I was kind of busy this week! Sooo I barely read a thing.

Books:
Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

Manga:
Honey Hunt 2-3 by Miki Aihara

Every so often, Alex Jennings randomly sounds like he wants to cry in the middle of narrating the book. Hmmm.

Of Bees and Mist was totally a weird book! Setiawan took fairy tale logic up to a whole new level, and I liked it. He managed to tell a very serious story about very serious people while still having really strange things go on constantly, both in the background and foreground. People turning invisible, being deformed by nothing more than malice, mists that attack people, bees brought into being through hatred and fireflies through a mother's love... Crazy shit! Ghosts, guilty consciouses causing literal ice to build up... It's got a quote on the cover from Michael Connolly, and I think that his Book of Lost Things and The Gates are the only books I can really compare it to, though it never calls itself a fairy tale like The Book of Lost Things does, and there's no real humor like The Gates. Well, it's really not like them at all. The entire world of the book is just... crazy!
I can't find good words to praise this book (or even to make it sound interesting) without giving too much away... I don't know that everyone would enjoy it, so I'll just leave it at "it's really, really good."

Now I have to read The Nightingale by Kara Dalkey 'cause it's ILL and due Wednesday. e_e Though I'm having trouble taking it seriously 'cause she called the O-bon festival "U-Bon." Also Uguisu is a seriously awkward name to pronounce, even if it is quite a reasonable name for the heroine to have. e_e Uguuuu

My nose won't stop running!!

Books:
The Hundred Days by Patrick O'Brian
Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O'Brian

Manga:
Rin-ne 1 by Rumiko Takahashi
The Good Witch of the West 1-3 by Noriko Ogiwara/Haruhiko Momokawa
Big Adventures of Majoko 1 by Machiko Fuji/Tomomi Mizuna
Ghosttalker's Daydream 1 by Saki Okuse/Meguro Sankichi
Fullmetal Alchemist 20 by Hiromu Arakawa
ChocoMimi 2 by Konami Sonoda
Goth by Otsuichi/Kendi Oiwa

Finished the Aubrey/Maturin books! Yaay! Or, more... T_T Next book to listen to is Sabriel by Garth Nix (a reread!)

Counts:
Books: 134
Comics: 347

Books:
The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian
Green by Jay Lake
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Manga:
Love*Com 14-15 by Aya Nakahara

Barely read anything this week! Green was actually a pretty daunting book, though. It was excessively long even though it didn't seem that way, and took me like three days to read (reading pretty much non-stop from when I got home from work to when I went to bed, with one break to watch a movie instead).

The Haunting of Hill House was excessively creepy. :< Like, the first time I can remember that I actually COULD NOT read a book after dark. I have the movie (not the more recent one, which was bad and had nothing to do with the book and actually I've seen it though heck if I can remember where) on hold at work now but I don't know if I'll manage to watch it. If I do, it'll be first thing in the morning, for sure!

I only have two more Aubrey books left! I'm really hoping to finish this week, though I'm not quite halfway through The Hundred Days and there's still Blue at the Mizzen after that. We'll see! If I don't finish this week, next week for sure. Then I'm listening to Garth Nix's Old Kingdom trilogy, though if The Dark is Rising comes in first I'll probably listen to that instead because it's shorter and then I can get more books in for the year.

Current counts stand at:
Books: 132
Comics: 338

I think 365 comics for the year is still manageable, as I do still have a stack to read and after this week I'm done with school for the semester, but I doubt I'm going to hit my vaguely set goal of 150 books. Oh well, at least I beat 100 this year! That is entirely because of how many children's books I had to read for Children's Lit in the spring semester, of course, but that's fine with me! XD

Oh man the year's almost over, isn't it? Whoever decided that should be arrested.

Books:
Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede
The Commodore by Patrick O'Brian
Fat Cat by Robin Brande

Manga:
Honey Hunt 1 by Miki Aihara
Kaze Hikaru 3-4 by Taeko Watanabe
Love*Com 5-13 by Aya Nakahara

Whenever I read shit like Kaze Hikaru and Love*Com I wonder why I read garbage like Honey Hunt or Papillion or... 95% of the shoujo out there. At least shounen garbage is entertaining even when it's being garbage... it doesn't just make you angry! Because the main characters tend not to sit around and let other people walk all over them! Like EVERY SHOUJO HEROINE EVER (save Kyoko from Skip Beat, which is why Skip Beat is the greatest) (actually Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke doesn't have this problem, either... or she does, but in an entirely different sort of way, and at least she never CRIES ABOUT IT or goes flaking up to her flaky love interest swooning about like a retarded puppy).

