2010 was not a good year. Nothing terribly wrong, nothing at all right until the fall, and then I think I went a bit hysteric with relief. Am glad it's over, whatever, even if Eeyore here doesn't expect 2011 to be any better ( Read more... )

Whenever I'm in Bookoff I check for Kawasou Masumis. She's a prolific mangaka with a couple of very long series, like Karin and Sardinaasia and Touring Express and spinoffs of the spinoffs of that last, and then something completely different, like China in the time of Sun Yatsen. And usually the random volumes are nice enough but don't grab. ( Read more... )

I detest the song Walking in a Winter Wonderland. Also Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, and OMG most definitely Santa Baby, and I hear them everywhere. But let's not talk of unpleasantnesses. The reality of a winter wonderland is yappari not bad at all ( Read more... )

November reading ( Read more... )

No no no, Weather network. It is not 'slightly overcast'. It is *snowing*. And if this winter is as it looks to be, I shall be buying my third pair of new boots in as many years to ensure ankle support and happy orthotics fit ( Read more... )

Something that hadn't occurred to me. Reading manga scans is easier than reading the tankoubon. At least with Yakumo, each scanned page is four times the size of a paper page. Usually for Hana to Yume manga I need reading glasses, strong light, and periodically a magnifying glass as well. This is just so much less work, it's unbelievable. I may ( Read more... )

Yakumo Tatsu 1 took me two days. Vol 2 got finished in an evening. And yes, it's a fast fun read. Alas, IIRC the first two tanks are the most atmospheric-- the brooding wooded mountains of Yamane, the suffocating past of Kyoto-- grudges and ancient wrongs piling up in the unmoving air of those two valley locations. Now we're in Tokyo, out the Chuu- ( Read more... )

Why am I reading Yakumo Tatsu? Or rather, why am I reading it again? And why does it still take me two days to read volume 1 when I've already read it twice? And why was it so much easier to read six years ago post-surgery than any time since? (Have concluded I was high on something back then, because I recall it as a fast fun read when it ought to ( Read more... )

However many things make an entry.
( Cut for same )

I continue to be puzzled at bk1's total lack of Sugiura Shiho. They have nothing of hers at all. Zilch. Nada. Rien. Meanwhile Kohri is out in bunko and Silver Diamond has reached the 20s, but as far as jp1 is concerned she doesn't exist ( Read more... )