The Chronicle of an aca-Otaku in Training

Note to Self

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:45:44 GMT

Watching marathons of Air Crash Investigation a week before flying home just might not be a good idea...

*facepalm*

Fun with Cultural/ Subcultural Misunderstandings

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:30:45 GMT

Someday I will have to use this somewhere:

"The construction of sex as sticking a penis into an orifice makes it plausible that most people think that homosexual activity between men consists of anal intercourse, which within a gay context may be represented by the chrysanthemum and the sword (kiku to katana). Ruth Benedict probably did not know this when she used the symbols to represent Japanese culture (Benedict 1977). Hashimoto Osamu complained because she robbed him of a book title that would have fitted his book on Japanese gay men (Hashimoto 1986:55). " (Wim Lunsing 2001: 284-285)

My on-going adaptation to the North

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:15:49 GMT

So last week, I saw snowflakes.

This week we had hail.

And now there's a football game going on underneath my apartment.

(Which is why college basketball is better than college football- doesn't take place at the end of the semester)

Location, Location, Location...

Mon, 21 May 2007 13:29:33 GMT

Rather than add my own review to the cosmic mix, especially when others have already written far better reviews than I could write myself, let me add my own bookseller two cents in.

Fumiyo Kouno’s Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms is one of the best manga I have had the pleasure of reading. I would recommend her book to everyone...if we stocked it at my Borders. Yes, just like To Terra, I had to special order it for myself. But unlike To Terra I know I couldn't support the sales to keep it in stock.

Why?

Because according to the Borders inventory it is not manga.

This book, which is read right to left, through a series of sequential art panels, would not be shelved in the manga section if any Borders were to stock it. Instead it would be shelved in the Japanese history section.
Ignoring the fact that this book is a work of fiction and shouldn't be placed in the nonfiction section, shelving it outside of manga guarantees that no one will find it. Who would think to look outside of the manga section for manga?

After working for several other bookstores, Borders' handling of manga and graphic novels has always been something I have been proud of. They have always taken graphic nonfiction seriously (unlike, say Joesph Beth, who places Maus on the same shelf with Superman). But I am bothered by this. My guess is someone keyed Town of Evening Calm in as nonfiction, simply because it didn't "look" like manga, i.e. Viz or Tokyopop, or it looked too real or serious and so they assumed it had to be nonfiction.

This bothers me, not only because as a bookseller, it makes it more difficult for the customer to find a particular title, but as a consumer this frustrates me because I want more literary or serious titles along with my shojo or shonen. If customers can't find the product in the stores, it won't sell and publishers won't have a reason to bring over more titles of this caliber.

First Things First...

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 16:39:55 GMT

From USA Today's Top 150 Books:

15.

Fruits Basket, Volume 16

Natsuki Takaya, Tokyopop

Graphic novel continues the Sohma family's story (F) (P) $9.99

Weeks in Top 150: 2

Last week: 122

Entered Top 150: 4/12/2007

Peak: 15