Seriously. What is with flaky heroines in shoujo manga? I know this isn't exactly untouched ground here, but Japan really likes enforcing negative stereotypes when it comes to girls, don't they? I mean, there are gems, and there are also those that teeter on the border line. Skip Beat, as I already mentioned, is a definite gem. Kaze Hikaru is more borderline... sure, you have a heroine who is so determined to avenge her family that she shaves her head and joins the Shinsengumi, but all she ever actually accomplishes is getting her ass kicked in various ways. Mostly due to her own stupidity. If she had half a brain she might notice that every bad situation she's ever gotten into has been her own damn fault (though she did have a pretty badass moment in vol 4, the first time we ever see her actually FIGHT FOR REAL, so maybe it gets better). Red River is kind of on the fence for me, too. I love it to death, of course, and Yuri is obviously awesome enough to be considered the reincarnation of the goddess Ishtar, but for every totally awesome thing she's done, she has done at least one stupid thing. And she gets kidnapped by dudes freaking constantly. In fact, that is the entire plot of that manga. Yuri gets kidnapped over and over and over and over again. Then again, she does end up rescuing herself half the time, too. But that leads to the question: why does she keep managing to let herself get kidnapped in the first place, if she's so capable?

There's so much awful stuff out there, though! I guess it's a typical girlish fantasy to have a boyfriend who will stand up for you and shit, who you can swoon all over and he'll just catch you and carry you through, but some of these heroines need to grow a goddamn spine! Of course I can barely think of any examples right now because all of this stuff is throwaway manga that I read and then forget about almost instantly.

I don't know why I even read romance manga to begin with. All of my favorite shoujo series are, of course, not. Except Kimi ni Todoke, but that's a pretty atypical one. ALSO THE CUTEST THING TO HAVE EVER BEEN CREATED BY HUMAN HANDS.

I also don't know why this turned into such a rant. Hurrr. Quick reviews of books:
Snow White and Rose Red - Even though I couldn't understand half of what the people were saying to each other in this book I loved it! "Snow White and Rose Red" is one of my favorite fairy tales, so there! Patricia C. Wrede is a HUGE NERD.

The Commodore - All of these books have run together in my head to the point that I have no idea what happened in this one... um... stuff? Things! They captured some slavers? Brigid was cuuuute~

Fat Cat - This book wasn't very good. It could barely keep its own narrator's motivations straight. I only finished it because I really had to know what had happened between the narrator and her BFF in junior high that made her hate him so much. And then I found out and I didn't care!

Books:
The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian
Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee

Manga:
Zombie-Loan 7 by Peach-Pit
Cat Paradise 2 by Yuji Iwahara
Tsubasa 23-24 by CLAMP

Counts:
Books: 126
Comics: 324

I'm going to be reading a shitton this week. I've got to finish Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede 'cause I've got it out on ILL (it's due today hurr) and a couple books I've really wanted to read have come in for me at work (namely Melinda Lo's Ash and Scott Westerfield's Leviathan). I'll also be finishing The Commodore this week (I've only got four and a half hours left on it) but I dunno if I'll start The Yellow Admiral or not... I'm only woking two days this week, after all. I'm sticking it on my iPod regardless, though. I need 41 more comics to hit 365, my ostensible goal, and I have easily that many lying around in piles waiting to be read (either mine or from the library). We'll see where I get!

You'd think that I could at least post these on time, since it's they're only damn thing I ever post over here anymore...

Books:
Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Manga:
Dragon Eye 6-8 by Kairi Fujiyama
Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei 2 by Koji Kumeta
Nabari no Ou 2 by Yuhki Kamatani
The Outcase 1 by Vaun WIlmott/Edward Gan
Oninagi 1 by Akira Ishida

Counts:
Books: 124
Comics: 320

It turned out I'd miscounted my books so I have one more than I thought I had... Maybe I'll make it to 150 but I'm not going to bet on it.

