it can’t all be about manga…

I had a huge geek out moment this afternoon when I went into the stockroom at the bookstore and saw Hot Gimmick 11!!  My inner 12 year old fangirl was unleashed, but unfortunately I had no one to share the excitement with.  The only other person working at the time who reads it did the warding off cross at me when I waved the book at her.  It's not my fault Hot Gimmick is so addictive.  sniff!

Of course I read it and may I just say holy crap?  The things that happen in this book!  And that I love Ryoki.  How can one character always make me want to slap him on one page and hug him the next?  I'm also feeling a bit sorry for Hatsumi.  She's under a lot of pressure from a lot of people right now and it doesn't help that she's wishy washy under the best of circumstances.  But she did something REALLY boneheaded.  Of course, I know how the series ends, and I might have to dig out my untranslated copy to stare at in the meantime, but when does the next volume come out?  Arg!

Shinogu needs to get more of a life, though.  There's more to it than Hatsumi. 

Miki Aihara is doing something weird with the noses that I haven't noticed before.  There's extra shading on the ends that stick up past where the nose should be.  It's very distracting, and considering I was only capable of sitting with a semi-dopey grin on my face for a few minutes after finishing that says a lot.  I hate it when a bit of art draws my attention that badly.  That was why I almost dropped Land of the Blindfolded early on in the series.  The constant goofy grins with the teeth shading were driving me nuts but fortunately the next volume was good enough that I gave myself a talking to about getting over things.  And I'm glad I kept going.  Land of the Blindfolded is amazing.

(I just went and checked my volumes 7-10 and the nose shading was being used back then, but not as much I think, and not always as noticably.  It seems to increase each book.  If I could see properly I'd comb through the earlier ones too but I'm tired of squinting.)

Forgive any oddness in this post but my glasses broke, like, five minutes ago and I'm seeing the world a bit fuzzily right now.  I don't need them for reading, but it always takes a while for my eyes to adjust after taking them off.  Guess I don't get to hole up inside tomorrow watching anime.  (Arg!  I'd need them to watch anime!!)  I should probably see if someone can glue these things back together until I can get a new pair…

Update: HG #11 (and sort of #12) spoilers are in the comments, so be wary if you get that far!

Manga/Graphic Novels
Othello 7
Zatch Bell 6
Wallflower 1,3 (reread)
Sengoku Nights 1 (reread), 2
Harlem Beat 1-2
Brother
Lies and Kisses
W Juliet 10
Decendants of Darkness 11 
Me and Harujion
Little Butterfly 1
Gals! 6
Fullmetal Alchemist 7
Nana 2
Not So Bad 1
Ghost Hunt 2
Scott Pilgrim 1-2 (reread) 3
Kamichama Karin 4
Tramps Like Us 9
Cromartie High School 6
Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator Part 1 (2nd novel)
Rave 1-10
Tenshi Ja Nai! 1-2 (reread)
Sexy Voice and Robo
New Avengers 1

Books

The King of Attolia by Megan Whelan Turner
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
Extraordinary And Unusual Adventures Of Horatio Lyle by Catherine Webb 
Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
Passage by Connie Willis
The Midnighters: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld
Second Sight by Amanda Quick
Born to Rock by Gordon Korman
Shrimp by Rachel Cohn
Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn

Movies

Chicken Little
Zathura
The Thief Lord
Mission Impossible 3 
Over the Hedge
Poseidon

Hmm.  Don't feel like writing much commentary this month.  And I think I read more than this but forgot to write the titles down.  Oops!  The manga I tried to write about as I went along, and I think got most of it.  I got to lend people a bit more manga this month than I have in a while (yay!), and I usually try to reread stuff before I send it off just in case I have the uncontrollable urge to read it while it's gone.  I like to nip that sort of thing in the bud.  :)  I started lending a friend my Wallflower books after she described this incredibly gorgeous anime-type guy she keeps seeing on the streetcar.  Apparently he's unbelievably good looking and has this wind blowing in his hair thing happening even while inside, and women trip while staring at him, that sort of thing.  Of course then I had to make her read Wallflower.  After all, it has FOUR unbelievably gorgeous guys in it in addition to a really spooky girl, which makes it a very funny story to read.  The POSING!!  I read volume 3 before handing it over and was amazed at how much I had forgotten.  I guess it's one of the few that I hadn't reread a couple of times already. 

I should also mention that what I read of Rave was pretty good.  Not I'm-going-to-start-buying-the-series good, but I'll keep reading it.  Volumes 1-9 were a good block to read (and it's what I had signed out of the library) as it contained the whole Demon Card story arc.  Volume 10 begins with backstories on a couple of the characters and then Haru and company move on to collect more Raves and solve a couple of the other mysteries that came up along the way, like discovering more about Elie's past.

Almost all of the books I read this month were great.  Definitely Dead was a bit of a disappointment - I either completely forgot a major plot point from the last book or there was a short story I didn't read or Charlaine Harris decided to just have a bunch of stuff happen between books.  Either way, I didn't like the wtf? feeling it gave me.  The Southern Vampire books seem like they're getting repetitive while also trying to channel Anita Blake.  (Does everyone need to fall for the heroine??)  This is the first book in the series I don't want to own.  I guess my two favorites for the month were The Extraordinary And Unusual Adventures Of Horatio Lyle and the King of Attolia (which I'm not linking to because knowing who the king is is too spoilery and the Horatio Lyle book gets a link because it would take too long to explain - but it's awesome and fun and heartwarming, so go read it).

And just to veer slightly off-topic, I haven't read any of my new manga yet.  Usually I pick the best one to read at lunch the day I buy them (that would be Bleach this week) and then I start with the "okay" manga and move back up to the "good" stuff.  It gives me something to look forward to and incentive to read faster.  This week, though… I think the ones I bought are all books I've been waiting for and I'm very indecisive about what to read first.  Of course, I've been busy, but… I made it half way through Eyeshield 21 and then switched over to a novel.  Am I going to have a flighty weekend?  Probably.

Also, last night when I popped into the bookstore to get Naruto (because I couldn't recall if I had #9 already and can return it there if I do) I went up to Multi to chat with the guys working and noticed (much to my delight) that we sold our Fruits Basket box set.  Yay!  Sooo… we were talking about the series and I was clarifying which one it was.  "It's about a girl living with a family under a curse.  When they're hugged by a member of the opposite sex they turn into one of the zodiac animals."  Then this scary, intense looking dude waiting at the cash chimes in with, "That's witchcraft, you know."  "No it's not." I said, "It's a curse and it's only a cartoon."  Then he started going on about how you know it's witchcraft because people turn into animals, and something about the Book of Daniel and people eating grass, and at that point I kind of turned away and tried to ignore him and squelched the urge to start a pointless arguement about it.  Jeez.

Although it got me thinking about the fact that I don't actually know why the Sohma family is cursed.  Have they talked about it in the manga and I've forgotten it?  I don't think so, but my memory can be pretty bad.  Anway, I was thinking that if I wanted to break a curse, I'd try to find out how, when and why it started.  Which is what made me think they haven't dealt with it in the story yet.  I hope I would remember something that important.

Ah, now I'm rambling.  Off to bed with me and I'm reading some manga before sleeping, darnit!

Edited to add Sexy Voice and Robo to the post 'cause I read that last month too.  I knew I had forgotten something…