What are you Reading Now?

[CupofJoe]

While I was at the store I also grabbed Watership Down, because I had recently realized I didn't own a copy, and that's just not right.

Watership Down!?!?!?!?
I thought I was given a book about talking bunnies.... and it is a horror story... if you are about 7 when you read it.
That book scarred me! Not sure I could read it now...

 

[Incanus]

Watership Down!?!?!?!?
I thought I was given a book about talking bunnies.... and it is a horror story... if you are about 7 when you read it.
That book scarred me! Not sure I could read it now...

Ha! No doubt the story is a bit darker than it might appear at a glance. Seven is probably a bit young for this story--I think I was somewhere in my young-ish teens when I first encountered it. (They made an animated movie of it in the late 70's.)

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^I've never read it.

 

[Mythopoet]

^^My favourite manga: RG Veda, Cardcaptor Sakura, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Claymore, Fruits Basket, Twinkle Stars, Hibiki’s Magic.
I've watched some of the Yona of the Dawn anime, as well, but my favourite anime are: Clannad, Kanon, AIR, Little Busters, and Digimon.

Ah, a CLAMP fan too? Have you read Magic Knight Rayearth? It's really good. RG Veda is one of my all time favorites as well. It's just so dang beautiful. The Yona of the Dawn anime got me into the manga and there's so much good content after the anime ends. Highly recommend.

Speaking of manga, two of my favorite ongoing series, Black Butler and The Case Study of Vanitas, had chapters last week with big reveals, the kind that lead to more questions. It's so hard reading an ongoing manga sometimes. One chapter a month gives you 30 days to sit and overthink everything. Still love it though.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^Yay! Yes, I have read MKR; I never would have worked out the big twist on my own. I like deconstructions of 'save the princess/world' type stories. The twists at the end of RG Veda also floored me [almost literally]. I've got some beautiful artwork from the series saved on my computer, if you're interested.
Who are your favourite characters? I like Ashura, Yasha, Sakura, Syaoran, and Fai best.

I certainly know how that feels! I followed the Claymore manga from 2010 until it's end in 2015, and waiting every month was almost excruciating.

 

[Mythopoet]

^Yay! Yes, I have read MKR; I never would have worked out the big twist on my own. I like deconstructions of 'save the princess/world' type stories. The twists at the end of RG Veda also floored me [almost literally]. I've got some beautiful artwork from the series saved on my computer, if you're interested.
Who are your favourite characters? I like Ashura, Yasha, Sakura, Syaoran, and Fai best.

I certainly know how that feels! I followed the Claymore manga from 2010 until it's end in 2015, and waiting every month was almost excruciating.

I've been getting the new digital release of RG Veda on my kindle. Unfortunately, have to wait until next January for the final volume. Yasha is definitely one of my favorites. He's so my type. (The main hero in From Far Away reminds me of him a bit.) Also Yuuko from Tsubasa/xxxHolic. I loved the Ashura/Yasha story in Tsubasa, btw. One of my favorite parts. I like Sakura and Syaoran in Tsubasa but not so much in CCS. But I think I prefer Kurogane to Fai. (I love that tall, dark, strong man of few words type.)

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^I bought the ten separate volumes [from Japan, no less], and then a few months later I notice the omnibus versions on Amazon. Oh, of course Yuuko, too. For a reality warping protector of the multiverse, she sure is a Cloudcukoolander.

I loved the Ashura/Yasha story in Tsubasa, btw. One of my favorite parts.

Me too, me too!

I like Sakura and Syaoran in Tsubasa but not so much in CCS.