I counted the other day and out of that 124 books, 53 of them were for school. Library school might be kind of a joke, but damn do they make you read a lot! Of course, most of that was children's books, but still! e_e

I'm mad 'cause my rip of The Commodore (the Aubrey/Maturin book I'm currently on) is all glitchy and I forgot to bring it home to re-rip it. Though even if I did, the disc polishing machine at work is out of commission at the moment, so I couldn't clean it first... probably wouldn't make any difference. It seems to skip real good at the end of every chapter, so perhaps I should just go grab the book off the shelf and fill in the gaps that way... I really wanted to finish it this week, too. :/

Nothing to do with anything, but somehow or other I'm bringing my accordion to work tomorrow. Ziba, who thinks anything older than thirty years is OMG ANTIQUE!!!!! wants to see it. She was utterly aghast when I told her I don't know anything about its maker or where it had come from, and that I haven't the first clue how old it is either. She also wants to see Grandad's old crappy violin but to hell with that. I love the accordion, but have no particular feelings for the violin and therefore have no desire to show it off for no reason.

Books:
The Truelove by Patrick O'Brian
The Gates by John Connolly

Manga:
Kamen Tantei 2 by Matsuri Akino
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 1 by Eiji Otsuka/Housui Yamazaki
Elemental Gelade 1 by Mayumi Azuma
Dragon Eye 1-5 by Kairi Fujiyama
Someday's Dreamers: Spellbound 1 by Norie Yamada/Kumichi Yoshizaki
Otomen 4 by Aya Kanno
Parasyte 1-2 by Hitoshi Iwaki
Vampire Doll 1-3 by Erika Kari
tactics 4-5 by Sakura Kinoshita & Kazuko Higashiyama

With The Truelove I am caught up to my Dad on Aubrey/Maturin novels!

The Gates is a fine follow-up to last year's The Book of Lost Things... While I liked The Book of Lost Things better on principle (fairy tales do a lot more for me than quantum physics and demons, I'm afraid), The Gates was a lot more lighthearted and therefore more fun. Vaguely reminiscent of Good Omens, if I can go out on a limb. XD

~Manga reviews!~

Kamen Tantei is actually really cute in a what-is-this-manga-supposed-to-be sort of way. Like, it's a comedy, but people keep dying in awful ways? And there's ghosts? Who also died in awful ways? Lovely! :/

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service actually disappointed me a bit. It's a fun read, but it's nowhere near on-level with MPD Psycho (they're written by the same guy, though with different artists).

Elemental Gelade is stereotypical shounen blah blah blah but I do need to get more of it.

Dragon Eye was an extremely pleasant surprise! I mostly bought vol 1 because it had nice art and was by Del Rey, but unless it all goes to hell in subsequent volumes it's shaping up to get on my short list of god-tier shounen manga (a list which is currently, um, Kekkaishi... and that's about it xxxHolic would be on there but CLAMP series don't count). And then I bought 2-4 and loved it even more. So then I bought 5-8...

Nothing much to say about Someday's Dreamers: Spellbound (other than oddly engaging for a manga where ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED AT ALL) and Otomen is Otomen (which is to say fuck yeah Otomen!)

Parasyte, oh Parasyte. Why did I wait so long to read this? It's amazing! I must pick up more of it ASAP. Luckily there's already five or six volumes out! :D

Vampire Doll is a very nice example of gag manga working really well. The concept is ludicrous but the author's sense comedic timing is truly to be admired. This is actually a reread as I borrowed it from someone to read it before and have since obtained it for my own collection (it's rare for me to do that, which proves that it must be good... or it was just on sale for $.99 a volume, haha).

