The Great Manga Gift Guide

Last year David Welsh of The Manga Curmudgeon started the Great Manga Gift Guide, where manga bloggers and reviewers made their own lists for the best manga to buy for Christmas. The gift guide has been started up again this year by Daniella Orihuela-Grueber on her website, All About Manga. I've been writing about manga for quite a few months now, so obviously I feel qualified enough to present my own list.

For a list of guides that are likely way better than mine, see Daniella's post. Otherwise, here's my list, starting off with something cute.

For Animal Lovers of All Ages: Chi's Sweet Home by Kanata Konami

Chi's Sweet Home is about the life of a kitten - that was honestly enough to pique my interest. Chi's loses her mom and siblings, but is picked up by a human family and brought into their home, the big problem being their apartment doesn't allow pets. A story about the antics of a cute cat sounds pretty one-note, but Konami consistently delivers cute, funny, and heartfelt stories about the kitten's life. Publisher Vertical, Inc. decided to release Chi's Sweet Home flipped, an act that generally enrages manga fans, but this makes it easy to give Chi as a gift as a gift to kids or adults. And even though this makes the books pretty expensive ($14.99 U.S.) the North American edition of Chi's Sweet Home has been enhanced with soft, bright colors that give this manga the potential to be a great book to read aloud with your little one.

More Chirstmas shopping picks after the jump.

Things That Would Make Me Buy an eReader

I'm starting to see them everywhere - the Kindle and the Nook - I even actually saw a mother using an iPad with her baby. They're online, in electronic stores, and even at the forefront of chain bookstores. eReaders. They're closing in on me, and the whole corporate world seems determined to make me buy one.

Well, that's too bad, 'cause I don't want one.


At least not right now. I love paper books - the look, the feel, the weight, the smell - and I'll never want to give them up. But eReaders aren't exactly going to go away, and I've accepted that as an unrepentant bibliophile I'll have to get myself one. Some day. The list isn't long, but there are a few things I'll need to have, or be assured of, before I can guiltlessly spend my pay check on one of these contraptions.


Add Comics and Manga. Most of my book-spending money goes towards manga and graphic novels, which sucks since those are also the most expensive books I buy. It would be great to use me eReader to read a book I'm not so invested in I have to own it, but unless it's cutting the costs on the biggest hole I'm throwing my money into, a $200+ device just isn't worth it.

Lower the Prices! I know, the iPad has all those awesome comic apps, and even a couple of manga companies like Digital Manga Publishing and VIZ Media are throwing their stuff on the device. And it's in color! But have you seen how expensive an iPad is? Yikes. That's more than my down payment for grad school. Who can afford that thing? I might not even mind the lack of comics if I could buy an eReader on the cheap.

Convince Me Print Won't Die. This is a big one, actually. I know a lot of people are welcoming the advent of digital in part because it will finally free up that shelf space, but that makes me nervous. I'm a collector, and I'm a little nutty; I like having the actual physical thing that I can look at and touch and feel and smell. I won't mind giving that up for books I don't care as much about, but for the books I love I don't want the privilege of holding the bound up paper to go away. I just need someone to convince that print and digital can get along, and that print doesn't have to die.

Do you guys have an eReader? If not, what will it take to get you to buy one - or will you never cave?

Embarrassing Reads - Comic Books and Hedgehogs

Recently I read the second volume of a manga series called Kingyo Used Books. Basically, the series is composed of a bunch of one-shot stories about people, the manga they read, and how said manga can affect or even alter their lives. All of these stories are episodic, so some of them stick out to me a little more than others.

The one that stuck out this time was the chapter called "One Percent Man", about a tough street punk, who also happens to really love a manga made for women and girls. Part of the problem he has to overcome is his embarrassment of even asking the store clerk whether the next volume is in stock yet, afraid that these complete strangers will know his little secret. I really connected with this guy, and I could think of one good reason why.

Visiting an Old Friend - A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle

I read A Ring of Endless Light at least a dozen times as a kid, and you can tell. The pages have turned brown and the corners are worn to a round edge. Corners are ripped off, and the crease on the front cover is so distinct I'm surprised that part of the book is still intact. The spine is cracked clean, and the only thing keeping this paperback together is a good amount of yellowing Scotch tape.

