A new year, a new swag bag banner! There was no Swag Bag the last two weeks as the holidays overtook and my wallet’s funds went towards buying gifts for others instead of stocking bags with goodies for myself. But I’ve since bought a few books for myself so let’s see what’s on the reading stack this coming week and what buys marked the first of the New Year!
I’ve spent the last week marathoning the Ouran High School Host Club manga, flying through volumes 1-14 with lots of love. One of my new favourites for sure – absolutely adorable! That said, I was quick to ensure I then had the newest volume so I picked up Ouran High School Host Club (Vol. 15). It looks like Tamaki is finally going to figure something obvious out… for better or worse.
Next I picked up the first volume of The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko which I bought purely upon hearing so many good things about it. Plus after reading so much Ouran I’m up for some more shoujo-y goodness. This is also the first new series I’ve bought that sports Tokyopop’s new graphic design work. It uses a lot of black and is pretty slick looking. I’m not sure how well it will compliment different series but for now the pink and black looks really nice.
Speaking of graphic design that looks really good, I bought the one-shot Not Love But Delicious Food Makes Me Happy. Firstly, crazy long name, but secondly I adore the job Yen Press did on the cover design. Very nice! The book itself is a semi-autobiographical story of ‘Y-naga’ relishing in her love for food, all of which is drawn in great detail.
And from the bargain bin at Strange Adventures (where all the books I’ve bought this week were bought from, as per usual!), I bought a volume of Gatcha Gacha. Reason being was Sean Gaffney’s apparently contagious affection for the series. We shall soon see if I join him in this upon finishing,.
Lastly, the second volume of Hetalia. I told myself I wasn’t going to, but after seeing Canada played a bigger role, I couldn’t help it… Mindless cute fun in small doses so not a buy I regret, just one I waffled a long while on if I cared enough to make. Apparently I do!
I also purchased a handful of books from Amazon.ca but those I’ll share once they arrive – doesn’t count until it’s in my hands! So what were your first purchases of the New Year?
I bought all ten volumes of Rg veda part of my plan to slowlly buy everything Clamp has put out the first 8 volumes of Boys Over Flowers partially becuese I want to see what a 36 colume Shojo manga is like. And the first volume of Tokyo Babylon so I can read that before I start ordering X/1999. So I got a ton of Shojo Manga
Looks like it's a shoujo-week for us both then ^^ I'm a fan of all the series you picked up so I hope you like them. RG Veda is a little messy compared to CLAMP's newer series but it has a nice nostalgic charm and is a fun timeline start for them as the creators we know today. Tokyo Babylon is also one of my favourites, great twists in that one.
Just picked up the 2nd volume of Street Fighter Gaiden [which shipped 2 weeks early!] along with my weekly comics at the comic shop, and the first vol of Story of Saiunkoku at Chapters…need to get on top of my manga pile soon though :( I did get around to reading the first 1/3 of Cross Game yesterday though. Soulcrushing AND Baseball! YAY! Looking forward to getting the 2nd [or 4/5th vol. technically] next week.