Counts:
Books: 122
Comics: 314

Books:
The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian
The Pirate Bride by Shannon Drake

Manga:
Kaze Hikaru 2 by Taeko Watanabe
FLCL 2 by Gainax/Hajime Ueda
Someday's Dreamers 1-2 by Norie Yamada/Kumichi Yoshizuki
Switch 1 by naked ape
Kamen Tantei 1 by Matsuri Akino

Currently reading:
The Truelove by Patrick O'Brian
The Gates by John Connolly
Let the Right One In by I still don't feel like checking

I was instructed to read Graceling by Kristin Cashore immediately but it will have to wait until I am done The Gates I am afraid. XD Shouldn't be long, since this week for school is historical fiction and The Truelove is my book for that (so I don't have to read anything else). I've got to finish Let the Right One In by next Wednesday, too.

By the way, The Pirate Bride was an absurdly terrible romance novel I read for class. If you follow me on Twitter you got to hear me bitching about it all day Wednesday.

I don't feel like doing reviews because all I have to say is Patrick O'Brian rocks and bad romance novels are bad. I ♥ Kaze Hikaru, though. I guess I should say that. Shinsengumi + girl pretending to be a boy = yes please.

Also Otomen vol 4 comes out this week~~ We've got it at work already so I will probably end up reading it tomorrow while my boss isn't looking hahahaha e_e

I should read more or unpack (I was at Onicon this weekend) or clean or something but I have a headache so I think I'm going to bed in a bit here. It feels like it's after 9:00 anyway... Stupid Daylight Savings.

Counts:
Books: 120
Comics: 288

Books:
The Thirteen Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian
Calling You by Otsuichi

Manga:
Fool's Gold 1 by Amy Reeder Hadley
X-Men: Misfits 1 by Raina Telgemeier & Dave Roman/Anzu
Mark of the Succubus 1-3 by Ashly Raiti/Irene Flores
Momogumi Plus Senki 1 by Eri Sakondo
A Midnight Opera 1-3 by Hans Steinbach
FLCL 1 by Gainax/Hajime Ueda
Kaze Hikaru 1 by Taeko Watanabe


Let's try something different... Currently reading:
The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian
The Gates by Michael Connolly
Let the Right One in by I can't remember how to spell his name (someday I will finish this book!!)

And I have to read a romance this week, so I will be picking something random up at some point. Probably something with vampires, because other romances just aren't worth reading. I really wanted to finish The Gates this weekend but I failed to. So now I shall go read it some more over lunch.

Counts:
Books: 118
Comics: 282

Books:
The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O'Brian
When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka
The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian
ZOO by Otsuichi

Manga:
Shugo Chara! 7 by Peach-Pit
R.O.D. 1-4 by Hideyuki Kurata/Shutaro Yamada
Hibiki's Magic by Jun Maeda/Rei Idumi

Two Aubrey/Maturins in one week!

I don't feel like doing reviews blurbs this week...

Counts!
Books: 116
Comics: 271

Books:
Why Me by Donald Westlake
The Far Side of the World by Patrick O'Brian
Maid Machinegun by Aaliyah

Manga:
Papillion 2-3 b Miwa Ueda
Kimi ni Todoke 2 by Karuho Shiina
Train★Train 1 by Eiki Eiki
Shugo Chara! 6 by Peach-Pit

Why Me is the greatest book I have ever read for school. I plan to read the entire series (the Dortmunder series, that is) now... I already have The Hot Rock checked out, since that's actually the first one.

Far Side of the World had the best ending for any of the Aubrey/Maturin books so far. XD

Maid Machinegun was pretty fun to read. The ending totally surprised me...

As for manga, I am reading too much shoujo manga. Papillion is typical shoujo melodrama. Kimi ni Todoke, on the other hand, is THE MOST ADORABLE THING I HAVE EVER READ. If I knew Sawako, I'd probably have accidentally murdered her by now because I wouldn't be able to resist hugging her half to death every time she said anything. ♥♥♥ And it's being animated this season, so I've got TWICE THE KIMI NI TODOKE. So cute!

Current counts:
Books: 112
Comics: 265

Books:
Scrapped Princess: A Tale of Destiny (vol 1) by Ichiro Sakaki
Treason's Harbor by Patrick O'Brian

Manga/comics:
Rose by Jeff Smith & Charles Vess
07-GHOST 1-3 by Yuki Amemiya/Yukino Ichihara
Nabari no Ou 1 by Yuhki Kamatani
Vassalord 1-3 by Nanae Chrono
Yggdrasil 2 by Lay Mutsuki
Yokai Doctor 2 by Yuki Sato
Papillion 1 by Miwa Ueda


Scrapped Princess is pretty rocking in book form!