I totally agree with this, as well! I love bishonen wizards [Howl from Howl's Moving Castle, for instance], so when I first read Tsubasa, Fai instantly became my favourite. I was a fair bit younger at the time, so I had trouble following certain things, but I loved it just the same. I have a massive manga collection now:
Claymore Vol. 1-27
Chobits omnibus 1-2
Cardcaptor Sakura omnibus 1-4
Tsubasa omnibus 1-10
XXXholic omnibus 1-7
Clover omnibus
RG Veda
Gate 7 vol. 3
Inuyasha Vol. 3, 42, 47, 48, 55
The Legend of Zelda Manga--Majora's Mask and Four Swords Adventures
Fruits Basket omnibus 5 [I bought it just for the scene between Tohru and Yuki ]
Liselotte and Witch's Forest vol. 1-4
Twinkle Stars omnibus 1-2
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Adventure vol. 5 and 6

I'm only missing Magic Knight Rayearth, Gate 7 vol. 1, 2, and 4, and I'm not sure about Tokyo Babylon because I so wish I had never read the last volume. It made me so depressed. I want the next two Twinkle Stars omnibus and the next Liselotte volume, but I also want Tales of Symphonia, Final Fantasy X, and Scribblenauts Unlimted... At least my birthday's soon.

In retrospect, it might have been better if I explained that I'm fine with romance, just not sex, instead of saying chaste love.

 

[Mythopoet]

Yeah, I was buying the older RG Veda volumes in English until volume 7 when they started getting too expensive because they were out of print. I was so happy they started putting out the new ones.

My manga library is growing, but I admit I still read a lot more manga online than manga that I buy. But I do try to support the manga authors as much as my limited budget can.

I have a collector's edition of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which was the first manga I ever read.
An omnibus edition of Trigun and the first omnibus of Trigun Maximum.
Volumes 1-7 of Blood Blockade Battlefront. (Volume 8 is FINALLY coming out this December and I'm so hyped.)
All volumes (1-9) of NG Life (by the author of Yona of the Dawn) which is another romance manga I would highly recommend.
Volumes 1-5 of Kamisama Kiss.
The 2 omnibus editions of Tokyo Babylon. (I actually LOVE dark and tragic stories so I didn't mind the ending except in as much as it didn't feel much like an ending at all. Which is why I'm tempted to start collecting X except I know that has even less of an ending... Sigh.)
The 2 omnibus editions of Magic Knight Rayearth.
Volumes 1-7 of the old RG Veda release and volumes 1 and 2 of the new omnibus.
All 18 volumes of Ouran High School Host Club.
All 18 chapters of The Case Study of Vanitas (I've been buying them simulpubed since it started).
5 chapters (I think) of Ne Ne Ne which is also being simulpubed.
chapters 117-149 of Black Butler simulpub.
Volumes 1, 2, 14, 23 and 24 of D. Gray-man.
Volumes 1-6 of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun. (One of THE BEST romantic comedy manga ever.)
CLAMP's Shirahime-Syo short story collection.
Volume 1 of The Royal Tutor.
Volumes 8-11 of Attack on Titan. (Read the rest of it on Crunchyroll.)
Volume 1 of Yona of the Dawn in both print and digital.
Oh and I bought all the volumes of Fruits Basket for my daughter. I haven't read them myself yet though.

Manga I plan to collect all the volumes of over time:

DGM
Black Butler
Yona of the Dawn
Pandora Hearts
Tsubasa
From Far Away
The Case Study of Vanitas

I also have a couple art books, one for D. Gray-man and one for Gurren Lagann. (I'd really like to get the RG Veda one someday.)

 

[Mythopoet]

In retrospect, it might have been better if I explained that I'm fine with romance, just not sex, instead of saying chaste love.

This is what I assumed you meant. Fantasy with romance, but without sex. The ones I recommended are all fantasy romance manga.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^^Wow, that's an impressive list. I haven't read Pandora Hearts, but it looks quite interesting. I will admit that I dislike love interests in manga or anime who start off extremely rude [which to me often seems more verbally abusive than anything] but then become kinder, because to me it states 'love redeems, so stay with the one you love even if they're horrible to you'. Plus Tohru is almost identical to me in terms of personality, so reading Fruits Basket was a bit difficult because of that. Plus I think Yuki's cute and so kind.
I have a link to the RG Veda artbook online if you'd like to borrow it.

^Oh, I see.