I'm sure I know why I bought this book as a kid - there's a dolphin on the cover, and if you'd asked my Elementary self what the coolest creature was, "dolphin" would have been my answer. But why did I read it again? And again and again and again, until we have this almost broken book that most people would see as trash?

Banned Books Week: This Year's Challenged Books

Saturday marked the beginning of Banned Books Week, a week sponsored by the ALA in which we take a look at books that have been challenged or outright banned from schools or libraries. The ALA also released it's yearly list of challenged and banned books, many of which I've read and loved myself. I noticed on the list that although many of the challenges never followed through to a banning, some of the schools ruled to keep the book with a 'Mature Reader' sticker on it, or require parental consent. I'm fine with that - this at least encourages some form of conversation, where trying to ban a book is like covering a child's ears or taping her mouth shut.

You can read the full list of 2009-2010's banned or challenged books yourself, or look at a list of most frequently challenged books. For me, here's a short list of this year's challenged books that caught my eye.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This was challenged because parents found the language "vulgar and racist." It's about a Native American boy that decides to attend the white kids' school - of course issues of race will come up. Real issues, that kids should really be aware of so that maybe their generation can change something.  It was retained on the reading list, but now a committee that includes parents will meet to decide whether books are appropriate. At least there's discussion.

Geography Club by Bent Hartinger. A story about a gay boy trying to fit in, this was challenged as being "obscene or pornography". I don't have the book with me to check for specific passages, but I don't remember there being any more sexual talk than in your average young adult novel. So then books about gay kids are porn?

Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead. I didn't read this series myself, but I find it's banning hilarious in a morbid way. In one school district the entire series was banned "for sexual content or nudity." But here's the kicker - the book series hasn't even been finished! "Stephenville ISD actually banned books that have not yet been published and perhaps even books that have yet to be written. There is no way the district could know the content of these books, and yet they have been banned." That's judging a book without a cover.

Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Here's another funny. This dictionary was pulled from an entire school district because of the inclusion of a single term: "oral sex". I'll admit, I learned my fair share of "not nice" words by looking them up in the dictionary - it keeps you from being laughed at for asking what others see as dumb questions. Besides, banning a whole book because you're uncomfortable with one word? It's like punishing the entire school because one kid's a rude little prick.

Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer. This series was banned, but not for giving readers a brain aneurism. The content was "too sexual" for some librarians. But the real punch in the gut? The librarians even asked parents to not let their kids bring these books to school. Twilight is certainly not my favorite, but at least these girls read something. I thought librarians were supposed to promote reading.

Dragon Ball Manga Series by Akira Toriyama. I love this manga - it's hilarious. But it also  has sexual innuendo and the kid doesn't always know how to wear pants, which is why a 9-year-old's mom had it pulled from his middle school. Funny how the super violent Dragon Ball Z is more age appropriate.

Fight censorship and read a banned book - maybe I'll Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, maybe A Wrinkle in Time, or maybe I'll run out and buy a copy of And Tango Makes Three. What about you?

New Blog

Even with the piles of things I never finish, I never feel like I have enough to do. That's how this blog comes about.

What will we be doing here? Well, I love books - I love to read books, hold books, display books on my shelf. I'm a bibliophile, all the way through, and there's no going back from that. I also like to talk about books, and so this is what this blog is for. It could be a whole book, a chapter, a sentence - there's no determined pattern, at least not yet. If something strikes me, it's what I'll write about.

What kind of books will I write about? Books that I like (and sometimes books that I really, really hate). And what kind of books do I like? Fantasy, children's literature, travel writing, essays, classics, slice-of-life, coming of age, manga, graphic novels, comics, literature... basically, anything that's interesting.

Will I only write about books I'm reading? No. I'm giving my lazy self some room, and saying that longer posts about something I'm reading will come out every two weeks. This gives me a chance to finish what I'm reading, write out my post, and of course read other stuff in between. To fill out the blog, I'll also post news and thoughts I feel are relevant. Also as a writer, I am infatuated with words in general, so any time I stumble across a fantastic term or idiom, I'll post my discovery (or rediscovery) here.

That's all for now! Real posts will begin within the week, and I hope you plan to stick around. Leave comments and subscribe, because the more people I know are reading this, the more motivated to continue I will be.

Would you like to find me elsewhere on the 'net? I also have a general writing blog, a Twitter and a Facebook page.