I don't really feel like going into all the manga so here is a summary: Awesome, pretty cool, ninjas, gay, lol internet, yokai, shoujo. Sometimes I wonder why I even read shoujo manga other than Skip Beat, to be honest! What is the point?

I kept feeling all weekend like I was forgetting something. Guess what it was? My homework...

Oh well.

PS I'm feeling a lot better now?

EDIT: Just noticed I'd forgotten Treason's Harbor and also forgot current count!:
Books: 109
Comics: 258

Actually posting on the proper day of the week for once.

Books:
The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian
Full Metal Panic: One Night Stand by Shouji Gatou
We Have Always Lived In the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Manga/Comics:
Gunsmith Cats revised ed. vol. 3 by Kenichi Sonoda
Kimi ni Todoke 1 by Karuho Shiina
Yggdrasil 1 by Lay Mutsuki
Cat Burglar Black by Richard Sala
Yokai Doctor 1 by Yuki Satou
Maria†Holic 1 by Minari Endou

Reviews (I like doing this review thing; hopefully someone's enjoying it as well e_e):

Nothing to really say about The Ionian Mission. Patrick O'Brian will never get old. I'm about halfway through Treason's Harbor and plan to finish both that and Far Side of the World this week.

Full Metal Panic is still great. Having read the manga and seen the anime, it's nice reading the novels finally because there's a lot in them that didn't make it into the anime or manga... more characterization and actually more action. ♥

We Have Always Lived In the Castle was creeeepy but really, really good. I totally recommend it to anyone who likes being slightly unsettled. XD

As for the manga... Sonoda, you draw some awesome shit but would you please lay off the naked little girls? You're making us all uncomfortable.

Kimi ni Todoke I bought because there was a preview in Shojo Beat and it looked cute. It is cute. The artist apparently just wanted to draw a story about an awkward girl and a guy who is so nice it seems like a joke. XD She's succeeded.

Yggdrasil has some nice art and a plot somewhat reminiscent of .hack. Mostly I just love the main character, Koki, who is a cranky pants like Haseo only, unlike Haseo, is actually cool (okay, that's a lie... he's a giant nerd. Whatever).

Cat Burglar Black is from :01, and that should really be all I need to say about it. Those guys can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. Barnes & Noble has a lot of their stuff, too, which makes me super happy.

Yokai Doctor is pretty standard shonen stuff, but I like stories with yokai so whatever! It had the best boob-grab joke I've ever seen, though. e_e

And Maria†Holic is what it is. XD There were actually some jokes in it that weren't in the anime, and while of course it's a lot different stylistically from the anime that doesn't make it any less entertaining.

And that's that.

Current counts:
Books: 107
Comics: 247

Still reading Let the Right One In (which is getting progressively creepier), and am nearly done the first volume of Scrapped Princess (finally... I only bought it, what, three years ago? e_e). Since I finished We Have Always Lived In the Castle today I haven't started a new third book yet... I'm trying to get through the rest of the library books I've got out, though, so it'll probably be one of them. I'm actually doing pretty good with not checking any more books out right now so I might as well put an effort into finishing what I've got. Then I'm going to read all the damn light novels I've got that I haven't read yet... I just ordered a pile more from Amazon the other day, too. Whoops. XD

I just want to support the publishers who are putting out light novels! Speaking of which, Spice and Wolf comes out in December. :3

I actually messed this up last time because of forgetting not to include books I read after last Sunday, so a couple of these that got posted previously should be on this week's.

Books:
These Boots Weren't Made for Walking by Melody Carlson
Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logstead
Kieli vol. 1: The Dead Sleep in the Wilderness by Yukako Kabei

Manga:
Tsubasa 19-21 by CLAMP
Future Diary 2-3 by Sakae Esuno

Future Diary is actually one of the best "people being manipulated into murdering each other" manga I've read... Though I don't really know why I like it so much, because some of the plotting is kind of uninspired and it's already gotten rather formulaic despite being only three volumes in. e_e So I really guess I shouldn't say it's one of the best, but one I'm enjoying the most (and I do read probably a disturbing amount of manga in that particular genre).