 

[Mythopoet]

Finished reading She by H Rider Haggard yesterday. It was a great adventure story but will not stand the test of time due to the unfortunate omnipresent undercurrent of racism. Haggard, alas, subscribed to all that 19th century nonsense about European races being the only civilized ones. The entire premise of She is that in a remote part of Africa a dazzling (literally) immortal white woman rules through fear over a tribe of savage cannibals. She is educated and erudite and beautiful beyond description and very, very white (it is emphasized over and over). The Africans are barbaric and malicious and just want to kill all white men so they can eat them. And naturally the heroes are very white and act naturally superior to the Africans. It's taken as a given that they are more civilized and morally good. Sigh. It became very tiresome. Which is unfortunate because the adventure/love story at the core was quite good.

 

[Steerpike]

Finished reading She by H Rider Haggard yesterday. It was a great adventure story but will not stand the test of time due to the unfortunate omnipresent undercurrent of racism. Haggard, alas, subscribed to all that 19th century nonsense about European races being the only civilized ones. The entire premise of She is that in a remote part of Africa a dazzling (literally) immortal white woman rules through fear over a tribe of savage cannibals. She is educated and erudite and beautiful beyond description and very, very white (it is emphasized over and over). The Africans are barbaric and malicious and just want to kill all white men so they can eat them. And naturally the heroes are very white and act naturally superior to the Africans. It's taken as a given that they are more civilized and morally good. Sigh. It became very tiresome. Which is unfortunate because the adventure/love story at the core was quite good.

Yes, it is unfortunate because She and other works of Haggard make for good adventure stories. He suffers from some of the same downfalls in King Solomon's Mines, although there while some black Africans are caricaturized as savages, others are shown as noble. The whole thing seems to turn on how civilized, in terms of Haggard's western sensibilities, they are. It's too bad, because there are other aspects of Haggard's life that indicate he may have been a decent fellow on the whole, but subject to the racism and colonialism that passed as intellectual and political thought for his day :/

 

[skip.knox]

[Sidenote: I have the same trouble with Burroughs as I had with Haggard. Oddly, it bothered me less with Howard.]

I've started reading The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley. He writes well, but I have read about twenty novels too many that are about the young hero learning magic or blade craft or assassination or whatever his/her skill is going to be. It has to rank right up there with the farm boy trope, and I'm pretty well done with it.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Guess who should be asleep, but is instead sitting here licking a juice pop, bookhungover after finishing the Lord of the Rings?

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^Are you going to read The Silmarillion next?

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

^Are you going to read The Silmarillion next?

I think so

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^My favourite parts are 'Of Thingol and Melian', and 'The Tale of Beren and Luthien'.

 

[Mythopoet]

I think so

Just be aware that it's a vastly different experience than reading LOTR. More like reading an old saga. (Including lots of genealogical info until you can't remember anyone's name anymore.) LOTR is a novel but The Sil is really more of a collected mythology.

That said, I absolutely ADORE it. The Sil is by far my favorite of Tolkien's works. But then I'm also a mythology lover like Tolkien was. And I'm just generally good at remembering names. Every once in a while I quiz my husband on the names of the 7 sons of Feanor and (jokingly) threaten to divorce him if he can't get them right. He almost never can, even though he was a Tolkien fanatic much earlier than I was. (P. S. They're Maedhros, Maglor, Celegorm, Curufin, Caranthir, Amrod and Amras. And no, I didn't look it up.)

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^I only remembered one of them!
I once accidentally boasted in English class in Grade 11 that I often read it to myself as a bedtime story [--which I totally do, but no one knew what I was talking about.]

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Just be aware that it's a vastly different experience than reading LOTR. More like reading an old saga. (Including lots of genealogical info until you can't remember anyone's name anymore.) LOTR is a novel but The Sil is really more of a collected mythology.

That said, I absolutely ADORE it. The Sil is by far my favorite of Tolkien's works. But then I'm also a mythology lover like Tolkien was. And I'm just generally good at remembering names. Every once in a while I quiz my husband on the names of the 7 sons of Feanor and (jokingly) threaten to divorce him if he can't get them right. He almost never can, even though he was a Tolkien fanatic much earlier than I was. (P. S. They're Maedhros, Maglor, Celegorm, Curufin, Caranthir, Amrod and Amras. And no, I didn't look it up.)

Names? oh dear. I may be in trouble then...