, revival when it is popular again.