Crazy Beautiful was terrible. :/ Nothing to say about it beyond that.

Kieli was quite good! Yen Press is doing a nice job with the light novels they're releasing (which reminds me... I saw vol 2 of Haruhi in Borders today, so if you've been waiting to read it it might be out already!). I totally recommend it, anyway. I didn't read the manga version and have really no intension of reading it, so I can't say much about that... But I can't wait for vol 2 of the novels~

Since I whined about hardly reading any YA lately I read two YA books this week. XD

Counts:
Books: 104
Comics: 242

Currently reading: Full Metal Panic vol 2 (bathroom book!); We Have Always Lived in the Castle (kitchen table book!); and still reading Let the Right One In (making this my work book so I can finally finish it!). Since this week is graphic novels week in Adult Materials I'm kind of treating it as a free week. Why bother reading another graphic novel for class when A) I read them all the time anyway and B) I just took the comics class over the summer. Also I swear I'm going to finish The Ionian Mission this week (I guess I should've included that above... with a (while I'm working!) qualifier) and hopefully start on Treason's Harbor. I need to catch up to Ali!

Since I've had crap shit to catalog lately at least I haven't been checking anything new out! Go me! :D I've only got 40 checkouts right now, which must be like a new record low for me.

Clearly I can't be bothered to make posts over here at all anymore. I'm sure no one misses them anyway!

Books:
Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker
The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Manga/Comics:
xxxHoLiC 12-13 by CLAMP
Bone 6-7 by Jeff Smith
Rurouni Kenshin 4-6 by Nobuhiro Watsuki
Tsubasa 17-18 by CLAMP

Tsubasa makes waaay more sense when not reading really shitty scanlations. e_e I think I'm just going to wait for Del Rey to finish the series and not read any more of it online at all (which really was my plan anyway). Giving up xxxHoLiC is hard, though.

Appaloosa was my western for Adult Materials, since I loved the movie anyway. The book's pretty great as well, though the movie is so faithful to it there's hardly a point in reading it as well. XD Definitely going to be reading Resolution and Brimstone (and any others he writes) sooner or later.

The Magicians I loved. I wanted to get Dad to read it until learning he's never read Narnia... there's kind of no point in reading The Magicians if you aren't familiar with Narnia. I loved all the Harry Potter jokes he kept dropping in. I've got Lev Grossman's other book checked out now but I dunno when (or if) I'll ever get around to reading it.

These Boots Weren't Made for Walking we are not going to talk about.

Damn, I haven't read a decent YA book since May (though I did read one terrible one last month). Next week for Adult Materials is graphic novels week, so I can read something else. One of these days I'll finish Let the Right One In, too (probably when we're on horror novels--I love that she made it a condition that whatever we pick for a horror novel has to actually frighten us, though? XD).

I also haven't listened to any Patrick O'Brian in a couple of weeks. How depressing! Perhaps the end of The Ionian Mission will help me keep from dying of boredom at work tomorrow.

Um, current counts:
Books - 101
Comics - 237

I almost said "I read too much" but A) can you even read too much? and B) Jenny.

Unrelated but after reading all that Kenshin I've been on a Kenshin music kick. Maaan. e_e

Forgot this again~!

Books:
The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian

Manga/Comics:
Black Lagoon 4-5 by Rei Hiroe
Bone 4-5 by Jeff Smith
Fullmetal Alchemist 3-19 by Hiromu Arakawa

That gets me up to 99 books and 228 manga/comics.

I'm in the middle of a bunch of books that I need to finish, but I keep reading manga instead. e_e

Going to try to make a post about A-Fest later today, but we'll see. I'm going to be spending most of the evening watching TV, really, and I have to do my book report for Adult Materials.

Really need to go to bed...

Books:
The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian

Manga:
Full Moon wo Sagashite 3-7 by Arina Tanemura (still makes me cry)
Dragon Drive 8-14 by Ken-ichi Sakura
S.S. Astro by Negi Banno

S.S. Astro was pretty cute... 4komas about a bunch of high school teachers. Kind of like a more adult Azumanga Daioh. The only thing that bugs me is it's clearly targeted at adults, but the recommended age range Yen Press gives it is "Older Teen." While it's a bit inappropriate for younger teens, really it's not targeted at teens at all so why an "Older Teen" label?

