In my review of the book in Otaku USA, I said that if I had to pick *one* book that every anime fan should read, The Rough Guide to Anime was it. It's not just because I briefly met Simon at Anime Boston thanks to your interviewing him, either. If everyone knew (or at least read through and partially retained) the information contained within it and watched the 50 recommended anime titles (well, you can skip Steamboy. And if you absolutely MUST watch Evangelion, save it for last so you can properly contextualize it), then anime fandom would be substantially better off for it. It's not a big book, it's not expensive, and despite being really information-dense it's got a lot of pictures and sidebars so as not to overwhelm people.
At every con I go to where I do some sort of anime recommendations panel (such as this weekend's upcoming EXPCon in St. Augustine, FL!), I tell people to go out and get this book. My actual success rate is unknown, as I'm still the only person I know to have read it, but it's simultaneously "newbie-friendly" while containing more worthwhile, lasting information worth retaining than pretty much any other anime book on the shelves.
If there ever came a day when 1. I figured out what the heck I'd write a book about, and 2. I managed to actually write said book and get it published, key in my mind would be "does this book I'm writing handle [whatever its subject material would be] as good as if not better than The Rough Guide to Anime?" Were that day to ever come, I'm not fully sure the answer would be "yes."
In my review of the book in Otaku USA, I said that if I had to pick *one* book that every anime fan should read, The Rough Guide to Anime was it. It's not just because I briefly met Simon at Anime Boston thanks to your interviewing him, either. If everyone knew (or at least read through and partially retained) the information contained within it and watched the 50 recommended anime titles (well, you can skip Steamboy. And if you absolutely MUST watch Evangelion, save it for last so you can properly contextualize it), then anime fandom would be substantially better off for it. It's not a big book, it's not expensive, and despite being really information-dense it's got a lot of pictures and sidebars so as not to overwhelm people.
At every con I go to where I do some sort of anime recommendations panel (such as this weekend's upcoming EXPCon in St. Augustine, FL!), I tell people to go out and get this book. My actual success rate is unknown, as I'm still the only person I know to have read it, but it's simultaneously "newbie-friendly" while containing more worthwhile, lasting information worth retaining than pretty much any other anime book on the shelves.
If there ever came a day when 1. I figured out what the heck I'd write a book about, and 2. I managed to actually write said book and get it published, key in my mind would be "does this book I'm writing handle [whatever its subject material would be] as good as if not better than The Rough Guide to Anime?" Were that day to ever come, I'm not fully sure the answer would be "yes."
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