I really enjoyed Volume 1 of this series, so when I came across Vol. 2 at Borders I pounced on it! It's a charming series with stand-alone stories about those who love books, and some ongoing characters to tie things together. There are also lots of references to real-world authors and titles, and while not all of them are available in English (and some are out of print entirely) there are still some that wind up on my wishlist!

The first story features a student discovering a copy of Osamu Tezuka's manga about Adolph Hitler (!) in his desk - and, to his surprise, it helps him with his history class!

Another tale has someone after Shiba, for a reward of a rare manga (the guy's a sedori, someone who hunts for rare books on the cheap and sells them high). Shiba's not the kind of guy to worry about this, and he gets in some lovely lines; asked how he'd classify manga he says "Manga that I've read, and manga that I haven't read yet." How will Shiba escape the bad guys? Well, I'll just say that there's a caution in the margins saying "Please do not whack your enemies with Gekkan Magazine."

Readers who walk into trees while reading, bookshop managers trying to work out pricing schemes, someone "quietly handing a therapeutic manga to a wayward soul", tough guys who like sweet/cute shoujo manga... and, throughout, a love of books!

[Sample chapters can be seen on the publisher's web site here.]

Volumes I've registered so far:

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4

I'm adding this book to MaryZee's Bookish bookbox, which I plan to hand off to eponine38 on Friday. Hope someone enjoys the book!

This book came home in my Bookish bookbox yesterday. Although I've read a few graphic novels, I don't think I've ever even seen manga before. I looked these over enough to figure out how it works (I think), but I still think I'll give it a pass. Thanks for sharing, GoryD! This book will be vacationing in Maryland until I send this box out again, hopefully in the fall.

Sadly, MaryZee passed suddenly in September 2012. MaryZee's daughter is now ready to rehome her mom's books and I was willing to collect and redistribute them to keep her literary legacy alive.

I received these manga in a box of books from MaryZee. This manga had great drawings but the story line just didn't pull me in. I'm placing these in my Little Free Library together as a set of three.

5/25/2019 - These didn't get picked up from the LFL. I'm going to bring these as a package to the next BC in DC meetup and see if there are other takers.