Really I know why: because teens read the most manga, and if they put an "Adult" rating on it, there would then be the implication that there was "adult material" in it (and not in the library sense). And while it does have a bunch of rather perverted jokes, and quite a few references to casual sex, it's not exactly NC17 material. Probably not even R, or barely R. But still, if you're going to slap recommended ages on shit wouldn't it be better to have them actually correspond to interests rather than be essentially ratings?

I actually hate having recommended ages on any books, except perhaps children's books because those are really "this book is difficult to read for ages younger than this" rather than "this book is inappropriate." The recommended ages on manga are usually ratings, and rating books, even comic books, is bad.

This really ties in to the fact that I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking and talking about book censorship and banning... Next month is banned books month, so there's been a lot on the internet on those topics, and it's something I quite like discussing with people. There are a lot of interesting perspectives to be found. Though when I was talking about the topic with Gayle last Wednesday our discussion got kind of creepy. XDD And then Rachel walked in right exactly at the wrong moment. I think the word "peanuts" will make me giggle for a while now...

Books:
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Manga:
Dragon Drive 6-7 by Ken-ichi Sakura
Future Diary 1 by Sakae Esuno

Holy shit The Book of Lost Things was a good book. Creepy and disturbing at moments, but amazing. If you like fairy tales and horror go run out and read it. Right now. I don't care what time it is! Break into the damn bookstore!

Forgot about last week again.

Books:
Q&A by Vikas Sqarup
Shadow Magic by Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett
The Red Queen's Daughter by Jacqueline Kolosov

Manga/Comics:
Evangelion 4-10 by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Fullmetal Alchemist 1-2 by Hiromu Arakawa
Black Lagoon 2-3 by Rei Hiroe
Full Moon wo Sagashite 1-2 by Arina Tanemura
Isadora Duncan by Sabrina Jones
Sorcerers & Secretaries 1-2 by Amy Kim Ganter
Otomen 3 by Aya Kanno
Cat Paradise 1 by Yuji Iwahara
Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted (compilation)
ChocoMimi by Konami Sonoda

Q&A is the book that Slumdog Millionaire was based on. It was pretty good.

Shadow Magic is WONDERFUL AND LOVELY and I wish it hadn't stopped. If you haven't read Havemercy, you should go and read it. And then read Shadow Magic.

As for The Red Queen's Daughter... Even after finishing it I couldn't actually decide if I liked it or not. The plot was interesting (to a point), the setting was fascinating, but the actual storytelling left a lot to be desired and the end was a huge anticlimactic copout.

Regarding the manga and whatever, I was pleasantly surprised by Sorcerers & Secretaries. It was extremely cute. ♥ I was also pleasantly surprised by the Ghostbusters comic. It was pretty hilarious and awesome. I'll probably be shoving it at anyone who even expresses the remotest interest in it. Though it did make me want to watch the movies again... too bad we mysteriously do not have them at work. :/ I guess I should request them or something.

I should mention, since I had been logging short stories, that I read "Magical Girl Risuka" by NISIOISIN a while ago and loved it. I can never get enough NISIOISIN. It's terrible having to wait a week for each new episode of Bakemonogatari...

Okay, book log done. I stand now at 96 books and 191 comic books.

Another late book log... Another pretty pathetic one, too.

Books:
Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian

Manga/Comics:
Spiral 7-8 by Kyo Shirodaira/Eira Mizuno (the more I read of this series the more I really love it)
Evangelion 2-3 by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Zombie-Loan 6 by Peach-Pit

The fact that I'm not behind on every show I'm watching this season may account for my lack of reading. e_e I dunno.

I've only got six O'Brian books left to rip! XD And, um, 15 more to read (that is, to listen to). Not counting 21... I'm not even sure I want to read that one. It seems too depressing. Probably will depend on how Blue at the Mizzen ends.

Anyway, current counts: Comics - 172; Books - 93.

In other news, I feel like shit. I'd better not be getting sick. This would be a shit week for that... Will, as ever, blissfully assume it is merely allergies.