*completely subjective, and not taking into account the future, of course.
i managed to obtain a copy of ohikkoshi by hiroaki samura from a kind soul on bookmooch, being too insolent to purchase a copy from amazon. boy, i ripped through the whole thing over two days commuting to and from work. about 250 pages of lovely artwork, twisted jokes and crazy heroines. a helpful notes section explains references to chiaki, nauusicaa, and inoue yosui.
some sidestories about a crazy japanese/italian guy out to revenge his mother, but hates instant noodles; a slightly evil manga editor, and a band with funny song lyrics. and the picture above makes it look like a gore fest, but it aint. bambi is the real blood and guts, but it doesn’t have the plot ohikkoshi does. and did i mention the artwork?
and for the loser in this pair, it would have to be yoshinaga fumi’s garden dreams. it was a new item at the library, so i thought i’d try to get some shoujo into me. but when it got to this line, it had me almost spitting my water out:
no stealing names of real french actors for your medieval romance! i did finish it after a while, but laughing all the way through at the strange gay undertones (she does yaoi as well in other volumes) and mostly ridiculous storyline. ah well…
my book buying habits are practically zero now that i work at a library (but magazines are a whole other thing, how embarassing). i still have quite a few books though, that i bought in second hand sales that were sufficient to read once. and while i could donate them to work, really they don’t have any use for thirty year old tomes, and i know they would go into the next booksale. plus i personally know how much work is involved in that…
so how to find new owners who might enjoy them as much as you once did?
slightly scary representation.
bookmooch is a way of sending on books to others in exchange for points, which you can use to claim other books for yourself, mooching being the verb. it’s not a direct exchange, and runs overwhelmingly on goodwill. you bear the cost of postage, but it goes both ways since when books are sent to you, that poor person will have to pay for stamps too!
i find that i have to really search for titles i want, as bestsellers are most often up for trade, and, well, they’re not really my bag. for example, see the bookmooch top 100 most listed:
nooooooo! as illustrated the top five is dominated by dan brown books, with john grisham rounding it out. and as for things that are most requested, you’ll need to grab things quickly that are on demand:
requested books seem a lot more thoughtful than the pulpy paperbacks of the listed books. do people buy quick reads, but regret them later? or are they an indication of publishing volumes (supposedly more than 60.5 million copies of the da vinci code have been produced)?
personally, i would like to see more manga being shared around. i’ve bought a few in the past, but find they don’t have much life after a couple of reads, and at about A$20 each, that’s a really expensive collection sitting on my shelf. there’s few copies of english translated manga available, and they go very quick when listed (i snagged vol 8 of nana from a person located in italy, and another person mooched the remaining seven volumes from her an hour later when i checked). i do also have an ulterior motive, as i would like to have the good copies put into the young adult collection at the library, but only after i have read them. tee hee!
and incidentally, some of the books listed on bookmooch also have bookcrossing numbers, so either way, they can have some renewed life after each reading. share and share alike!
also, i am a pretty poor sleeper. i can’t get any shut eye if the kids down the block are having a party on the balcony, and i get woken up when high heels clack on the footpath past my window. i tried this one particularly bad night, and it definitely gets my approval. select from pink or white noise (white i think is a bit sharper) and then put on headphones. i don’t think some modelling software can simulate the sea, but it seems to even out the outside sound from jumping into my head and pulling me out of my lull again. rating: 4 stars. sorry mac only :p
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